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Restore Technology Professional Server Move Company

Published on 10 February 2020

Restore Technology Professional Server Move Company

The relocation of your business server and data centre is no small task! The problem is that many business owners and managers that are not directly involved in their company's IT workings or don't understand the full implications of moving such sensitive equipment will often think that performing a server move is as straightforward as a standard office move.

Unlike a regular office relocation, which would involve the dismantling, packing, transportation and then reassembling of their office equipment; with data centres you must be careful to take the appropriate steps to ensure that the company IT infrastructure still remains functional to allow the business to continue while the company is preparing for the move.

This will often mean the company running on a skeleton IT infrastructure where customer data still remains accessible while other moving activity and preparation is carried on.

While moving premises is often essential to allow for further expansion and business growth, or to restructure and streamline your business to be more cost-effective, safely moving your server to a new location can be tricky and, if you are not careful, can be far more costly than you anticipated.

If you have never been through a major business relocation before, then we highly recommend that you don't do it alone. Taking the DIY approach may seem like the most cost-effective way to perform your move, but you will actually save yourself a lot of time, effort, frustration and money by hiring the help of a professional server move company, such as Restore Technology.

The physical aspect of your server move

When it comes to the physical aspect of moving your company server, it is not as simple as getting your IT staff to dismantle your servers and throw the components into some packing crates.

While many small businesses may get away with a simple 'push and pull' type of server move where the data centre equipment is simply taken apart, shipped to a new location and reassembled, this is a much riskier and less sophisticated method.

The main problem with taking a DIY approach is that your data centre will be completely out of action for the whole duration of the move, and no guarantee, once reassembled, that it will work exactly as it did before.

There is a large degree of unpredictability when it comes to server components and it doesn't take much for them to become damaged or non-functional when handled roughly or reassembled incorrectly.

Should your data centre fail to operate properly in its new location, you then have the major headache of trying to work out what has gone wrong. With an infinite amount of pathways to check along your server infrastructure, you can spend a hell of a lot of time searching for the issue (or multiple issues) for your data centre failure.

All this can be avoided by conducting a proper professional data centre move by putting the job into the hands of a professional server move company, such as Restore Technology.

Restore Technology server move company

By working with Restore Technology for your company server move and relocation, we can assist you by providing the most appropriate services to meet your individual needs.

Our specialist team of trained IT engineers will carry out a detailed inventory of all the components contained in each rack before undertaking the decommissioning of your server. We will also conduct on-site equipment appraisals that can alert you to any potential issues with your server equipment before problems occur.

Our server moving procedures also include the careful labelling, wrapping and packing of your sensitive server components into industry-specific insulated moving crates to ensure the safe physical transportation of your fragile server equipment.

We take great care with every step of your server decommissioning, relocation and recommissioning right down to planning the most ideal road route to transport your equipment, avoiding as many obstacles en-route as possible that could give your components a rough ride. We take note of any roadworks in the area and try to avoid roads that contain traffic-calming humps to help smooth out the drive.

Other helpful services from Restore Technology

A lot of business owners take advantage of a physical company relocation to do a bit of housekeeping to sort out and remove any old, broken down or obsolete IT equipment that they no longer need and certainly don't want to take with them to their new location.

Restore Technology offers a complete end-to-end service to help you with this. We can take your spent IT assets and perform a complete data erasure to remove any sensitive company data from your equipment.

We can then further assist you to improve your 'green credentials' with our disposition services that include redeployment, lease return, re-marketing and IT recycling. By using our suite of services you can greatly improve your carbon footprint and the impact that your business makes on the environment.

Recommissioning your server

Restore Technology is a professional server move company that does things right. When it comes to the recommissioning of your server at its new location, our detailed inventory and labelling system means that we will successfully reinstall each component is the exact same slot it lived in at your old location.

Recommissioning a server is like putting together a complex jigsaw puzzle. You need to make sure that each piece of the puzzle goes exactly where it is supposed to or else you may risk the integrity of your system and this will negatively affect your network connectivity.

When installed server racks are moved, you need to establish each racks dynamic and static load ratings. It is the case that almost always the dynamic load ratings will be lighter, but you don't want to risk overloading the racks structure as this will make it prone to failure.

This is why when we move server racks we securely pack them and place them into shock pallets to help absorb the knocks and bumps often encountered during their transportation within the moving vehicle.

Many business owners will be surprised at just how fragile racks can be and if your company has never experienced a data centre move before, quite often these racks will have never been moved so will carry a high risk of damage.

There are no shortcuts with a professional server move

Rather than risking your fragile data centre equipment to the rough handling involved in a DIY push and pull style relocation, for the safety of your equipment you should choose a proper data centre migration and choose a professional server move company, such as Restore Technology, with our years of practical training and experience moving thousands of UK company data centres.

A professional data centre migration takes much longer and is far more detailed and careful than a simple DIY move, with far fewer risks and much better results, it makes sense for your company to choose this method for your server move.

You have to accept that there are no shortcuts with this method of moving. Data centre relocations and refreshes are difficult and lengthy processes to master. Taking short cuts will expose your company to the risk of suffering severe loss of data or sensitive equipment breakdowns and component failures.

However, by working with a highly-trained and very experienced company such as Restore Technology you will be minimising your risks from day one. You can sit back, relax and let us handle your server relocation in the safest and efficient manner while causing the absolute minimum of disruption to your business.

Minimising data breaches

Relocating your data centre involves many risks, but it is not only the physical risks that you need to worry about. You also need to be mindful that you will be moving equipment that contains very sensitive data that may include personal and financial information about your customers, suppliers or business partners.

You cannot afford to lose any sensitive data at a time where your servers will be at a greater risk of exposure to the possibility of data breaches, whether that be accidental or intentional.

With legal matters over privacy and protecting the data your company stores, you should make sure that during your move any spent IT assets that store data and old computer discs bearing sensitive information are securely wiped or completely destroyed to prevent any data breaches.

Your equipment will also be vulnerable to theft on your moving day while your equipment is being physically moved and loaded onto and off the removal vehicles. Our detailed inventory system means that each packing crate is logged and labelled as they are moved on and off the vehicle.

Our moving vehicles are also GPS tracked, which means that you will always know exactly where your equipment is at every stage of the move. This gives you an extra layer of security and peace of mind knowing that should anything happen to the vehicle during the journey, our tracking system will alert us to the problem immediately.

While your company may have old IT assets that we can help sanitise and dispose of on your behalf, you may also find that after your move you are left with spare equipment such as cabling, processors and other networking equipment that are still in good working order.

We can help get these things refurbished or resold into the circular economy where other businesses can make good use of your unwanted equipment and further extend the life of these products.

Plan ahead of your move for greater success

We cannot stress enough that your data centre move should never be left to the last minute. While we understand that your management team will have a lot on their plate with the planning and execution of your company move to new premises, the safe relocation of your data centre will take much longer to plan and execute than a more simple office move.

Here are a few tips that we recommend you use well in advance of your up and coming company relocation. We hope they help!

  • Assign a moving manager or moving team: Depending on the size of your company, it will make sense to assign a working group or a manager with the task of overseeing your move. Your manager or team will have the final say on any difficult decisions to make and to keep all of your staff informed of the progress and their responsibilities towards the move.

  •  Plan in great detail: Your moving manager (or team) should make detailed plans outlining a clear delivery path for your move that includes steps to take from the start of your move to the final re-installation of your server at your new premises.

  •  Track your equipment: Make sure that the moving vehicles you use to physically relocate your server equipment is secure and has GPS tracking fitted. This will enable you to track your equipment en-route and ensure nothing happens to your valuable assets.

  •  Only put the move of your server into the safest hands: When hiring a server move company, look for a proven service that you can trust. The Restore Technology team are all fully-vetted, knowledgeable and experienced in the field of sensitive server moves.

Contact Restore Technology for your server move

Restore Technology is an experienced and professional server move company that specialises in the decommissioning, transportation and recommissioning data centres and IT equipment. Your company servers are critical to the success of your business so you should never put the safety of your servers into the hands of a cheap 'man with a van' type of operation.

While there are cheaper options out there for a server move, you need to weigh up the risks and costs involved with having to replace damaged components and the need for extra help to come in and fix your networking issues when your servers fail.

Contact our friendly and experienced team at restore Technology to discuss your server move needs.