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Data centre
migrations.

De-risk the move, keep the downtime window short. From audit to handover, with one accountable owner end to end.
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Contents

What we'll cover.

    The stakes

    The riskiest project you'll run.

    Everything is live, everything is connected, and the window to move it is short. The difference between a clean cutover and an outage is planning, sequencing and rehearsal, not luck on the night.

    Downtime is costly

    An overrun on the night costs far more than the planning that would have prevented it. The window is the whole project.

    Dependencies bite

    Undocumented links and forgotten dependencies are what turn a move into an incident. We find them before the truck moves.

    One owner, or none

    Split the move across vendors and the gaps between them become your risk. One accountable owner closes those gaps.

    The process

    Seven stages. One accountable owner.

    Tracked vehicles, chain of custody door to door Current site Destination

    The service    end to end

    What a migration covers.

    Four blocks of work, one team, one plan. Pick a block to see what we deliver in it.

    Discovery

    What the audit changes.

    Most estates hold surprises. Undocumented links, mystery cables, single points of failure. The audit turns unknowns into a plan, rack by rack, before anything is committed to a date.

    ????????????????????????????????????????
    Before the audit After the audit
    Mapped, nothing to flag Undocumented link Mystery cable Single point of failure Drag the divider. An illustrative estate.
    Dependencies

    Nothing moves on its own.

    ApplicationsServersStorageNetwork

    Shared kit appears in more than one wave, shown in cyan. It moves once, and everything that depends on it is planned around that date. An illustrative estate, drawn the way an audit leaves one.

    Moves together
    If it is split
    Proved by
    Strategy

    Phased waves, or a single cutover.

    Matched to your estate, your dependencies and your window, not to a fixed method.

    ProgrammeService downStartCompleteAudit, design and prepareWave 1Wave 2Wave 3Wave 4Close outAudit, design, prepare and rehearseCutover windowValidateClose outAudit and designDry runReplanPrepare and rehearseMoveValidate and close
    Elapsed time
    Exposure on the night
    Rehearsal demand
    Rollback
    Go/no-go gate Dashed, a rehearsal with no live service down An illustrative programme shape. Wave count and window length come out of the audit.
    Cutover night

    Last backup to first user.

    An illustrative single-window cutover, for an estate that can take one. Phased waves keep each window shorter. Your run sheet comes out of the audit, and it is rehearsed before the night.

    Scale it

    Roughly what would your move look like?

    Drag the slider for the indicative shape of a phased migration at your scale.

    Racks to move
    Wave split

    Wave size comes out of the dependency map, not the rack count.

    Illustrative planning figures. The real programme comes out of the audit, not a slider, and every engagement is scoped properly before we commit numbers.

    Systems

    Tracked in our systems, or yours.

    Every asset is scanned, tracked and evidenced through the move. Where you already run an ITSM or DCIM, we work inside it rather than around it.

    How we track it

    Our tooling, on every move
    • Asset-level trackingEvery device labelled and scanned at rack-out, load, arrival and rack-in. A live chain of custody.
    • Digital runbookThe minute-by-minute plan, live status and go/no-go gates in one place on the night.
    • Photo evidencePort-level photos before disconnect and after reconnect. Proof, not memory.

    Working in your systems

    Your change process, respected
    • Your ITSMChange windows, approvals and CIs handled inside ServiceNow, Jira or whatever you run.
    • Your CMDB or DCIMLocations and connections updated as the move lands, so your records stay true.
    • Your comms planStakeholder updates on your cadence, from one accountable owner.
    Example
    chain of custody
    for one device
    Rack-outScanned at the old rack
    LoadScanned onto the vehicle
    ArrivalScanned off at the destination
    Rack-inScanned into the new rack
    Handled safely

    Cleared engineers. Tracked vehicles. Covered.

    Who touches your kit, how it travels and what happens if something goes wrong are all settled before the first rack comes out.

    1 2 3
    01
    SC-cleared engineers

    Security-cleared teams for sensitive estates, including government-adjacent and regulated environments.

    02
    Tracked, secure transport

    Tracked vehicles, cleared drivers and chain-of-custody on every asset, door to door.

    03
    Goods-in-transit cover

    Full insurance across the move. Your assets are covered from rack-out to rack-in.

    Proof    redacted

    50+ racks. Two cities. Zero downtime.

    Global software companyLondon and FrankfurtLive environment

    A global software company needed their production estate moved between London and Frankfurt, live, phased, with no interruption to service.

    50+racks migrated across two sites
    0hardware failures on the move
    0downtime to live services

    Delivered to the agreed window, on budget, every phase on or ahead of schedule. Client identifiers withheld, figures rounded.

    50+ racks, phased LiveLive London Frankfurt Two sites, one plan. Service live throughout.
    Proof    redacted

    A lease exit with a hard date.

    Financial servicesLease exitFixed deadline

    A financial services firm had to be out of a legacy site by lease end, with no extension available. Audit to empty racks in under a quarter.

    120racks relocated in three planned waves
    3weekend windows, all hit
    0missed deadlines, penalties or surprises

    Client identifiers withheld, figures rounded.

    Three planned waves Lease end Audit and plan Wave 1weekend windowWave 2weekend windowWave 3weekend window Empty racks Under a quarter, audit to empty racks
    Our engineers

    Where our engineers have worked.

    USAUKEuropeMiddle EastAustralia
    Why Optronix

    One partner, audit to handover.

    Migration is the middle of the data centre lifecycle, and we are with you either side of it too. We help you choose the destination, design and build the hall you are moving into, run the move itself, and keep it running once you are live.

    Choose the destinationFind and choose the right data centre and provider. Independent and vendor-neutral.
    Design and build the hallThe hall you are moving into, designed, delivered and certified.
    Run the moveAudit, strategy, runbook, cutover, test and handover, under one owner.
    Keep it runningMonitoring, smart hands and support once the hall is live.

    No roster of vendors. No gaps between them.

    Related decks

    The rest of the move, deck by deck.

    Before the moveData Centre AssessmentsAn objective, on-site audit of resilience, capacity and cabling.Open deck → The destinationData Centre Design & BuildThe hall you are moving into, designed, delivered and certified.Open deck → CablingStructured CablingThe physical layer, designed, installed, tested and certified.Open deck → The moveWhite Glove LogisticsEvery asset tracked door to door, in cleared, insured vehicles.Open deck → On arrivalRack, Stack & PatchKit installed, cabled and patched cleanly, to standard, documented.Open deck → DeliveryProgramme & Project ManagementOne owner for the plan, the risk and the outcome.Open deck → The old siteITAD & WEEESecure decommission, certified erasure and responsible disposal.Open deck → Day twoManaged OperationsMonitoring, smart hands and support once the hall is live.Open deck →
    Next step

    Tell us the estate.
    We'll scope the move.

    A rack count, the two sites and the window you have to work in are enough to start. We will come back with the audit scope, a migration strategy and an outline programme.

    Anthony Hobley
    Technical Director
    +44 (0) 7450 337795
    anthony.hobley@optronix.co.uk     Email Anthony →     Matt Stockill
    Sales Manager
    +44 (0) 7768 360149
    matt.stockill@optronix.co.uk     Email Matt →
    optronix.co.ukEvery service, across the lifecycle Company Overview DeckWho we are, and everything else we do LinkedInWhat we are working on, as it happens

    Data Centre Lifecycle Experts