PMCA Data Center Relocation (DCR) Pre-Planning Guide

PM Consultants & Associates, Inc.
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(PMCA)
The PMCA
Data Center
Relocation and Consolidation
Pre-Planning Guide
The PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide is a “high-level” introduction to Data

Center Relocation (DCR) and Consolidation project planning for executives
and project managers. It is specifically intended to help you begin the
extensive “pre-planning” activities that any organization should start prior to
the detailed work of DCR planning specialists.
This Guide can help reduce the time, effort, and costs of planning for a major
(or smaller) data center relocation or consolidation initiative. A set of useful
“DCR pre-planning” templates is also available from PMCA. For more
information about our comprehensive DCR Services, contact us at:
www.pmca-us.com - Phone: 1.954.962.9864 - Email: DCRguide@pmca-us.net
PM Consultants & Associates, Inc. © Copyright 2007

Version 1.05 All Rights Reserved
The PMCA Data Center
Relocation & Consolidation
Pre-Planning Guide
1
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Contents
Get Yourself DCR-Prepared ......................................................................................................................................... 4

Data Center Relocation (DCR) Initiatives .................................................................................................................... 5
DCR Pre-Planning Is Key ............................................................................................................................................. 6
Get DCR Project Help .................................................................................................................................................. 8
PMCA’s Pre-Planning Guide........................................................................................................................................ 8
What You Should Do NOW: ........................................................................................................................................ 9
Scope Creep .................................................................................................................................................................. 9
The DCR Project from Hell * ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Analysis of Our DCR Project *................................................................................................................................... 15
Data Center Relocation 101 ........................................................................................................................................ 16
Relocation or Consolidation?...................................................................................................................................... 18
DCR & Virtualization ................................................................................................................................................. 19
Getting Started Right .................................................................................................................................................. 20
PMCA’s DCR Template Kit ....................................................................................................................................... 23
DCR Risk Awareness Planning .................................................................................................................................. 24
Ten Key “Givens” For a Data Center Relocation Project ........................................................................................... 26
DCR Pre-Planning Checklist ...................................................................................................................................... 31
DCR Project Management Checklist .......................................................................................................................... 32
The Data Center Relocation Process........................................................................................................................... 33
About Consolidations.................................................................................................................................................. 41
Consolidation Checklist .............................................................................................................................................. 42
Server Consolidation & Virtualization........................................................................................................................ 43
Special Considerations................................................................................................................................................ 43
The Ten-Step DCR Plan ............................................................................................................................................. 46
DCR Pre-Planning & Disaster Recovery / Continuation of Business (DR/COB)....................................................... 48
DR/COB for DCRs ..................................................................................................................................................... 49
Who Should Do The DCR DR/COB Plan?................................................................................................................. 50
DR/COB Methodology for DCR ................................................................................................................................ 50
Phase 1: Detailed Requirements Definition ................................................................................................................ 51
Phase 2 - Plan Development & Maintenance Program ............................................................................................... 53
Phase 3 - Proof of Concept, Research, and Implementation ....................................................................................... 54
Phase 4 - Testing/Exercising Program ........................................................................................................................ 54
Phase 5 - DR Test Plan Execution .............................................................................................................................. 54
Understanding Availability and Recoverability.......................................................................................................... 55
DCR & Data Center Capacity Planning...................................................................................................................... 56
Planning Your Data Center Relocation Project?......................................................................................................... 60
PMCA DCR “Pre-Planning Checklist - Overview ..................................................................................................... 63
Detailed DCR Pre-Planning Checklist ........................................................................................................................ 64
DCR Project Management Checklist .......................................................................................................................... 70
PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 2/71

PM Consultants & Associates, Inc. © Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved
DISCLAIMER
The following information is provided solely as a high level guide. It is intended to be "one
example" of requirements for a major data center relocation or large consolidation plan (DCR).
It is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the only way to set up a DCR planning project,
although the key points discussed in this Guide are applicable to all DCR initiatives. The PMCA
DCR Guides are “living” documents, and as new versions become available, they will be sent to
those who have requested earlier downloads and provided their email address.
OVERVIEW
This Guide is the first in a series; it provides a high level overview of the key areas of focus for
those who are planning relocation or consolidation projects. It is, of course, not a substitute for
experience and judgment.
The planning and execution of a major data center relocation or consolidation is one of the
more challenging assignments in the I.T. field. It is not something that should be approached in
any but the most careful and thorough manner. Given the scale, risks, and complexities
inherent in a DCR, detailed relocation or consolidation planning is also probably not a “do-it-
yourself” task for any but the smallest data center projects.
PM CONSULTANTS & ASSOCIATES, INC.

“Choosing the right DCR project planner and approach is perhaps the single most
important thing you can do to reduce risk, stay on budget, and assure your project’s
success.” That’s what a leading financial services company says.
PM Consultants & Associates, Inc. (PMCA) delivers DCR projects within demanding
schedule and budget constraints for Fortune 500 clients globally.
PMCA also provides Senior Data Center Relocation, Migration, and Consolidation
Project Planners and Managers to leading I.T. Consulting firms worldwide.
PMCA Data Center Relocation and Consolidation Planning services are used by the
Fortune 500, government, and leading I.T. consulting firms, because we are globally
recognized DCR planning specialists.
For more information about PMCA’s data center relocation and

consolidation planning services:
Call us at 1.954.962.9864
Email: DCRguide@pmca-us.net

Get Yourself DCRPrepared
PMCA’s DCR Assessment Services
If you’re responsible for a data center
relocation project, you can start by reading this The PMCA DCR Assessment is an effective,
Guide and customizing the available* DCR lower-cost requirements assessment and
pre-planning templates. validation alternative to high-priced “packaged”
data center consulting services from the big
While the Guide can’t tell you how to identify, I.T. companies – that often rely on senior DCR
plan for, and execute the literally hundreds of planning talent from the specialist leaders in
inter-connected tasks necessary for a data center relocation planning and migration -
successful DCR project, it will at least let you including, of course, PMCA.
know (at a high level) that you need to check
for the key details – and what they are. PMCA is an unbiased advisor. We don’t sell
hardware, solutions, or applications – just
There are two ways to kick-off a data center world-class DCR services.
relocation or consolidation project. You can
jump in with both feet and struggle to stay To request more information about our cost
afloat. effective, rapid DCR Assessment services,
contact us: DCRguide@pmca-us.net
Or, you can perform an assessment to develop
the scope, objectives, and key tasks first. We Or, call:
recommend the assessment.
The DCR Assessment covers the initial site

1.954.962.9864
survey(s), project scope review, inventory
process audit, DCR project management __________________
methodology customization, and other key
areas to help you get your DCR project DCR In A Nutshell
organized and started right.
Highly simplified, there are three component
The DCR Assessment can help reduce the parts to any data center relocation or
time and effort required to develop your RFP, consolidation:
organize the project, and identify key project
resources, issues, and risks. It can also help First: you define and organize the project, and
to substantially reduce overall project costs. gather basic information about each domain –
this is the “pre-planning” stage.
Depending on the project’s complexity and
size, a high level assessment should take a Second: you begin the detailed “planning”
few weeks, not several months. It should be phase by collecting accurate inventories and
tightly focused on the critical areas of project assessing the major domains that will be
risk: impacted (applications, mainframes, servers,
DASD, networks, etc.) This is the most
• Budget complex and lengthy activity in a DCR.
• Facilities & Capacity Planning
• Inventories Third: you move or consolidate everything,
• Application & System Inter-Relationships verify that it was re-installed and operates
• Project Management properly, and then you close the project.
• Disaster Recovery/Continuation of
Business
• Schedule
* PMCA offers a FREE DCR Pre-Planning
Templates Kit to accompany the PMCA
Use this Guide to help you create a better RFP
DCR Pre-Planning Guide. Please see the
for the DCR project phases to come. Use it to last pages of this document for information
help you reduce time, effort, and project costs. on how to order these useful templates.
Use it to help you succeed at one of the great
challenges in I.T.

DCR Overview
Data Center Relocation (DCR)
Initiatives
Among the more challenging things that any I.T.
executive or project manager will encounter in a
long and varied career is the DCR – the relocation
or consolidation of a major data center.
DCR’s, by definition, are complex and expensive

projects. And yet, they are amenable to
significant cost savings when planned and
executed well.
Planning
The key to a successful DCR is planning –
intuitively obvious, right? And, although they
share the same basic project organization and
management techniques with other I.T projects,
DCR’s are not planned in quite the same ways
that other large I.T. projects are. That’s because
a DCR project has three notable characteristics:
scale, complexity, and risk.
Scale
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Pre-Planning
Planning
Move I.T.
The scale of a major data center relocation or
significant consolidation is encompassing,
touching virtually every part of the organization.
Analogous to performing open-heart surgery while
the patient is running a marathon, a DCR is
usually more complex, time consuming, and
costly than virtually anything else a corporation’s
I.T. group will do.
Complexity
The DCR will impact virtually every aspect of the
business. It will affect almost every type of
system and infrastructure within and touching the
organization. It will involve, at some time or
another, just about every technical staff member
in the I.T. group. It may also involve and frustrate
business unit managers, end users, and
customers alike if it isn’t planned and executed
well.
Risk
The risks presented by a data center move or
consolidation are also significant. Mishandled, a
DCR can seriously disrupt current business
operations and bring about regulatory and legal
action. In worst-cases, the business can
experience significant and prolonged operational
failure.

DCR PrePlanning Is Key
DCR Projects Are Stressful
Essential to the success of any DCR initiative
is planning. While this is, as we continue to DCR Pre-Planning can really help reduce this
emphasize, intuitively obvious, it is the most stress by giving you a practical skeletal
difficult (and too often hurried) aspect of this framework around which to build the larger
kind of I.T. project. The sheer size, project.
complexities, and scope of a modern DCR can
very quickly overwhelm normal project initiation In Fortune 500 companies and government
and planning methods. agencies, a large DCR initiative will usually be
sponsored and kicked-off by a C-Level I.T.
That is why “pre-planning,” in the context of a executive – preferably the CIO. Pre-planning
data center relocation or consolidation, is an for this event ensures that s/he will have the
essential and cost effective first step. right information, momentum, and team
assembled to ensure the project’s success.
DCR Pre-Planning Role The project’s sponsor and technical I.T.

management will work together with the
I.T. professionals are very good at planning program/project management group (PMO) to
activities. But, a DCR demands even more – it assemble the staff, structure, and
requires “pre-planning.” Pre-planning is the set methodologies needed to initiate, plan,
of inter-connected activities that a technically execute, manage, and close-out the project
and operationally competent I.T. organization over its considerable lifespan.
undertakes to prepare for a DCR.
It is generally here, in the project startup
It begins with a detailed review and analysis of phase, that the first big problems appear.
the initial business case(s) that describe the
rationale and financial justifications for the The usual project initiation and management
project, along with a “sanity-check” on the practices within the organization, while capable
validity of ROI projections and other outcomes and essential to the success of a DCR initiative
that will be expected. are rarely adequate by themselves to cope
with the scale, speed of execution, cost, and
This is the time when key team members are complexities involved.
selected, when the basic structure and scope
of the project are outlined, and when the first of The basic reason for this is that DCR’s are not
many RFPs are prepared. “normal” I.T. projects. Nothing in the data
center will touch as many people and systems.
DCR pre-planning also focuses on establishing For most organizations, nothing else will be as
first-pass assessments and high-level big, as costly, or as potentially risky as a major
inventories of the systems and infrastructures data center move or consolidation.
that will be affected by the move or
consolidation.
Required technical and business resources,

equipment and application inventories, key
business processes, origin and target facilities,
and external factors are all surveyed,
assessed, and documented at a high level.
1 First Step: Define the DCR project scope and objectives, governance
model, and high-level budget. Then begin your “Pre-Planning.”

Pre-Planning vs. Planning But, without adequate DCR pre-planning, it’s
going to be more difficult to be sure that you
In a DCR, everyone plans; not everyone “pre-
have everything identified and included in the
plans.” Pre-planning (the first of the three DCR
project’s scope or RFP.
phases) is the key to defining and integrating
the requirements for a successful DCR project
Without adequate pre-planning, you’re going to
with the methodologies and skills that will be
do a lot more work later, when the costs of
provided by the project management and
omission are much greater. And that simply
technical teams.
adds to the already considerable risk, cost, and
project difficulty ahead. Who needs that?
DCR Pre-planning is the set of activities and
decisions that will be completed before you
begin the detailed planning for the DCR
project. It is what you do to prepare in Who’s Going to Do I.T.?
advance of the DCR planning experts’ arrival,
not what they do after you bring them aboard. Who should do the DCR pre-planning? Should
you give this important task to outside
DCR “planning” (the second of the three DCR consultants? Do it with internal staff?
phases) differs from the “pre-planning” phase
in focus and detail. Pre-planning is a limited- Or, perhaps you just skip it entirely, save some
scope activity that is done at a high level, and up-front costs, and expect the DCR vendor(s)
should account for about 10-15% of the total ultimately selected through the RFP process to
project budget for a major initiative. plan your relocation or consolidation effort?
After all, isn’t that what you’re going to pay
DCR Planning is an intensive, expensive, and them for?
highly detailed effort aimed at uncovering the
key risks to the project, as well as the myriad Our recommendation, based on many years of
of details that must be discovered, analyzed, global DCR experience is this: the pre-
verified, and documented before a single planning stage is far too critical to give to
machine or application can be migrated or anyone not intimately familiar with your I.T.
consolidated. environment(s).
Unless you are buying all new equipment, This means that your own internal I.T. staff,
DCR “planning” can account for as much as your project managers, and key application
35-50% of your total DCR budget. owners will all need to be involved in this very
important activity.
Where pre-planning is cursory or non-existent,
the detailed planning phase must make up for Using an experienced DCR planner, a subject
it. That means a lot more time and higher matter expert (SME), at this stage will,
costs. It also implies that project risks will however, help you cut through the noise and
probably increase because early risk chaos that comes with any major project
identification and mitigation planning is limited startup.
or absent.
The DCR SME can guide you more directly
It may also mean that the project scope isn’t through project definition, business case
adequately defined for the levels of detailed development, risk assessment, the RFP
research and effort necessary. Scope (and process, and initial project formation faster
creep-control) is a critical boundary condition than you can probably do it yourself. That
for a DCR, and that depends on adequate WILL help you reduce costs and ensure the
planning. desired project outcome.
Second Step: Complete your DCR “pre-planning.” Validate the

DCR project objective, leadership team, governance structure,
2 methodologies, stakeholders, domains, and budget. Then, begin
your “Detailed DCR Planning” phase with the help of DCR SMEs.

The real effort will begin as the DCR planning
Get DCR Project Help specialists work with you to research, analyze,
and document your environment in exhaustive
You can (and should) begin the DCR pre- detail.
planning yourself with the help of this Guide
and the available template kit. It’s not enough to collect an “inventory” and
move boxes. This is not “operations.” Any
However, your project will benefit from using a major data center relocation or consolidation
DCR planning specialist at this stage to help requires far deeper understanding of the
you shape and guide the process. interactions among systems, applications,
business processes, and people than is
This approach will also save your organization required to run them.
substantial time and money and reduce project
risk, even at this early stage. We will keep DCR-experienced I.T. professionals know that
emphasizing these points because they are each project is unique, much more so than
critically important to C-Level management. application development or other infrastructure
projects. This merely adds to the challenges.
What is also important is that with “pre-
planning” your organization will be able to Planning and executing a DCR project well can
better commit to understanding and developing give your career a big push in the right
the scope, cost, and high level details of what direction. It can also help improve operational
you are about to do. performance and be a path towards upgrading
systems and applications that will benefit the
company for years.
Use this Guide to help you define your own
DCR Pre-Planning project. Get it wrong, and it could be something that
impacts your organization for some time.
• The templates can give you a structure
that will save effort
• The structure will help you identify and
plan to mitigate key risks
• Together, they can help you manage the
project, reduce the costs, and improve the
quality of a major DCR initiative.
But, don’t be reluctant to use the services of a

DCR specialist; it really will save you time and
money now and improve the final project
outcome. And that, as we all know, is a good
thing.
PMCA’s PrePlanning Guide
This Guide provides essential insight into the In the rush to get started in a complex DCR,
background activities, milestones, and risks the most critical mistake made (and most
associated with the DCR pre-planning phase. often) is simply under-estimating just how hard
a big DCR will be. That’s not, however, a
It offers an overview of the problem (moving or mistake that you will make.
consolidating a large data center); guidance on
defining the key tasks that make up that phase, OK, the meeting has finally adjourned. YOU
and a set of useful templates to help get you have been given the opportunity of a lifetime, a
started properly. major data center relocation project.
But, please - don’t confuse the pre-planning As you walk slowly back to your desk, you
phase of a DCR project with what comes later. think”…now what? Where do I start?”

What You Should Do NOW:
1. Identify the key stakeholders Depending on the budget, scope, and domains
2. Identify the Project’s Executive Sponsor involved in the DCR, you can expect business
3. Identify the right Project Manager(s) and I.T managers, end users, and even
4. Identify key technical leads suppliers to push hard for you to (pick one or
5. Get a contact list of the key I.T. vendors more…):
6. Do a Communication Plan (first draft)
7. Get a cup of coffee/ tea, sit down, relax… • Get more servers
• Get more MIPS
You probably won’t get much time to do that in • Get more storage
the weeks and months ahead. • Upgrade & refresh “something…”
• Outsource and/or in-source
Other steps that you should take include • Get rid of the “junk” and buy new
finding out who, where and how I.T. equipment • Clean up those stale applications
inventories are maintained. • Buy new applications
• Retire old applications
Ask what level of confidence the I.T. inventory • Improve or expand the network
maintainers have in the accuracy and • Get new network gear
completeness of their databases (the two are • Offload the mainframe, servers, LAN
not the same). If they say that their confidence and migrate to whatever/whoever is
is “high,” you may be in trouble. But, more “hot” at the time
about inventories later…
• Consolidate, migrate, re-host key
solutions back on to the mainframe
And one more thing: figure out where you can
• Cut costs by consolidating servers
stash a cot and a few energy bars – for when
you’ll need them. • Cut cost by replacing old servers with
the latest stuff
• Cut costs by reducing the number of
applications being licensed
Scope Creep • Cut costs by streamlining staff
• Cut costs by outsourcing (fill in the
The DCR project is attractive to many people blanks…)
because it has what everyone wants: a large • Improve customer service by…
budget, lots of activity, cross-organization • Cut high customer care expenses
scope, and enough room to hide more than a through…
few extras. • Cut costs by omitting “unnecessary”
steps and resources in the DCR
One of the challenges that any DCR project process…
leader will face is the pressure from just about
every quarter to seize the opportunity to “fix You get the idea.
I.T.” Not that your I.T. department is “broken”
– they almost never are.
But, rather, users and business managers, DCR Checklist

developers, and technical staff will all see this
as a unique opportunity to push through their At the end of this Guide, we have included a
own departmental needs and “wish-list” items – high-level DCR Pre-Planning Checklist to
the big ones that didn’t make it through the last help you jumpstart your project. A more
budget review cycle. detailed “pre-planning” task list is provided in
the DCR Template Kit in both Microsoft Excel
2003 and MS Project 2003 formats.
3 Third Step: Move everything (systems, applications, networks,

people, etc…), verify a successful migration, and close the project

Managing Project Scope Creep
DCR Project Manager Responsibilities
Project scopes creep. They always have; they
always will. Yet, the first unspoken rule about The role of the project manager in any data
data center relocations and consolidations is center relocation or consolidation is critical. It
that nothing important is supposed to change is here, more than anywhere else, that the
until the project is finished. project will success – or fail. Because the job
is so important, your project managers will be
Naturally, it’s also a rule that is widely ignored, among the most experienced and capable in
simply because the business of doing business the organization.
never stops.
Your project management team (and for a
Your DCR “pre-planning must take this fact larger project, you will need a team) should
and the inevitable consequences of change in ideally be supported by an enterprise-wide
stride. Program Management Office (PMO). The
PMO should have the authority and budget to
Because a DCR project operates in a fast- commit and manage the resources (budget,
moving business and technology environment, people, processes) needed to ensure the
all of the systems, applications, networks, project’s success.
people, and architecture domains that must be
analyzed are in constant motion. Your DCR Among the many responsibilities that the DCR
planning methodology must adapt to this project manager will have are to:
environment.
• Lead meetings to manage and coordinate
Also, since this is probably going to be the best data center relocation, consolidation, and
near-term opportunity that many groups will migration plans
have to slide their new requests for hardware, • Lead meetings to manage and coordinate
software, and people into the budget this year, data center relocation, consolidation, and
you are going to have to cope with the migration requirements, specifications,
pressure to expand the project’s scope. and architecture
• Lead meetings to manage and coordinate
Politically smart groups will quickly have their data center relocation, consolidation, and
business cases and enthusiastic supporters migration execution
lined up and ready for action. • Create and maintain Microsoft Project,
Excel, and Visio documentation, track and
What this can all lead to is rapid “scope creep.” support overall project direction and
What began as a large data center relocation progress on a daily and weekly basis
or consolidation project has quickly become • Interface with construction manager(s),
the Mother of All Upgrades. It can only be crew leads, and data center build teams
controlled with careful planning and good • Manage outside data center vendors and
project management. services suppliers
• Direct and coordinate cross-functional
With good pre-planning, you can identify where organizational activities for the project to
the pressures for additional requirements are ensure that key goals or objectives are
coming from. You can also begin to develop accomplished
your strategy for staying focused on the core • Be effective working among highly
objective. technical IT professionals
• Manage and complete the project within
Of course, the opposite reaction sometimes an intense operational production data
occurs: Management decrees that “NO new center environment, while using sound
purchases will be made.” technical, political, and procedural
judgment throughout the process.
Neither approach is necessarily the right one.
• Ensure financial accountability and
That is why DCR pre-planning is so important.
electronic logging for data center assets,
Here, you can define the scope and major
particularly in a large enterprise I.T.
objectives for the project. And work the kinks
environment.
out of the DCR Budget.
Neglect this important pre-planning phase, and See the PMI PMBOK for more information on
well… PM roles and responsibilities.

EXAMPLE CASE STUDY *
The DCR Project from Hell *
This is an example case study drawn
“It didn’t start out that way… When we first
decided to move our primary data center to the
from information available about a wide
new facility, we expected things to go range of data center relocation and
smoothly. Just like before. consolidation projects across many
industries through the past two decades.
Five years ago we had relocated the entire
data center complex over a span of several
weeks from one floor to another – part of a It does not reflect outcomes of any
major campus redesign and build-out. That projects that PMCA has been
project went well, maybe too well in retrospect.
involved in.
Oh, we had a few problems here and there.
Some DASD couldn’t be moved intact because The “DCR Project from Hell” case
fully-loaded rack weights exceeded floor loads study is intended to illustrate common
in some hallways. That required us to “swing”
some very expensive storage farms.
problems encountered by data center
teams; and some of the key internal and
The freight elevator was too small for the two external factors that can impact a DCR
big laser printers, so we had to have the project’s success.
vendor dismantle, move, and re-assemble
them – an obvious oversight that cost much
more than we’d initially budgeted for that task.
They originally came into the building when the
walls were opened up for the new wing, but
that option was no longer available to us.
A few poorly-secured server racks fell apart in-

transit, several older systems failed to boot up
on re-install and had to be replaced overnight.
But, the virtualization products functioned as
advertised, and that alone saved us many
hours of work.
Some of our LANs and remote nodes struggled

to come up because of the usual “network”
glitches. We learned again about the problems
inherent in allowing application developers to
“hard-code” IP addresses into their products.
But all-in-all, our methodology was adequate,

data recovery processes worked well, and our
team elegantly handled issues as they
appeared.

And so, because everything got successfully Making Assumptions About DCRs
migrated and our users came up each Monday
morning with a minimum of difficulty, we finally
declared success and moved on. Our primary data center was a reasonably
large facility:
After it was all over, we conducted the usual
project post-mortem, made and filed our notes, • 350+ enterprise & hundreds of
and prepared a detailed report to departmental applications
Management. • Twenty-six IBM e-server and p-server host
complexes on three floors (two buildings)
• Twenty midrange AS/400’s (M&A)
Another successful I.T. project, some much-
needed vacation days, and everyone got a • Seventy-five Sun Enterprise servers
well-earned bonus. Hooray for us. • Several hundred terabytes of DASD,
SANs, and optical drives
• Automated tape complex (2)
Just Another Big Project, Right? • Enterprise and specialized printers, mail
sorters, and remittance processing
So, when the decision was made at the C-level equipment
to move to a new data center some distance • About 4,500 racked Wintel, UNIX and
away, our I.T. group felt that we could handle Linux servers
everything in-house. • Some 450 “box” servers, not all in the data
center
• Technical staff desktops
Of course, we’d grown quite a bit in those last
few years, with several acquisitions, new lines • Networks…
of business, and a lot more Wall Street • And people
visibility.
…the usual stuff you’ll find in a large regional
The main data center was now more than four financial services company’s operational hub.
times the size of our last move, and scattered
across several buildings on and off campus.
But, we were sure that our solid operational
processes, tools, and talented people were
more than sufficient for the job.
And anyway, we’d just done “the same thing”

successfully a few years before without
problems.
We ‘sold” the CIO and business leads on our

internal data center relocation planning and
implementation capabilities, our tested
DR/COB process, and got the OK to proceed
with our DCR planning cycle. What we all thought would be a straightforward
(but, certainly not simple!) data center
With the project sponsor’s concurrence, we relocation project slowly turned into a
fired up the project management team, prolonged death-march.
wrangled a few more technical specialists out
of the I.T. budget, added consultants, and Along the way, we lost people, machines, and
rolled up our collective sleeves. It was an data. And, we damaged our credibility. That
approach that we eventually came to regret. hurt the most, I think.

As good as we were, and we were, we kept

The data losses were very painful because, missing (and dismissing) critical information
once the extent of our problems became and tasks everywhere. Of course, we didn’t
apparent to all; we were also hit with Federal know that at the time.
and state inquiries and penalties, as well as
the bad publicity that really hurt the business
side of the company.
Project Fallout
Our DR/COB plan worked – sort of – except for We “knew” our systems and applications, and
the unexpected data losses. But relying on the we had “documented” the key application and
plan that worked last time, even with all the data inter-relationships (we thought); and we
upgrades, updates, and new off-site rigorously planned for every recognized
simulations we had acquired turned out to be alternative and risk.
less than the golden parachute we’d all hoped
for. Although, when our automated inventory
solution could not identify systems we “knew”
were in the farms, we should have heeded the
The Capability Trap red flags. We did take action on many, but
ignored too many others. Mostly, because we
What finally tripped us up was the fact that we all had tough “day jobs along with the DCR
got over-confident. We WERE good at this! stuff.
We had done several data center Our project management processes correctly
consolidations and moves over the last identified the basic resource and schedule
decade. Smaller, simpler ones. requirements. We spent a third of our effort on
pre-move planning, a third on the actual
We brought in the major vendors and got their moves, and the rest on managing, reporting,
equipment planners involved. Our project and troubleshooting the project.
managers all had the right credentials, had
been with us for years, and knew the But eventually, way over budget, months late,
environment. and thoroughly demoralized, we finally
wrapped the project up, “declared success”
But, somehow we failed to acknowledge the and tried to move on. We’re still trying.
first rule of data center relocations: if you don’t
plan for it, you’ll get what you do plan for. By Even now, there are systems and applications
the time we saw the train-wreck coming, it was that don’t run quite like they used to.
too late to stop.
And there are more than a few business users
who have been forced to move to higher-cost,
Sure, this time, we didn’t have any server outsourced solutions because they couldn’t
racks fall over (…you DO learn from some wait for us to get the old systems fixed after the
mistakes!). move.
This time, we got the big printers in the budget

and moved properly. Our DASD farms were
swung on schedule, and even the new
networks (data, voice, video) got done close to
schedule. The vendors all cooperated nicely.
So did the weather.
However, it turned out that we actually

NEEDED the independent analysis, insights,
and expertise of DCR specialists who do this
stuff professionally.

Key Stress Points
Inventory Nightmares There are perhaps a few key points where the
stresses in a DCR or consolidation project are
most likely to occur.
One of the bigger problems we faced was
creating accurate and complete hardware,
business process, and application inventories. First: The right people aren’t involved.
Determination of just who the “real”
stakeholders are isn’t always obvious. Getting
Sure, we kept running the automated tools. them to actively participate at the level of detail
And they kept giving us different answers. We needed is even harder. But, it is always
finally sent teams of our staff and contractors critical.
into the racks to physically count and audit the
automated inventory tables.
Second: Not understanding application and
system inter-dependencies at a deep enough
Server farms were always a major problem. level to limit unforeseen or “unintended”
We’ve been growing fast enough to need a consequences. Or, not having a risk mitigation
new facility – that’s why the relocation. plan that can address them as they emerge.
But, while we were struggling to integrate Third: Inventories don’t add up. If you can’t
systems from various M&A’s and fast growth in rely on your hardware and application
our core operations over the past few years, inventories to accurately and completely reveal
we somehow neglected to look at our inability what’s in-play, you have a much bigger
to accurately and completely inventory what problem than you may yet realize.
we had.
Fourth: Not adequately recognizing the
We thought we had this covered. We have critical importance of optimizing your project
and use asset management software and management processes and staff. An
processes. operationally effective and respected project
management team is the single most important
But, when it came time to move, we had boxes factor in a DCR project’s success.
and racks that we couldn’t find in the
inventories. We had systems on the floor that Fifth: Minimizing the roles and responsibilities
weren’t listed accurately or at all. For many of of your key vendors, services providers, and
those, we didn’t necessarily even know what technical DCR SMEs during the all-important
was running. “pre-planning” phase.
We never really found a perfect solution. Our Sixth: The project budget is inadequate, gets
tools could be tripped up by LAN significantly cut, or is managed in a way that
configurations, or other issues. And, there impacts the flow of activities necessary to
were simply too many systems to physically progress and complete the effort.
count.
So, we moved everything and segregated what

we were sure of from what we were not. There
are still several racks with mystery machines.
We get to them as we can.

Analysis of Our DCR Project *
Where we got off track was in the way we did
the pre-relocation planning.
Or rather, it was in the way that we “didn’t”

actually do it. It finally took an independent
DCR consulting firm to determine the root
cause. Application Relationships
In our case, there weren’t any “major”
catastrophes. The business didn’t cease to Another critical point of failure was our
function. Bills got paid, revenue continued to documentation of application dependencies. It
flow, and customers were satisfied. didn’t really exist. Not in a useful form.
The real problems were almost all internal. The problem was that we have literally
And they were eventually traced to hundreds of business and productivity
inadequately prepared activity planning and applications running throughout the enterprise,
task execution – we should have “pre-planned” a surprising number of them squirreled away in
more thoroughly. business departments, hosted out of wiring
closets, and even several under developer’s
We also took a major hit because the DR/COB desks.
plan that we thought was adequate turned out
to have a couple of glaring holes. But, that’s We also discovered more than a few
another project from hell. applications that were un-recognized (by the
I.T. group), including several that were hosted
remotely, some of them left over from past
Inventory Problems acquisitions and mergers.
One of the more important tasks in a DCR

project is the process of gathering and Application Mapping Issues
validating the inventories. There are several of
them. We knew that a key set of inter-related tasks in
DCR planning is the discovery, analysis and
Like most organizations of any size, we have documentation of the literally thousands of real
lots of state-of-the-art tools, including and suspected application inter-dependencies
automated inventory management solutions that exist among the applications that run the
and databases for hardware, applications, key business.
business processes, and SLAs.
We also knew that few business applications
We work hard to keep them current, but stand-alone, and the ways that they can inter-
because of the substantial costs involved, we connect and share data are as varied and
don’t really audit these with the attention to imaginative as the developers who created and
detail that a CPA does with the company’s maintain them.
books.
But, let’s be honest: we were quite aware that
Our inventories were a known point of the task of identifying, verifying, and
weakness, but you try to manually inspect documenting application inter-dependencies in
thousands of racked servers – we’re growing a mid-sized to large organization probably isn’t
too fast to do this by sneaker-net. Data going to happen. For us, the job was far too
storage and the networks were even more of a big, and anyway, the application inter-
challenge. relationships keep evolving too fast.

But this was a critical area of trouble for our

project because in a DCR, you do have to
eventually shutdown, unplug, and restart real
systems with critical applications that users
must depend on.
Data Center Relocation 101
Oh, we did the virtualization thing. It’s great,
but not yet a silver bullet. With proper DCR So, you’re a very capable manager in the IT
planning, we could have identified the major department of a medium-to-large corporation.
problem areas, and developed a better (well-
tested) risk management solution. But, we You’ve just come out of an executive planning
didn’t do as good a job as we thought we did. session where you’ve been told that the
company needs to relocate its entire IT
Root Causes operation to a newer and larger facility in
another location.
As the extent of the problems triggered by the
relocation became large enough to impact our Your data center is growing at twenty-five
business users and key customers, we couldn’t percent annually and you are nearly out of
keep hiding application performance issues, room. The new financial model says that this
data losses, operational inefficiencies, service relocation has to happen within the next
interruptions, and rising costs. eighteen months, and sooner is better.
Our business executives started asking You’ve also found out that although this move
pointed questions and they demanded real is considered business-critical, it doesn’t mean
answers. that I.T. will be suspending any other major
initiatives, so the project is just additional
Then, they turned to an independent DCR workload and responsibility for your already
company for a post-project forensic analysis – over-worked staff.
something that the lawyer for a Board member
suggested. Oh, and one more thing — the entire project
belongs to YOU!
Our CIO spent many weeks squirming on the
C-Level hot-seat while the DCR consultants
were engaged in some pretty intensive forensic
analysis. We spent more time and money, and
unfortunately several technical managers and
staff, and a few project managers were asked
to move on.
What ultimately emerged was a pattern of

“failure by neglectful competence” – that’s what
the forensic consultants called it.
We were simply too good, too confident at

running a data center to recognize that the
DCR planning process required for data
centers of our size and complexity was
sufficiently unlike any projects we had
experience with. It almost guaranteed serious
problems.
The project was, and remains, a very painful

and largely unnecessary lesson. We also have
a new CIO.”

It’s YOUR Party …Now!
You might even know how to do some of the
Sounds unlikely? Hardly. actual work.
It happens all the time. Data centers get Still, it is unlikely that you will know everything
moved and consolidated for a variety of required for a successful project - how many
business-driven reasons, such as mergers, nails, boards, shingles, parts and pieces, or
acquisitions, or divestitures, running out of man-hours the whole effort will require, or even
room to grow, antiquated physical facilities, how long it can take the foundation to set in
regulatory mandates, or inadequate utilities your weather.
access.
And you also must understand the building
But whatever the trigger, it usually comes codes and other local requirements involved.
down to a simple arithmetic — cost control.
These are among the hundreds of critical
Even when your data center runs out of room, details that the building contractor must know,
there is a business analysis that constantly understand, and be ultimately responsible for.
runs between expanding the current site and
finding a larger facility. The experts all say that if you want to make
sure that you aren’t taken advantage of when
Considering that cost is always a key factor, it building your new home; it doesn’t hurt to do a
isn’t at all unusual for someone in senior little research ahead of time.
management to decide that the entire DCR
project must be accomplished with existing If you’re building your dream home, read up
resources, minimal added expense, and on an on home construction techniques, financing
accelerated schedule. You know the drill. options, and basic construction project
management.
How Does a DCR Happen?

If you’re responsible for a data center
OK, it’s now your project. What will you do? relocation project, you have already started
How are you going to move the workload? that process by reading this Guide
What will it cost? What is the impact on your
staff? How do you manage the project? How Once you have the core team in place, you
do you do all this and still go home at a can begin to develop a detailed scope:
reasonable hour? Or, do you?
• Is this relocation within the existing
While you may have some ideas, if you’ve campus or to a new facility at a distance?
never been involved in a major data center • What will move?
move before, there is a lot of information that • What will remain?
you are probably missing right about now. • When is this supposed to happen?
• What is the financial plan?
From a project perspective, a DCR project is a • Will you do it with in-house staff?
bit like building a large house – think of • Will you use consultants?
something that your favorite celebrity would • What migration strategy – forklift, swing,
live in! swap…?
• Who are the key stakeholders?
You have some general knowledge of how it is
supposed to be done: grading and preparation, When your project’s scope has been defined,
foundation, walls, roof, interior, flooring, HVAC, the next step is to begin a high level analysis of
electrical, plumbing, landscaping, building the major domains to be moved or
codes, financing, etc. consolidated.

1
23
Migration Domains
A “domain” can be the server farms – or just Relocation or Consolidation?
one of them. Each “domain” will have specific
business, operational, technical, and financial From a practical standpoint, there are two key
characteristics that must be identified, differences:
analyzed, and documented at a high level.
• Relocations “MOVE” people, equipment,
This is where the DCR “pre-planning” applications, and data from one physical
assessment pays for itself almost instantly. location to another. Usually, the distance
Expect it to take anywhere from a few weeks to is more than a few miles.
several months, depending on the complexity
of your data center environment(s), but at the • Consolidations “REDUCE” the number of
end, you will have a clear (if high-level) map of discrete systems within an existing data
the entire DCR project. center. A consolidation is also normally
done in concert with a relocation to cut
As you work through the assessment process, costs and simplify the migration.
DCR subject matter experts can provide
invaluable assistance – reducing the Relocations are generally focused on location
complexities, time, cost, and effort required to changes and may include transformational
understand your data center environment(s) at improvements in the data center.
the level of detail necessary to begin the next,
most important phase – the DCR Planning When you are committing the large capital
cycle. expenditures that a significant DCR project
requires, your business and I.T. executives will
also want to see measurable improvements in
Do the Assessment customer satisfaction, reliability, operational
performance, and especially ongoing cost
It really can make a difference. The DCR reduction.
Assessment is an effective, lower-cost
requirements assessment and validation Consolidations, while under much of the
service that is designed to transfer knowledge same productivity improvement pressure found
about how DCR projects are organized and in a relocation project, are more often tightly
planned. focused on immediate operational cost
reduction objectives.
Typically, it usually takes a few weeks, not
months. It will actually cost less than an Reducing the number of active systems and
internal effort because the DCR planning applications required to support the enterprise
SMEs already know what, where, how, and can yield substantial licensing fees and support
why to find the right information. And, it will savings over time.
prepare your team for the real work ahead.

DCR & Virtualization
DCR Planner Trends
Where the benefits of cost reduction are most
readily observed is in the use of “virtualization” Government regulations may impact your DCR
solutions that enable systems administrators to project; one of the many things you need to
load and run multiple applications on a single analyze and plan for.
“under-utilized” server. That solution can save
money and increase system productivity After 9/11, Federal regulations mandated that
quickly. certain financial services industry firms (and
others) establish additional “primary/backup”
Virtualization as a DCR implementation tool is data centers outside the metropolitan areas of
also extremely useful in the relocation process the major cities.
because it can be used to move applications
from “leave-behind” source systems to target In some cases, a minimum distance of 200+
systems that have been pre-installed in the miles between data centers was mandated.
new data center. Therefore, you may need to check with your
legal department to see if there are any facility
With the right business approach to application location requirements for your company or
virtualization, you can “move” the applications government agency.
and data, not always the hardware.
Intended to enable fast recovery in the event of
While virtualization has sometimes been a terrorist attack or natural disaster, the
accused of being “oversold as a solution for mandate has triggered lots of new enterprise-
everything from dandruff to aging,” it has level data center construction or relocation
become an extremely valuable and important projects globally.
DCR tool, and one that any DCR planner
should be conversant with. Because this process is still getting underway,
there are a relatively large number of very
It is also widely employed in the DR/COB complex data center relocation and
environment for its obvious benefits. But it consolidation initiatives presently in progress.
won’t help that much if the detailed planning
isn’t there. That fact has resulted in a significant
tightening in the availability of top-flight
Virtualization tools such as VMware, Virtual DCR planners worldwide.
Iron, Microsoft’s Virtual Server, and Xen can
provide such benefits as: This trend also means that a number of people
are entering the field, with limited real-world
• Server consolidation and improved experience and technical skills.
resource utilization
• Reduced hardware, software, services
and facilities costs
• Improved operational efficiencies, with
greater scalability and adaptability to
change
• Faster application deployment
• Improved security
• Enhanced DR/COB environments
Reduced power, cooling and floor space also

help reduce operational costs and improve
maintainability of complex systems.
A future PMCA Guide for Consolidation

Planning will cover virtualization and its role in
consolidation planning in greater detail.

Getting Started Right
The limited availability of capable DCR
planning talent is expected to continue for OK, you have the ball. We’ve covered the
some considerable time (years) as major basics of DCR “pre-planning.” So, how do you
companies and government agencies continue get started? What do you do next? Who do
to transform their ever-more complex I.T. you need to contact first? Here are some
operations and infrastructures in response to suggestions:
increased global competition and political
realities worldwide.
Outsourcing and consulting firms are also

Understand the DCR Business Case
having increased difficulty finding “Top 100”
people for the simple reason that it takes years Executive management didn’t decide to invest
to gain the experience and insight to do data in a data center relocation initiative without a
center relocation and consolidation planning sound business case. Get it. Read it.
well.
The DCR business case and financial analysis
So, plan well ahead for your DCR project. documents will serve as a baseline for future
business decisions. Use them to make sure
Another trend in I.T. with regard to many that the choices you make support the original
projects is to keep them in-house where goal.
possible.
On a large relocation, it is possible to get so
While that is clearly a preferred solution for wrapped up in the effort that you forget why
those organizations that recognize and support you are doing it in the first place. Keep your
the business value of their own I.T. business focus and revalidate your actions and
capabilities, planning a DCR requires skills that financial position as you proceed.
may not be widely found internally.
Even some of the largest corporations and Identify the Key Stakeholders
government agencies, with a wealth of
superbly talented people, have determined Your executive sponsor is one. Business unit
that, for complex DCR project planning, the leaders, major application owners, I.T.
most cost effective solution is to integrate operations management… the list of key DCR
specialist DCR planners and other SMEs stakeholders is going to get quite large, very
within the core project team. fast. Managing them will be another of your
many full-time jobs.
Stakeholders can include people not usually

associated with an I.T. project. Because of the
scale and enterprise-wide impacts of a DCR,
you are going to have to be careful to identify
the people and groups within (and external to)
the organization.

Assign a Project Manager
Hopefully, yours will have some DCR
experience. Even for a small relocation, there The next best thing is to talk with a number of
is a need for a full time project manager. The DCR specialist firms. Ask them questions
perfect candidate for the position will have a about the types of project risks they most
good overall knowledge of the IT department commonly see.
and operation.
Understand that consultant firms are going to
If at all possible, the DCR project manager be reluctant to sit at the end of a phone while
should NOT be part of an existing technical you pump them for lots of details. If you want
support team (Mainframe, Server, Network, the benefit of their experience (and you really
Applications, etc.) because this can sometimes do…!) be prepared to engage them.
lead to a bias and over - concentration on a
single area.
Implement a DCR Methodology
More critically, selecting such a project
manager can also mean that you really don’t Does this mean that there is more than one
“have that person on the team.” Prior DCR methodology? Yes, there are probably
responsibilities may demand his or her almost as many ways to conduct a data center
attention in ways and at times that will place relocation or consolidation as there are
the project at-risk. Basically – don’t “share” consultants and I.T. vendors who offer these
your DCR PM with anyone else! complex services.
The person selected as the DCR Project However, they all have some basic
Manager should be able to work with and commonalities. Almost everyone now follows
manage senior executives and technical staff, the Project Management Institute’s (PMI)
vendors, consultants, DCR specialists, project management process for good reason:
services providers (utilities), site construction it works – and it’s the place to start organizing
PMs, and even local government agencies if your DCR methodology.
necessary.
The PMI methodology is powerful and very
S/he should obviously be detail-oriented and well-documented, and there are many very
an effective team leader, but also able to focus capable project managers who are trained in
on and communicate the overall project the PMI approach. An increasing number even
objectives and strategy to stakeholders and have the prestigious Project Management
teams. Professional (PMP) certification.
However, don’t confuse an effective DCR

Do Some High-Level DCR Research planning methodology with a Project
Management methodology. They are
Talk to your vendors and peers. Find out who complementary, but different enough in a
has done a similar relocation recently and talk number of subtle ways as to contribute to
to them about what they learned. problems later on if you aren’t aware of the
differences in focus and technique.
You will find people who have gone through
this and more than willing to share their
experiences; some of them may even share
both good and bad lessons learned. This can
give you valuable insight into what you will be
facing.
Of course, you’re quickly going to find that

nobody is really willing to candidly discuss their
DCR project failures – and that’s where you’re
going to find out what you really want.

These details will be uncovered over time, but
only with a lot of hard, gritty work by you and
the entire DCR team.
Learn the process (to be expanded on later) at

the start and it will help you manage workloads
and stakeholder expectations in the future.
A good methodology is based on many years

of real-world data center relocation and
consolidation experience. Use it because it is
a well-proven and cost effective approach.
DCR Methodologies
Create a DCR Project
Project scale is the first differentiator. Outside
of the largest organizations, those with mature Communication Plan
Program and Project Management Offices, the
requisite skills and experience to manage a As soon as you know that you are going to
project of this size and complexity may be relocate your data center, start working on your
scarce. communications plan.
Complexity is another differentiator. Unless Generally, your plan needs to document how,
your PM team is DCR-experienced, the when, and what you will disclose to both
amount, diversity, and depth of detailed internal groups and external customers.
information that must be uncovered, analyzed,
and acted upon will be a real challenge. At a minimum, you should start your internal
communication activities early. This allows
Another key differentiator is focus. In many you to tap into the knowledge and expertise of
small systems and non-I.T. business or office your technical staff and application owners,
relocations, the focus is more on “when we’ll and will help you uncover those project-fatal
complete the project.” How it is accomplished “gotchas” before they “getcha.”
just isn’t that difficult.
Also keep in mind that one of the best tools for
In the DCR setting, “when” is of course, communicating about a project like this is an
important. But even more critical is “how” we online discussion forum and a repository for
plan to get there. “How” IS difficult. The focus documents and project plans.
of your DCR must be on how your systems,
applications, and networks will migrate. If properly structured and maintained, it can be
a central place where people can ask
In a business environment, HOW you execute questions, get the right answers, and find the
a mission critical project, such as a data center latest documentation on the project. PMCA
relocation or consolidation, determines your prefers to use Microsoft’s SharePoint and
true schedule and costs. “When” is merely a Project 2003 or later for this.
derivative of that function.
As you begin to plan your project, you will PMCA has provided a DCR Communications
quickly notice that no one has all the details — Plan template as part of this Guide service.
not you, not the data center operations and You can order the free DCR Template Kit at:
technical staff, nor your vendors and
consultants. DCRguide@pmca-us.net

PMCA’s DCR Template Kit Use Templates More Effectively
The DCR Pre-Planning templates that we offer When you contact us, we would like to ask a
can help you define the scope and key areas few basic questions about your DCR project
of focus for your project. and offer our cost effective DCR Assessment
service.
Customize them for your needs, but don’t
confuse “pre-planning” with the real work that Once we talk with you about your
lies ahead. To do so, simply increases the risk requirements, the template kit will be sent to
of downstream failure. And nobody wants that. you at no cost or obligation. We will also
follow-up later to ask if there are further ways
PMCA’s DCR Project we can help you succeed.
Pre-Planning Guide Templates:
DCR planning in a large data center
Available Now environment is really not a “do-it-yourself”
Pre-Planning Communication Plan activity – even for the experienced project
Template (Excel) manager and technical groups. Not, at least,
Pre-Planning Project Initiation for a project of any large size.
Presentation (PowerPoint)
Pre-Planning Issues Assessment There is much more to planning a successful
Template (Excel) DCR project than reading a few white papers
Pre-Planning Inventory Assessment or filling out nice templates - however helpful
Templates (2) (Excel) they may be at the beginning.
Pre-Planning DR/COB Assessment
Template (Excel)
Pre-Planning Organizational Matrix Note that we do not provide a “DCR project
Template (Excel) plan” in the Template Kit.
DCR “Pre-Planning” Task-List Template
(Excel, Project) The reason for this is that every DCR has
common characteristics and tasks, but these
Each template has instructions on how to use it are well known to project managers.
and what role it plays in the pre-planning cycle.
The really difficult task definitions will vary
widely from project to project and require a
To get the FREE PMCA DCR Project Pre- DCR subject matter expert to identify and
Planning Guide templates, simply register at research them.
www.pmca-us.com with your name, title,
corporate email, and phone number. Or, call We DO, however, provide a “pre-planning” task
us at: list in MS Excel and Project 2003 format in the
DCR Template Kit.
1.954.962.9864 If you intend to excel at your DCR project, (and
we know that you do) informed, careful pre-
Register FAST by sending us an planning is the best way to prepare for the real
email to: work ahead – the detailed discovery, analysis,
and planning that will be required before the
DCRguide@pmca-us.net actual move dates occur.
PMCA has experienced DCR planning

Other PMCA DCR Project Planning Guides are specialists in all the key industries, experts
being developed. Visit our Web site frequently who can save your team a lot of time, money,
to find out when they will be available. and pain. But, you do have to engage us if we
are to be of optimal benefit to you.

DCR Risk Awareness DCR Forensics
Planning Forensics is the art of determining “root
causes” of project failure through close
Risk of project failure is always present in any
examination of events and decisions leading
I.T. initiative, as it is in virtually every area of
up to that result. Think of it as “CSI for DCR.”
human endeavor. Industry data has long
suggested that as many as 80% of all I.T.
Because too many DCR projects neglect the
projects fail to deliver the benefits promised.
“pre-planning” phases to “save money,” this
practice is growing fast. You should do
For a DCR project (because it IS mission-
everything you can to avoid the need for this
critical!), failure can mean anything from
type of post-mortem outcome.
minimal disruption and rapid recovery to
substantial business interruption, loss of
This Guide is a way to help you do that. But,
revenue, damage to your firm’s reputation, civil
should your project require it, PMCA also
lawsuits, and even government investigations.
offers a DCR Forensics service – to research
and identify the root causes of data center
All of these are nice things to avoid.
relocation and consolidation project failures.
The key, again and again, to DCR project

Risk Identification success, is an abundance of detailed planning.
And a very good DR/COB plan.
Many (but, not all) project risks can be
mitigated or even avoided - only if they are
identified and planned for in advance. For a
DCR project, there are a few key areas of risk
that always demand closer scrutiny:
• Project management and execution

• Budget
• Technology & vendors
• I.T. management, process, staff
• Capacity Planning
• Facilities & infrastructure, security
• DCR planning & risk
• DR/COB plans
There are always a few too many companies

that fail to learn from the DCR mistakes (and
successes!) of others.

The DCR Pre-Planning “Trap”
Avoiding DCR Project Hell The problem that many organizations find
when they begin to plan for a data center move
Generally, the fastest, most effective way to or consolidation is that they don’t have the time
get yourself trapped in a career-damaging to do the pre-planning well.
“DCR project from Hell” is to assume that
because your I.T. group “operates the data Or, they don’t take time because “it’s not really
center, they can move it.” needed” for this project.
Yes, the I.T. group does an incredible job and A modern I.T. organization is extremely busy.
under truly daunting pressures. That’s DCR planning requires time and effort that
EXACTLY why they are the worst people to must be taken away from day-to-day
ask to move the data center. They have NO operational and development needs.
time.
You can fall into the trap of thinking that it’s not
While they are the best sources for much of really that necessary to understand the inter-
the detailed information you’ll need, getting it linkages among applications and systems to
will be a constant source of aggravation. the depth required to pull them apart, move
them, and reassemble everything so that it
The second-best way is to grab a bunch of works as before.
stuff off the Web – or use something provided
free by any vendor (including PMCA) – and The levels of detail often required for a
rush to “do-it-yourself.” successful DCR are large – and routinely
underestimated.
On the dubious premise that somehow you’ll
save money. You won’t. Since DCR project failures can (and do) put
companies at significant risk of real economic
But, if/when you decide that you really don’t loss and business failure, management,
need the DCR specialists, we’d like to point shareholders, and investors (and their legal
you back to the case study at the beginning of counsel) will want to know what happened and
this Guide. why (and who to blame…).
The key to a successful DCR is simple: Don’t give them the opportunity. The key,
planning, more planning, checking your again, is pre-plan, plan, validate, and then
planning techniques, validating the plans and move or consolidate.
planning methodologies, sharing them with
others to find the gaps, and re-checking
everything... again and again throughout the
life of the project.

Ten Key “Givens” For a Data
Center Relocation Project
Before you start the relocation planning
process, there are some things that you need
to keep in mind during the life of the project.
It seems that, no matter the circumstances,

there are certain “givens” that apply to any
data center relocation.
1
23
Pre-Planning
Planning
Move I.T.
Everyone runs into these and so will you. But,
armed with advance knowledge of what to
expect, you will be better equipped to handle
these challenges.
These “givens” are:

1. Relocation is a business issue, not a
technical problem
2. Relocation is STILL & always a business
issue, never a technical problem
3. You can never over-plan the project. But,
far too many teams under-plan theirs’.
4. There is no such thing as too much
communication. But, doing it right can
make a BIG difference
5. Procurement and logistics are always a
problem –with few short-term solutions
6. Construction projects never finish on time.
And, the Certificate of Occupancy WILL be
delayed
7. Network providers will always miss at least
one critical cutover date, maybe more.
8. It’s much, MUCH harder to move people
than equipment
9. Something will go wrong. And you
probably won’t know it until the pain
reaches a disruptive threshold
10. Take care of your people, communicate
with the stakeholders, order late-night
pizza frequently, and try to make it fun
Let’s examine each of these in a little more

detail…

Relocation is a Business Issue
Notice how this “given” occupies both the first You Can’t Over-Plan the Project
and second spots on the list? It’s that
important. Or, over-research it. (But, somehow you still
can’t seem to get all the information that you
From a purely “technical” perspective, DCR need…!)
projects are pretty straightforward. Figure out
what goes, what stays, and then plan for when It seems obvious, doesn’t it? Relocations, by
and how it all happens. Easy…, right? their very nature, are highly complex. The
further you can drill down into the details of a
From the business perspective, it is a much system, application, or infrastructure, the less
more complicated problem, especially when likely you are to miss something critical.
you consider cost, risk, and customer service
level agreements. The problem here is that, in almost every case,
the systems that you need details on are more
In a perfect world, there is only one way to complicated and less-well documented than
relocate a data center. This isn’t quite a they look on the surface.
perfect world.
Also, the people who are most knowledgeable
From the technical perspective, you could start about the detailed information that you need
by replicating all of the equipment, data, and have other jobs. The work of a data center
applications in the target site, test everything doesn’t stop just because you’re going to move
fully, and then migrate the entire workload and it.
data to the mirrored site.
They are not necessarily going to want to add
It’s the least risky approach, with a built-in back to their own workload to stop and give you all
out and disaster recovery capability. the details you may need.
Unfortunately, it’s so incredibly expensive that
very few companies can afford it. Not without a clearly defined reason and lots of
“up-close” management support.
The point here is that very early on in your
project; you will be faced with the need to Worse yet, if overly pressured, they may just
balance the best technical solutions against give you a high-level task list without really
the needs of the business. Almost always, it thinking it through — just to make you go
comes down to cost/benefit analysis. away.
In any company that is concerned with the Planning can yield the critical details needed to
bottom line (pretty much all of them!), you can catch a problem before it becomes a disaster.
expect your C-level business executives to The key is getting the details you need without
make the tough decisions based on the losing the support of your I.T. groups and
business case and current budget analysis. business users.
The technical staff rarely makes the truly

important DCR decisions (the expensive ones);
although a smart CEO listens to his or her CIO
very carefully.
Your job is to be sure that the decision-makers

are kept well-informed on the key DCR
decisions that must be made. Relocation is
always a business issue. And it’s ALWAYS
about the money.
But, that said – while everyone wants to have a

DCR project that is “better, faster, cheaper…,”
you know that you can pick only two of the
three options. Choose wisely.

There’s No Such Thing As Too
Much Communication Procurement & Logistics Are
As stated before, relocations are complex. Always a Problem
How complex? More than you can probably
guess right now. There is always Procurement (purchasing the
stuff you need), or Logistics (getting it where
One way to keep from missing a multitude of you need it) activity associated with a data
critical details is to share your plans with as center relocation — equipment, services, or
much of the staff and customer base as both.
possible.
The larger the relocation effort, the more your
No one can know everything, but the more procurement and logistics systems will be
people who (actually) look at your plans, the taxed. If you happen to be constructing a new
better your chances of a smooth deployment. computer room or a whole new site, you are
looking at hundreds of new items.
Inevitably, someone looking at the project from
a different perspective is going to catch Why is this a problem?
something that the relocation team missed or
hadn’t considered. Even at the smallest scale, most companies
over-estimate the efficiency of their
Communication is especially important in procurement and logistics systems. The four
relocations where some or all of the employees weeks that it should take to get a critical
are moving. In general, people dislike change. component soon becomes six, seven, eight…
The sooner you let them know what’s going on, and your schedule will be jeopardized.
the easier the transition on everyone involved.
In any reasonably large DCR, you can expect
When moving people, get them involved in things to break or go missing. And just as
their new workspaces; their managers will dependably, your spare parts inventory will
almost always be willing to help decide who probably not have what you need. No
goes where. And, maybe even let them problem, we’ll get it next week.
determine where the office ferns and other
plants will get placed. That’s not the right answer if the part you need
is the one that’s keeping the mainframe from
So, while there is no such thing as too much being installed by Monday morning. Think it
communication, it can be done in a manner won’t happen? It does, all the time.
that doesn’t help the cause. If you run into
problems, get them addressed as soon as That’s why in a major DCR, the key vendors
possible. may urge you to pre-stock critical components.
Some companies have even placed a

corporate jet at the DCR team’s disposal – with
a standing weekend order at the nearest IBM
parts depot. Plan for the worst; expect nothing
less than the best.
Using the services of a professional high

technology moving and transport company in
your DCR logistics plan can help reduce the
risks inherent in moving expensive assets.

Construction Projects (Almost)
NEVER Finish On Schedule
If your relocation depends on the construction
of a new building or computer room, be
forewarned!
Construction projects (almost) never finish on

time, and even when they are close to the
schedule, there are always punch list items
(follow-up work) that won’t be completed in
time. That is just the way it is.
Weather, materials and shipping, labor strife,

regulations, architectural re-design (fixing
mistakes not found earlier), money… these are
just a few of the more common reasons for
large-site construction project delays Again, while “planning” matters,
”pre-planning” really matters.
Knowing this fact ahead of time, your job is to
build some contingency time into the schedule, Often, the best approach here is to focus on
and then make sure that the contractors will let auditing and tweaking the details of your DCR
you into the building as scheduled, even if they plan while the construction crews continue
are having delays. prepping the site.
And you’ll need to coordinate with more than Trying to install racks while the contractor is
just the construction boss (PM). Other vendors still painting walls and installing trim is probably
can lag behind for many reasons; schedule not going to work out that well.
slips have a way of cascading. A one week
delay in March could mean three or four weeks
in August. And your move-in date is mid-
September. Network Providers Will Always
Working with the construction PM, you can
Miss at least One Cutover Date
plan to pre-install key “virtualization” systems,
If you have a large network with a lot of circuits
sometimes well before the actual move dates.
to migrate, this “given” definitely applies to you.
No matter who the provider is, sooner or later
Of particular importance are the rules around
they are going to miss a key circuit cut.
the Certificate of Occupancy. Rarely will the
local government’s building inspector grant
In order to keep this from being a problem;
“resident access” to a working construction site
never make your circuit cuts at the same times
– not until the CO is approved.
that you are relocating workload.
This means that your team may be allowed to
Instead, schedule them as independent
go in and install equipment once the electrical,
activities, with the ability to fall back to the
HVAC, fire suppression, and other trades are
original configuration if the circuit cut fails. We
finished with their work. But you won’t be
all know that managing data, voice, and video
allowed to stay and work onsite.
utility installations can be challenging.
Therefore, any systems that you are able to
Working closely with the vendors can help
pre-install must be remotely manageable. That
reduce the stress and possibly even improve
could be tough if the network vendors haven’t
the schedule a bit.
yet completed their work.

Some Things WILL Go Wrong
In any relocation project, this is inevitable.
Something, somewhere, is not going to go as
planned. How do you deal with this?
First, mitigate the chances of something major

happening by planning the project with as
much detail as possible (sound familiar?).
It’s Much, MUCH Harder to Move Next, build risk contingency plans for the things
People Than Equipment that are most likely to go wrong or have the
greatest impact on your relocation (like
Generally, when moving equipment and large construction being late).
groups of people, you will spend far more time
and energy on the people part of your move. At the heart of any DCR project is the Risk
Plan. Here, you work to identify, assess, and
The reason for this is simple — equipment develop mitigation strategies for each
doesn't talk back or use delaying tactics. In a significant risk that the project may encounter.
people move, you are always going to end up
making someone unhappy. This is, of course, easier to say than do.
Perhaps the new site is farther from home, or But, Many Things Will Go Right!
they don't like the new cubicles. Maybe the
great restaurants near your present location As the pressure mounts, it will often be hard to
are far from the new one. If a person is upset take the time to find the “fun” in a data center
about moving for any particular reason, they relocation project. But, it’s there.
will quickly find validation for their negative
feelings. Find it.
In a sufficiently large group of people, this can The satisfactions gained from surmounting
quickly become a nightmare. The easiest way incredible challenges and handling problems
to work around this is with good early and that would stun lesser souls - these are
continuous stakeholder communication. pleasures earned through hard battle against
formidable hurdles.
The key here is – the “real” stakeholders aren’t
just the ones in the corner offices. It’s difficult to over-estimate the complexities
found in a major DCR. In fact, it’s dangerous
Sometimes, it also helps to make a dissenter to do so.
part of the core team. Once you get them
directly involved in the decision-making But remember, some amazingly large and
process, they are more likely to support the stunningly complicated data centers have been
project and make your move that much easier. moved or consolidated over the past two
decades. Yours is just the next one to come
online.

Team building events, an afternoon off when DCR PrePlanning Checklist
it’s slow or catering lunch once a month, can
make a huge difference. When you get to the You’re now ready to begin. First, here is a
actual cutover activity, it may last anywhere high level checklist to help you get better
from one night to many back-to-back organized for the critical DCR Pre-Planning
weekends. phase.
During this time, one of the more effective Pre-Planning means those key activities and
morale-boosting things you can do is keep dependent tasks necessary before you begin
everyone well fed. Once again, this seems like the arduous process of detailed project
basic common sense, but you would be planning.
amazed how fast things fall apart if people get
hungry and cranky. You’re setting the stage here to ensure later
project success, so resist the temptation to
Most IT professionals are lucky if they get to do skip this phase. Start by putting these tasks
one major relocation project during their into a project plan:
career. The question is how they approach it.
If it is nothing but stress and unwanted work, Business Case
their (and your) likelihood of success rapidly Communication Plan
diminishes. Risk Assessment
Financial Analysis & Management
At the close of the project, when the post- Key Stakeholders
mortems are finished, don’t forget the o Business Units
certificates, bonuses, and vacation days o I.T.
accrued. By this time, your teams will probably o Customers
be exhausted. o Other
Legal, Regulatory Contacts
So, if the project’s size and duration warrant it, Project Sponsor
a little executive recognition, in the form of a Project Manager
team dinner meeting and awards presentation, Facilities Manager
works miracles. It’s money well-spent. o Current Site(s)
o New Site(s)
Approach your DCR project as a unique Key I.T. Managers
opportunity to do something completely o Mainframe/Host
different — have fun with it. OK, at least you o Servers
can look back on a really tough job that was o DASD & Storage
executed well… o Printers
o Data/LANs
o Voice
o Other
Vendor Contacts
o Hardware
o Software
o Services
Key Inventories
o Hardware
o Applications
o Networks
o Other
DR/COB & Security
Utilities
Other

DCR Project Management
Checklist
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23
While a detailed coverage of DCR project
management practices and methodologies is
outside the scope of this Guide, this checklist
will help focus your attention on the importance
of relying on accepted PM standards. “DCR, …it’s what
•
•
DCR Project Lifecycle
Project Integration Management
we do.”
• Time Management
• Cost Management
• Quality Management PMCA is an independent trusted
• Human Resources Management advisor to Fortune 500 and
• Communication Management government clients worldwide.
• Risk Management
• Procurement Management PMCA offers complete project
• Vendor Management management services,
including consolidation,
The size of your DCR project will determine the
structure of the PM team.
migration, and relocation
planning - for your datacenters
For a large enterprise initiative – or one that and other IT infrastructure
will have global activity - you should implement projects.
the PMI Program Office model: an overall
program manager will coordinate the activities PMCA data center relocation
of project managers.
planning services are used by
Project managers should be assigned to each the Fortune 100, government,
key domain and/or location (in multi-site and leading I.T. consulting firms,
DCR’s). Domains might include: because we are globally
recognized DCR specialists.
• Mainframe/Host complexes
• Server farms
• DASD and Storage systems
• Specialized equipment
• Outsourced systems and services
• Procurement and Logistics www.pmca-us.com
• Facilities
• Voice/Data, etc.
The all-too-common practice of assigning one

PM to run the entire project may work for small
efforts. But, a large DCR will need a dedicated
PM team.

The Data Center Relocation The other is the plan for creating the cutover
Process plan(s). This is the part that takes the most
time and effort, and is what you will spend
Like most things in life, there is a process most of your time managing.
associated with data center relocations. The
optimal process is composed of five major How Does It Work?
phases.
In its simplest form, we can compare a data
Let’s take a look at them in their most basic center relocation to moving from one house to
form: What is important to remember is that the another. You start by figuring out WHAT
bulk of the work is in the planning. In fact, needs to move, what needs to be replaced,
there are really two plans. and what needs to be left behind.
Obviously, there is the plan for the actual This is a real opportunity to set up your data
relocation activity — the move or moves. This center (household) exactly as you want it, so
is referred to as a cutover plan. this is the beginning of a series of business
decisions that need to be made.
Graphic available in Template Kit.

Once you figure out what is moving, then you Unfortunately, most people don't have an
can break it down to simple categories. In your unlimited supply of money, and with a large
home it might be by room, kitchen, bedroom, data center relocation project on the table,
basement, etc. neither do most businesses.
In your data center it might be mainframe, As in a personal move, there are trade-offs that
DASD, tape, and storage systems, application must be made. Every decision is a constant
servers, networks, printers, etc. balancing act between cost and benefit –
remember that business case?
If the move is spread over a number of nights
and weekends, these groupings become even This is the point where prior DCR experience is
more well-defined, and it becomes more now key. If you have not yet reached the point
important to move certain categories together where you understand the value of using DCR
in “move groups.” planning specialists, you’re about to.
Moving the kid’s bedroom and leaving their The decisions on what goes or remains behind
bathroom stuff behind is not a good idea. In a that are made by line-of-business and I.T.
data center relocation, we call these “move executives – who MUST be involved at this
groups” or categories a “complex.” They stage - can have both short and long term
operate as whole; you move them the same business, operational, financial, and even legal
way. impacts within the organization.
Next, we decide HOW to move the belongings. At this point, you should be assembling an
Either at home or in the data center some organizational matrix of stakeholders, business
items are going to require special attention. groupings, and the key I.T. resources that you
will rely upon to get the work done.
The Baby Grand Piano from your Grandmother
and the server farms both need extra attention. Make it a high-level effort for now, digging for
the details will come later.
However, the dining room table and chairs, like
some of your old servers, are too outdated to We have a template for that too: Pre-Planning
move so you will just buy new ones and have Organizational Matrix
them delivered ahead of time.
Notice that this is usually a function of time and

distance. The more time you have, and the
closer it is, the more stuff you are likely to
move.
If you are moving a great distance and you

only have one day to do it, then a lot of items
will have to be purchased. Obviously, cost is a
factor.
The simplest solution is to buy everything new

and only move the things you absolutely have
to — like the dogs, the kids, and the really
critical things such as specialized printers, mail
sorters, and other items unique to your
organization or industry.

Plans vs. Schedules
What is a plan? How is it different from a
schedule?
In this document, any time we refer to a "plan,"

we are talking about a document set that
contains information about what, where, and
how things will be done (including the
"schedule"). The plan also includes additional
reference material, such as resource and
vendor contact lists. On the other hand, if you only have six hours
to make a major move, it is imperative that
The "schedule" is a document that lists the everybody knows exactly who's doing what,
specific tasks that need to be completed, when how, where, why, and when.
they are due, and who will do them.
This phase is the longest in a data center
Confusingly, people sometimes refer to this relocation project. It takes a lot of time to
“schedule” as the "plan," when in fact it is only make all your procurement arrangements and
a small part of the "plan" - and apart from the work out your detailed timelines, which are
“plan,” the schedule is pretty worthless for normally at the hour-by-hour time window
explaining how, where, or why something must detail level.
be done at this particular time.
In any project as large as relocating a data

center, building task flexibility into your plan is
Move Group Plans – Then
a very good thing. Avoiding the “do-it-yourself” Schedules
approach, at least in key areas, is another
good practice. Creating specific move groups is a major
challenge and well beyond the scope of this
Now that you have completed the what, how, “pre-planning” guide. But, once the DCR plan
and when phases of the relocation planning reaches a working “final” draft stage and you
process, you can start working on the details have completed your move groups, it is time to
and doing the detailed planning work. Again, determine WHEN you want to move – the
let’s use the “new home” analogy. schedule.
Tasks at this stage can include reserving a Part of this is driven by how we decided to do
truck, hiring the piano movers, buying boxes, the move. Right up front, you should resist the
and packing materials. pressure to move everything quickly. It won’t
come from the I.T. group, but from rather from
You will need to carefully coordinate business users.
transportation options, considering weight
restrictions, special vehicles for delicate The best defense against such pressure is to
equipment, and staging areas to sequentially have and follow a well-designed Move Group
arrange how the equipment must be removed Plan. That plan will be one of the more
from the old facility and arrive at the new challenging tasks that you and the DCR
destination. Special crating requirements also specialists must develop during the detailed
need to be planned. planning phase of a DCR.
Planning includes creating a timeline (the The Move Group is simply a very detailed list
“schedule”) for the actual move periods. Short of ALL of the systems and their dependent
or simple moves require less complex components, applications, and everything else
timelines. that depends on members of the Move Group
that belong to a particular domain.

This domain could be an application (Payroll,
HR, ERP, CRM, etc), or a business
department, a remote location (branch office’s
I.T. center), or other categorization specific to Security
your company.
Nobody likes to think about bad things
happening to good projects. But in the
inevitable chaos of a large move, things can
walk off.
It would not be a good time to discover that the

devices that hold your company’s payroll or
customer data have been misplaced.
Location, equipment, personnel, and transit

security must be planned well in advance of
the need.
The Move Group Plan should also contain
detailed information on who needs to be onsite Whether you use your organization’s internal
during the equipment relocations, what (contracted) security service, or hire someone
procedures are required to boot up re-installed for the job, a carefully thought out plan is
systems for test runs, who to call when things essential.
go bad, and how to order late-night pizza,
coffee, or a paramedic.
Move Groups & Schedules
Which brings us to an important topic…
A few years ago, an unusual DCR project
moved an entire airborne scientific laboratory
Emergency Services as a set of tightly inter-linked move groups
from an older aircraft to its new replacement.
Many DCR migrations and consolidations
happen at night or on weekends. You will be The team did this while both planes were on a
working around heavy equipment and lots of Navy aircraft carrier at sea. And they did it all
activity. There will be the occasional cuts & in one “96-hour day,” as the team leader
bruises, and hopefully nothing more. Have a described the effort.
good First Aid kit onsite.
While your project’s move day may not be
But, in the event of a serious health problem, quite so dramatic, determining when and how
who are you going to call? to move is one of the major tasks that you, as
the DCR team leader, must complete.
911 may be the obvious choice, but if you call
from a cell phone (because the phone If you decided to do a household move all at
company hasn’t yet finished their work), be once (the “Big Bang”), and in one large truck
prepared to give EXPLICIT directions to your (or a fleet of them), it may take an entire
location. Know where the local hospital and weekend.
emergency services are in relation to your new
location. That's great, but if it turns out that there is only
one weekend that your friends are able to help
Remember, if you are moving to a newly- out, your schedule will be tied to their
constructed facility, the location particulars schedule. Like it or not your move weekend
may not yet be updated in the emergency has just been cast in concrete.
dispatch center’s geographic mapping system.

Schedule vs. Freeze Dates
There are specific dates when nothing in I.T.
moves: end of month, end of quarter, holidays,
full moons, etc. Your organization maintains
Move Day Planning
such lists; they will drive the Move Plan and
Once all the planning and preparation work is
schedule.
done; after you’ve run through several dry-runs
for each major move group, then it is time to
In a data center relocation effort, the business
make the actual MOVE. Getting everything
impacts of a freeze date can be huge,
ready for that special time is called “move day
especially for organizations with high up-time
planning.”
requirements.
Move Days will normally be a multi-step
For example, the big Wall Street brokerages
process, especially if a new “house” is being
and regional power utilities don’t really go
built. Prior to actually moving in, it may be
down – ever. In those environments, a
decided that rooms need to be painted, carpets
“freeze” is regarded as something sacred.
replaced, and bathrooms upgraded with new
fixtures. A key task will be to clean everything.
Any 24x7x365 operation: the phone company,
This is called site prep.
utilities, energy, hospitals, and certain
government agencies each have freeze dates
In any data center relocation, there is always
and open window periods when moves can
site prep - if for no other reason than you need
happen.
the proper electrical and network connections
in place before you move in the equipment.
But, they are rarely apparent without some
research. The availability of open windows
Before the data center is ready for move-in,
suitable for a data center move will also
you will have completed a series of final
depend on a host of other key factors. You
inspections. Any problems noted will have
must strive to identify them all.
been resolved. And you do have to clean the
under-floor areas particularly well.
It's also at this point that we begin to rough-in
some contingency dates. What happens if the
The Certificate of Occupancy will (hopefully)
new facility you are building or renovating isn’t
have been granted, and your communication
completed on time?
services, auxiliary power, and other details are
all done, approved, checked off, and ready to
With most data center relocations, you can
go.
almost guarantee that the new computer room
will not be completed on the date the
For a major DCR project, each Move Day is
contractor originally gave you.
usually complex enough that it will require its
own detailed plan.
Be sure to develop those contingency dates
and carefully plan around a set of realistic
Next, come the walkthroughs.
availability windows.
The equipment movers won't do the job until
they can see for themselves what equipment
they will need, where everything goes.
They will want to know what barriers are

present, whether the freight elevators are as
described, and most importantly – is there
somewhere to take a break, plug in a radio,
and listen to the game while they work into the
night.

As you do the pre-planning for a data center
relocation project, walkthroughs are critical,
since you will have a lot of people to You could load it all into the back of a U-Haul
coordinate. Finally, when all of this is done, truck (or, somebody’s pick-up), toss in a few
the move happens. manuals you think you might need, and drive
everything over bumpy roads on some dark
In the overall scheme of things, there is and stormy night.
relatively less activity for you during the actual
move period, compared to all the discovery, Stop laughing! Really.
analysis, and planning work that makes the
move days possible. When the pressure to cut costs and “get it
done…” reaches a certain frantic level,
You focus here is on making sure that the something close to the latter scenario becomes
schedule is adhered to, and that exceptions all too real, especially in smaller, departmental,
are handled immediately. or “office” projects. We have seen it happen.
In relocation terminology, we call the actual Of course, if the decision was made to move
moves “cutovers,” since we are "cutting over" one room a night, and in a staffer’s pickup
the workload from one site to another. A truck, there would be a lot more flexibility as to
successful cutover is the result of teamwork what nights you might have to choose from.
and planning.
Just check first to see if Freeze Dates interfere
and if The Risk Plan that you created also
A Note on Moving Equipment: covers traffic tickets, sleep-deprivation-induced
accidents, and other assorted road hazards.
The important process of un-racking, packing,
transportation, un-packing, and re-installation
of expensive computer equipment is best done
by I.T. logistics professionals. Power, Heat & Fire Suppression
Your DCR planning SME knows the right Power consumption will increase, even if the
companies for this critical job in your region, as newer systems are more energy-efficient. The
well as the importance of having this part of the temptation will be to pack more 1U and 2U
DCR project go smoothly. units into a new rack, which increases heat,
which increases HVAC requirements, etc.
You can delegate this critical job to skilled
professionals who will insure, package, move,
unpack, and pre-position your equipment in the Heat is the primary danger in a data center and
new data center – right where your floor plan these machines produce immense amounts of
says. it. One of your many tasks will be to validate
that the facilities designers got it right. You
The vendors and your own I.T. teams can then must know that there is sufficient cooling
re-assemble racks and cabling and bring up capacity and power for current and projected
the systems for a test run. growth.
Your Move Group Plan will have everything You don’t want to have someone a few years
detailed, including specific instructions on from now ask why the cooling or power
when and how each system is re-racked and generation infrastructure isn’t adequate to
fired up, and then brought back online. support the newest high-density expansions in
systems and storage.
Or…,

Budget Games
Modern fire suppression systems design,
implementation and maintenance for the data
Financial planning in the data center is not for
center is as much an art as science. This task
the faint-of-heart. Typically, as much as 85%
is best left to certified vendors and installers.
of the total enterprise I.T. budget is spent
there.
In a raised floor environment, the above-floor
space will be well provided for. Check to be
That means the remaining 15% is for the
sure that the under-floor space is also covered
thousands of desktops, laptops, Blackberries,
in the design.
local printers, and other peripherals.
Today’s data centers don’t mix all that well with

Millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of
water-based (sprinkler) systems, but
dollars, euros, yen, or pounds are committed
surprisingly there are still quite a few of these
yearly in an unending race to support business
installed, even in fairly new buildings.
growth.
If your data center is being renovated, you may

Because the data center is the major cost
need to check to be sure that the walls go all
center for I.T., your DCR project will receive
the way up to the ceiling. Don’t be surprised if
weekly scrutiny at the highest levels of the
they don’t, especially where false or
enterprise.
suspended ceilings are installed. Gas systems
require a sealed room.
You will be required to develop and present
concise summary briefings. These will cover
You will also need to have an environmental
the milestones and current project status. But
engineering report. Are there external fuel
what everyone will really want to know is how
tanks for the emergency generators? Are they
the budget is going.
in compliance with the new generation of EPA
standards?
Therefore, one of the first things you will need
is the support of your financial analysis and
controls group. They have the skills and
presence at the C-Level to develop the right
financial message.
When you are involved in the pre-planning for

a relocation or consolidation, try to focus on
the expected benefit. That will be detailed in
the business case that started this whole effort.
You may discover that the project’s ROI is

somewhat (or even wildly) optimistic. That’s
not necessarily a bad thing because this ROI
process is in many ways still pretty much a
SWAG exercise at this point.
ROI projections can be used to justify

expenditures. They can also be used to justify
DCR budget cuts. And that, naturally, brings
us to the most difficult aspect of your project –
doing DCR with budget reductions.

Doing DCR With Less
Cultural, language, political, economic, social,
and technological implementation differences
Having worked in the corporate or government can add frustration to the project. Or, they can
environment for some years, we all know that enrich your experience in unimaginable and
come September through December (for delightful ways.
business), and June through October (for
many government agencies), the annual
budget cutting exercise gets underway. That’s We have planned more than a few of these,
just the way things are. and the challenges are significantly more
complex than the usual DCR project. But, also
more fun when planned well.
Knowing this, you can begin to develop risk
plans to cope with the inevitable.
The actual migration may need to be extended

into the next fiscal year. If so, weather now DCR Checkpoint – Why Move?
becomes an issue. Also, the year-end freeze
dates and holidays may reduce the available
Data centers are relocated or consolidated for
days for migrations.
business or technology reasons.
However, the key difference between a DCR

A business-driven DCR can be the result of
and most other I.T. projects is that too often
changes in the business – growth due to new
the move dates cannot be changed.
markets, products, and services. It can be
caused by mergers & acquisitions or
The lease may be up on your existing facility, divestitures; or perhaps an increase in data
the company might have sold the building. Or, retention requirements due to changed
a merger & acquisition (M&A) has mandated regulatory environments.
consolidation of your data center(s) with the
new parent company’s facilities in one or more
Technology-driven DCR is usually the result of
locations.
the continual evolution of I.T. infrastructures.
Increased server density, higher energy costs,
So, if budget cuts require schedule or scope changes in architecture due to facility
changes, the project must restart its analysis expansion, and the need for high-availability
and planning phases (at least in the affected systems each can require relocation to new
areas) to cope with the new state of affairs. facilities or consolidation of systems in-place.
Whatever the reason, migrating, or

consolidating a data center every few years
seems to be almost an inevitability, given the
rate of change in the business sector.
International DCR Projects
For those who relish high adventure and travel

to exotic places, there is good news. Data
centers in large multi-national companies are
migrating, relocating, and consolidating as
never before. Many of them are moving
offshore.
Of course, to get the scope and complexity

index right, you will probably need to multiply
the already formidable challenges found in a
domestic DCR by a factor of ten.

About Consolidations
We have focused on the Relocation part of
DCR. But far more “consolidation” projects
occur than relocations. So, what are the key
differences?
A consolidation is normally undertaken to

reduce costs. This means that financial
analysis is critically important in the definition,
planning, and implementation of a Data Center
Consolidation (DCC).
A consolidation is easier to plan for than a The applications to be impacted include CRM,
major relocation. But, it’s still not a trivial HR, and Financial – all of them critical. This
exercise at all. Relocations involve a wider means that the consolidation must occur in
range of systems and services, but major carefully managed stages, with ample
consolidations can be every bit as challenging. opportunities for testing and systems
assurance.
For example, a company is consolidating
approximately 5,000 Wintel servers as it It also means that data security (physical and
migrates from the Microsoft Windows 2000 logical) is going to be extremely important.
platform to Windows XP. Windows Vista is not Plan for that condition, too.
being considered because it is still too “new.”
Virtualization tools will be utilized to re-host the
The DCR project will impact desktop systems applications, once the new servers are
to the extent that they require consolidation of installed. Because multiple applications will be
email and productivity application servers. running concurrently on the same system,
careful attention should be paid to DR/COB
A new Citrix thin-client environment must be
supported, requiring the migration and This is the time to look at the new generation
consolidation of several servers. There are of multi-core servers. Consideration of
also about 250 systems that are still running memory and hard disk needs, as well as LAN
Windows NT 4.x that must be retired. requirements is also warranted.
The enterprise-class UNIX systems are out-of- Generally, you will begin with an overview of
scope, as are the mainframes and midrange the key applications and systems targeted for
(AS/400) systems. consolidation. Possible candidate may include
those acquired through M&As.
The target goal is to cut the number of Wintel
servers by around 30%. Once the high level list of potential targets has
been agreed upon, a step-by-step iterative
discovery and detailed analysis process
That may not seem to be an aggressive goal to begins.
the inexperienced, but there generally isn’t
going to be a 2-for-1 reduction in the
application hosting footprint. Servers, What you will need to determine are the
applications, and virtualization tools aren’t that specifics of each system and application, its
efficient yet. current and projected growth trend, technical
requirements, and other details of procedures
and system configurations.

Determination of the host “footprint” – the When you move, use all new cabling. Heat
amount of computing resource necessary to can damage and degrade the performance of
run the application will be next. any cabling over time. This means that
someone will probably need to be sure to
This is important because consolidations “measure” the amount of new cabling that will
increasingly mean hosting multiple applications be required. Cabling experts will help with this.
of a single server. You need to determine that
the target system will have adequate capacity. Also, when you finish the job, the abandoned
cabling will probably have to be removed from
You must also be sure that the target facility the old under-floor and overhead spaces.
can actually support the added systems: Most local fire codes require this as a safety
physical space, cableways, power, cooling, best practice.
etc.
Consolidations will also impact the network. Consolidation Checklist

Faster systems with gigabit LAN cards may
add to the load. Planning and capacity
Here are a few of the many things that you
utilization analysis is required here.
may want to consider when planning for a
server consolidation (mainframes are
Faster servers (racks or blades) also produce somewhat more complex and require vendor
heat. Cooling capacity must be examined. support):
The newer racks have option in-rack cooling
options, which are nice.
• Capacity Requirements (current)
• Capacity Requirements (new)
But, remember, the excess heat still has to go • Data Requirements
somewhere. If that somewhere is down into • System Configuration Requirements
the under-floor plenum, can the main cooling
• Target Applications
systems handle the added burden?
• HVAC & Power Requirements
• Facilities Impacts (is there room to add the
An aside: Has anyone actually looked at the new equipment before the old is de-
under-floor space recently? It’s probably pretty commissioned?)
dusty – and crammed full of fossilized cabling • Technical Services
left over from the last relocation or • Other
consolidation...
While it doesn’t occur nearly enough, periodic

(more than once-a-decade) cleaning of this
space is essential to reduce fire hazards and
improve cooling.
When you are down under the raised floor,

take a look at the cabling. There are miles of
it. And, untangling all that you see down there
(and the miles and miles that you don’t yet
see) would take just short of forever.

Server Consolidation & Special Considerations
Virtualization Now that you have some idea of the relocation
process, let’s look at some areas that require
A detailed coverage of this important topic is special attention.
beyond the scope of this Guide, but it is a
valuable tool for consolidation of server farms Budget
and applications, particularly on the Wintel and
UNIX/Linux platforms. As you were reading about relocation, you may
have noticed that while the process is linear
Server consolidation is all about cost reduction. enough, the level of detail is revealed in a “top-
Because application vendors often license by down” manner.
the box, as well as by the number of
concurrent users, any reduction in the number This makes for some interesting business
of machines running an application can result challenges. The first and foremost challenge is
in serious cost savings over time. budget — which is one of the very first things
that you are going to be asked to come up
VMWare is the leading provider of the platform with.
solutions for a number of architectures,
including UNIX, Linux, Windows, and others. Unfortunately, you will not have all the
There are also several other products available information you need to even start on a decent
– this is a rapidly growing market. budget until you have completed The “How”
phase.
Microsoft offers its own virtualization solution – Even at this point, it is recommended that you
Virtual PC. While not as sophisticated as the set aside a larger than normal contingency
VMWare solution (and only for its own fund — at least twenty-five percent.
platforms), it does have one advantage – it’s
free (for now). This is due to the fact that the technical detail
isn’t really developed until the “detailed
Virtualization, as a technology, has been Planning phase (when you start building the
around for a long time. First, on IBM site preparation plan and cutover schedules).
mainframes, and later on various mid-range
platforms, its usage (and usefulness) has Invariably, the more detail you obtain, the
exploded with the rise of cheap, powerful Intel- greater the chance is that additional costs will
based servers. be uncovered.
Led by Google, which has pioneered the use of This is neither bad nor good; it is just part of
massive (generic) server farms, modern the normal process. It’s like building a house
consolidation approaches rely heavily on — even if the number of interior walls is
virtualization and sophisticated architectures to known, you won’t know exactly what it costs to
enable the use of lots of “cheap iron” in the build them until the quantity of studs, nails,
enterprise. sheet rock, tape, outlets, etc., is determined.
This innovative approach, when planned and

implemented well, can result in better ROI,
improved performance, faster and safer
migrations, and more reliable DR/COB
environments.

Communications And, while general contractors know how to
construct or renovate a building, you are
Another issue with developing project details in almost guaranteed that they have an
a top-down manner is that something may be incomplete I.T. perspective.
uncovered that significantly changes or
invalidates your original relocation strategies. This can lead to a situation where the new
site’s design or refurbishment is less than
This can range from a minor inconvenience to optimal for your needs. A simple example is
a major rework of the entire project. The best computer room layout.
way to minimize the impact of such an event is
to catch it early. An I.T. department needs an open and easily
managed space that maximizes equipment
The best way to uncover problems early is density. This means that air conditioners and
through good communications. The better the power distribution units need to fit into the
staff knows and understands the project, the equipment layout, not the other way around.
fewer problems you will experience.
There also needs to be adequate office space,
One good way of doing this is through an and room for expansion.
online discussion forum. This is relatively
cheap and easy to develop utilizing existing You may not have input at this point in time,
tools such as an internal web site. But, the but be aware that computer rooms can be
forum must be moderated to control rumors constructed with either (or a mix) of floor types:
and misinformation. raised or solid.
Each has its adherents and detractors, but

New Construction both have advantages. Raised floors have a
vast and hidden plenum for cooing and cabling
purposes. They can also be a potential fire
If your relocation project involves the
hazard because some fire suppression
construction or refurbishment of a new
systems may not adequately cover this area.
computer room or building, you have a whole
new set of problems to deal with.
Solid floors, on the other hand, must have
cabling exposed, running from the ceiling.
First and foremost are schedule
considerations. As mentioned earlier,
A key advantage here is that you can expect to
construction projects rarely finish on time, so
support much higher floor loads – heavier
you will need to develop extremely good
equipment can be moved around without
contingency plans for date changes.
worrying if you will punch through the raised
floor and damage sensitive and very expensive
Additionally, there is a strong likelihood that the
systems.
facilities department is managing the new
construction.
For most I.T. organizations, it a given as to
which environment they will live in.
While they will have good, strong knowledge of
infrastructure, they are unlikely to have a full
Left too much on their own, facilities planners
understanding of the operational issues in an
and the general contractor just might opt for a
IT department.
layout that best fits their plumbing, wiring, or
fire suppression needs; not necessarily your
requirements.
It is critical that the IT department has

someone designated to interface with facilities
and the general contractor.
That person’s mission is to ensure that you

end up with the best data center possible, not
just a standard building “refurbished” to hold a
bunch of computers.

Staff Relocation
If your project involves relocating more than
twenty-five people, then you are going to be
faced with some significant HR, management
issues, and the usual technical problems.
As the number of people to be relocated grows,

the problems associated with them grow at a
disproportionate rate. Generally, corporations
deal with this issue by clearly dictating the
terms and conditions of the move.
While this sometimes works, it has the negative

effect of reducing moral and alienating the
resources that your company’s business
depends on.
It is much more effective to treat the staff

relocation on the same level as the equipment
relocation. This includes equal time from the There are considerable technical issues in
project manager, good communications, and a doing this, and the larger the existing network,
high level of involvement in the project. the more difficult this is.
At a minimum, each department should have Also, there is very little opportunity to relocate
one person assigned to the staff relocation existing equipment (because the existing
team. Not only does this give them a voice in network is still in use), so there is usually a
the project, but it also gives them a sense of considerable dollar investment in new
ownership — success or failure depends on hardware.
them.
Finally, procurement of network components
and circuits can require long lead-time items.
This means that the new network planning
Networks needs to happen as soon as possible and will
most likely involve considerable input from your
Nowadays, most businesses maintain a high network vendors.
level of online availability with their customers.
This immediately presents network concerns.
Project Staffing Levels
You will need to maintain access to your host
systems regardless of where they physically A good IT organization will have technicians
reside. that are willing and able to help in the design
and build out of a new data center.
A relatively new factor in network design is the
network latency created by the distances that Unfortunately, every one of these people will
separate today’s data centers. That can have an existing job, with very little spare time.
impact application performance and even While it may be expected that they make a
design. Your DR/COB plan will need to special effort to support the project, there is a
address this in terms of the RPO and RTO practical limit to how long this special effort will
requirement (See the DR/COB section). last.
The norm in most data center relocations is to Relocations are time and resource intensive. It
create a new network backbone at your new may take well over a year to plan and execute
location and then connect it to the existing the relocation of a large IT operation.
network.

The TenStep DCR Plan
Once the project is defined and the core team
assembled, there are certain activities that are
DCR Checkpoint – Who Is Involved? essential. Here is a simple list of the ten most
critical tasks that any DCR project manager
Because a data center relocation or major must take care of:
server consolidation is so complex, you need to
be sure that the right teams are in position to 1. Inventories – hardware, applications, and
help you succeed. But who are they? every component that will be relocated or
consolidated. The inventories need to be
The I.T organization will drive the project; it is detailed, accurate, and complete – with
the group with the technical and operational equipment model and serial numbers,
resources. Business units, major application configurations, replacement value, vendor
and services users, and even key customers contacts, and a Visio diagram of how each
will also need to be represented at critical system is de-installed (before) and re-
points. installed (after).
Your vendors and services providers must be You won’t get the detail required without
involved because they have the expertise considerable effort. So, if this comes
needed to de-install, re-install, and re-certify easily, you haven’t done it right.
systems under maintenance warranties. Also,
since your data center will have equipment 2. Security - the dominating characteristic of
from many vendors, their experience in data a large DCR is activity. Everything is in
center migrations will be added assurance of motion at one point or another. A good
success. security plan will help ensure that data
doesn’t disappear, that unauthorized
Data center relocation and consolidation people are kept away, and that the
specialists are essential because a DCR is an business remains un-compromised.
infrequent event for most I.T. organizations.
Except for the largest and most dynamic 3. Planning – from the early +pre-planning”
companies, those undergoing constant major phase through detailed DCR planning, to
re-organization or M&A activities, very few I.T. schedule development and the move days,
groups have the in-house expertise, best you will spend far more time and effort on
practices, tools, and analysis capabilities of a this area than anywhere else.
DCR specialist firm.
4. Budget – A DCR is expensive, very
The relocation specialist team will also know expensive if what you are relocating or
how to manage the details, from project startup consolidating is a major facility. The DCR
through planning and to the actual move. The budget must adequately cover new
DCR SME’s will be able to coordinate the work construction, renovation, site closure,
of many third parties, including: equipment, staff, tools, and outside
expertise from vendors and DCR
• Vendors specialists.
• Insurance
• Security Managing the budget and keeping your
• Transport executive management well informed are
• Equipment de-certification & re-certification major challenges.
• DR/COB
5. RFPs, SOWs & Contracts – Vague RFPs
And many other aspects of the project that will make for poor SOWs. Poor SOWs make
enable the DCR project manager to achieve his for terrible contracts. Take the time to
or her objectives. work with DCR specialists right from the
start to develop the right RFPs and
Statements of Work (SOWs) for your
project.

6. Use the DCR Specialists – Selection of 9. Backup The Data – Your backup media
the right type of DCR specialist for each will work (it ALWAYS does, you NEVER
critical area is important. But, do you need have problems), but just in case it doesn’t
one single company to do it all? this time, you need to have a recovery
plan.
That depends on you. If your internal DCR
teams lack specialist skills, whether in And that plan must be thoroughly tested,
planning, schedule (Move Domain & Move with practice runs conducted at regular
Days) development, or equipment de- intervals during the detailed planning
installation, moving, and re-installation, phase.
then you will need to acquire the services
of a number of specialists. Virtualization tools can be utilized here to
host systems remotely. But even there, a
Whether your primary DCR vendor states DCR-based recovery plan is essential.
it or not, all of them use partners because And it’s not the master DR/COB plan that
nobody can be the best at every aspect of everyone has, but too few organizations
such a complex process. Select the best test enough to assure that it will function
planners first; they can help you choose as expected when required.
the ideal movers and other professional
services required. 10. Migrate – when it’s time to move, stop
planning and move. This is the moment
7. Plan the Move, Move On Plan – Moving when careful planning and capable project
equipment is a critical part of the project. management result in flawless Move Days.
Systems must be broken down, packed,
transported, re-assembled, tested, and re- When everything has been relocated or
certified by the vendors. consolidated, the old systems retired, and
the vendors have re-certified their
Racks and other equipment support products, you can take that well-earned
systems must be ready, utilities and vacation day.
communication services need to be ready,
and people have to be migrated from And then get ready for the next big project
where they are now to where they will be. because Management now has a better
understanding of the business value of
8. Prepare the New Facility, Close the Old great project management.
One - Inspections of any new or
renovated data center must focus on more
than the technology being installed.
You must ensure that fire suppression

systems are ready, tested and approved.
Cooling systems must be adequate for
projected growth. Utilities must be in place
and operational. And, the place must be
clean – very clean.
While you are necessarily focused on the

destination, you must also do what is
necessary to de-commission equipment
that won’t move and close the old data
center facility.

A key part of any successful DCR is the
updated, tested, and thoroughly practiced
DR/COB Plan. Why?
Because, should anything go wrong in your

migration, the DR/COB plan developed for the
DCR will tell you what to do to get back on
schedule.
DCR & Disaster Recovery
If you are new to recovery planning, make sure

that you research the subject thoroughly before
embarking on a disaster recovery project for
your DCR project.
Consider engaging a consultant (internal or

external to your organization) to help you in
DCR PrePlanning & Disaster your project planning effort.
Recovery / Continuation of
Like the DCR, disaster recovery planning is
Business (DR/COB) not a two-month project, neither is it a project
that once completed, you can forget about.
Disclaimer The key point we want to make in this section

is that the master DR/COB plan for your
organization is not necessarily going to be the
The following project outline is provided right solution for the DCR project. You should
solely as a guide. It is only intended to be consider adapting it to the specific needs of
"one example" of requirements for a your DCR project.
disaster recovery project plan. It is not, by
any stretch of the imagination, the only way
A key difference between a “master” DR/COB
to set up a DR/COB project plan for DCRs.
plan and those activities specific to a DCR
recovery plan is the concept of “availability.”
A DCR project has been likened to a We’ll provide an overview of that area later in
“controlled’ disaster recovery. While an this section.
exaggeration in many ways, the analogy
demonstrates that data center relocations (and
There are, naturally, many overlaps. But the
major consolidations) must never be planned in
goals are different enough that the master plan
a vacuum, or with less than the best talent
just might not be all that helpful if things go
available.
bad.
This section of the Guide presents this subject
at a high level only. While the subject of To appreciate these important differences, we
recovery is critical to any successful DCR need a quick overview of the basic components
project, it is best done by subject matter of a DR/COB plan. Then, we’ll discuss how
experts. you adapt it to DCR projects through a focus
on “availability” planning.

DR/COB for DCRs DCR Business Resumption Plan
Disaster Recovery solutions can be presented
in the form of a Disaster Recovery The primary objective of a DR/COB Plan for the
Architecture Blueprint (DRAB). enterprise is to enable your organization to
recover faster and to resume normal business
The DRAB is the over-arching IT document that operations when something goes terribly wrong
includes the DR Plan, the DR Solution, the DR during the normal course of business
Operations Process, and the DR Test Plans operations.
(see table below).
• Triggers for implementing the plan can be
The DR/COB plan is your insurance policy, so natural disasters such as floods and
keep up the premiums. An effective recovery storms.
plan is a living recovery plan and must be • Social disasters can include terrorism, civil
maintained and tested/exercised regularly. unrest, and disease epidemics.
• Technical disasters can be the result of
Program Description infrastructure failures such as power or
Pre-Planning Activities communications outages.
Vulnerability Assessment
DCR Requirements Regardless of the cause, when the DR/COB
Business Impact Analysis plan is triggered, fast deployment and quick
Detailed Requirements Definition recovery is essential. The organization must
DCR (DR/COB) Plan Development assure that critical operations can resume
Testing/Simulation Program normal processing within a reasonable time
Maintenance Program frame.
Initial Plan Testing and Plan
Implementation However, the primary objective of a DCR
Planning Scope & Objectives DR/COB plan is to enable fast restoration of
Project Organization and Staffing critical services after a move. This may seem
Project Control to be an arbitrary difference, but it is important.
Schedule of Deliverables
Resource Requirements NOTE: Check and re-check your data backup
procedures and media. Nothing is more
Adapting the “master” DR/COB process and disruptive that needing to restore tapes, only to
plan to fit a DCR role is one of the more discover that they don’t work as expected.
important tasks that you must do.
This is a “standard” outline for an enterprise DR/COB plan. It must be re-

• DRAB focused, with a narrowed scope, for use in developing a plan suitable for
DCR projects.
Disaster Recovery Plan – Document that outlines (at a high-level) the
o DR Plan process of implementing the DR solution in accordance with pre-
established DR requirements.
Disaster Recovery Solution – The disaster recovery

DR Solution method(s)/process/tools presented in the DR Plan in meeting customer’s
DR requirements; for example, using OVSM to replicate data.
Implementation Implementation Plan – A component of the DR Plan, it outlines the Step-

Plan by-step process of building the DR Solution.
Disaster Recovery Operations – Document that describes the step-by-

o DR Operations Plan step DR failover process in the event of a disaster. The document also
presents the fallback (recovery back to production) process as well.
Disaster Recovery Test Plans - Document that describes the process

and procedure in testing the DR Plan. It addresses test goals, strategies,
o DR Test Plans and acceptance criteria.

The primary objective of the DRAB blueprint is
to provide (in a cost-effective and timely
manner) continued services to the Business in
the event of a disaster.
DR/COB Methodology for
Therefore, the goals of the DRAB are:
DCR
Identify weaknesses and implement a
disaster solution Leverage the organization’s master DR/COB
Minimize the duration of a serious methodology, but refocus it on narrower
disruption to business operations requirements. When implementing your
Facilitate effective co-ordination of methodology, consider the following key points:
recovery tasks
Reduce the complexity of the recovery
effort Be sure that Management understands the
effort required to develop and maintain an
It is important to note that the DRAB is a living effective recovery plan during and after the
document. Both the information processing DCR migration event(s)
and the business environments are constantly Define recovery requirements from the
changing and becoming more integrated and perspective of restoring business functions
complex. quickly
Document the impacts of an extended
Recovery plans must keep pace with these downtime on operations and key business
changes. Continuous testing/exercising of functions
plans is essential if the business wants to Focus on risk identification and mitigation
ensure that recovery capability is maintained in to minimize the above impacts
such an environment. Build your DCR DR/COB project teams so
that a balance between I.T. and business
The business also must ensure that staff participation is achieved
members with recovery responsibilities are Produce a DCR DR/COB plan that is
prepared to execute the plans. understandable, easy to implement and
maintain
Plan for a straightforward transition from
the DCR DR/COB plan to the master plan
once the project is completed
Who Should Do The DCR
DR/COB Plan?
The I.T security group is usually assigned the
responsibility for providing disaster and
contingency planning. But for a DCR, this may
result in recovery plans that are not fully
responsive to the needs of the business during
a relocation project.
Within the context of the DCR, recovery

planning is foremost a business issue. Only
secondarily is it an I.T. problem.
The development of an effective DCR recovery

strategy must be a cooperative effort between
I.T. and business. Key members of the
planning team should include operations,
communications, as well as users of these
systems.

Such a plan requires the cooperation of
management from all areas of I.T., as well as
every key business area that is supported by
I.T.
Since recovery planning is a very complex and

labor intensive process, it requires the
commitment of technical and business staff, as
well as appropriate funding.
Incorporation of DR/COB planning for your

DCR project should begin in the pre-planning
phase. It is here where you define key
objectives, identify the important risks, and
sketch out recovery strategies.
A detailed coverage of an appropriate DR/COB

Phase 1: Detailed
methodology for DCR is beyond the scope of Requirements Definition
this Guide, but at a very high level, it might look
like this: During this phase, a profile of recovery
requirements (including two key driving
• Project Initiation elements: (RTO & RPO) and a risk analysis will
o Scope be developed.
o Budget
o Staffing This profile will be used as a basis for building
o Risk Assessment and implementing the recovery and must be
o Security Assessment completed prior to starting the DRAB.
• Requirements Definition
Some key elements of the profile that will be
• Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
considered and defined are:
• DCR DR/COB Plan Development
• Test/Simulation
• Implementation Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
• Continuity/Maintenance
A business impact analysis, as well as the
calculated cost of downtime, provides insights
In this Guide, we will cover these only at a high into the Recovery Time Objective (RTO), an
level for informational purposes only. DR/COB important statistic in business continuity
specialists should be consulted for more planning.
detailed insight into your environment.
It is defined as the maximum amount of time
The Requirements Definition phase is where that an IT-based business process can be
the DCR plan will begin to differ from the down before the organization starts suffering
“master” DR/COB plan. significant material losses.
RTO indicates the downtime tolerance of a

In addition to standard PMI project definition
business process or an organization in general.
and management practices, the proposed DCR
project plan will consist of the following, not
This tolerance is proportional to the mission-
necessarily mutually exclusive, phases
critical nature of the business, e.g. a stock
described below:
exchange system would have a RTO of nearly
or equal to zero.

Guiding Principles for Recovery Point
Objectives
• Recovery Point Objectives are defined as

the maximum amount of data loss
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) (expressed in time) a system, application,
or business process can tolerate following
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is another a catastrophic failure or outage.
important statistic for business continuity
planning and is calculated through an effective • Recovery Point Objectives are established
business impact analysis. based on the certainty that data loss will
occur in a catastrophic event or outage.
It is defined as the maximum amount of data Data loss is defined as any
an IT-based business process may lose before data/transaction that was processed but
causing detrimental harm to the organization. unrecoverable following an unexpected
interruption.
RPO indicates the data-loss tolerance of a
business process or an organization in general.
• Recovery Point Objectives are assigned by
This data loss is often measured in terms of
the business owner. Establishing recovery
time, for example, 5 hours or 2 days worth of
point objectives requires collaboration with
data loss.
supporting technology, business
continuity, and LOB process groups.
To use the stock exchange as an example -
where millions of dollars worth of transactions
• Recovery Point Objectives can impact the
occur every minute - one can expect that an
Recovery Time Objectives depending on
RPO of zero would be ideal (note that RPO
an individual application’s requirements to
does not include the loss of data in transit), and
recreate lost data before making the
that, with proper design, this objective is
application available to the customers.
possible if the target recovery site is within 50
miles of the production data center.
• Lines of business need to ensure their
Unfortunately, in the case of financial technology partners have documented a
institutions, based on the events of 9/11, the way to identify the amount of data loss
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and after a catastrophic failure or outage.
the Federal Reserve Board modified their
position around proximity risk based on • Lines of business need to document the
geographic location. recovery steps to recreate the lost data or
acknowledge the data will not be
In other words, Disaster Recovery data center recovered.
sites and Productions data centers distances
must be greater than 200 miles. • Existing processes will be utilized to
assure consistency and provide
Because present replication technologies oversight in the assignment and
cannot reliably accommodate an RPO of zero maintenance of the recovery objectives.
at those distances – there will be some
inevitable data loss that must be planned for.

Risk Analysis (RA) Other Profile Elements
RA identifies the risks that a DRAB must These will include, but are not limited to,
minimize; there are three elements to consider: HW/SW, data (financials, personal, etc…),
threats, assets, and mitigating factors. security (physical and logical), external feeds,
application bindings, facilities, personnel, etc…
Threats/Disasters are events or situations
(scenarios) that would cause financial or
operational impact to the organization.
These are measured in probabilities, such as

"may occur one time in 10 years.” Each threat Phase 2 Plan Development
has a projected duration of time that the
business or operation would not be able to
& Maintenance Program
function in its normal manner, if at all.
During this phase, recovery solution
components will be defined and documented.
Typically there are two types of disasters – 1)
Natural disasters such as storms, i.e.
This phase also includes:
Hurricanes, earthquakes, etc… and 2) man-
made ones such as computer viruses, human
• Identification and implementation of
error (mistakes in system administration),
changes to user procedures
terrorism, etc.
• Upgrading of existing data processing
Both of these types of disasters manifest as operating procedures (e.g. backup
physical and data access disasters. procedures, patching, etc…) required to
support the selected recovery strategy
Assets are composed of the physical assets • Vendor contract negotiations (with
that are owned by the organization and its suppliers of recovery services, i.e. Telco,
financial assets as well. DNS services, etc…)
• Definition of Recovery Teams, their roles
Revenues lost for the duration of the incident, and responsibilities
additional costs to recover, fines and penalties • Initial Disaster Recovery Operations will
incurred, lost good will or competitive also be developed during this phase
advantages are each necessary components in
the assets figure. Maintenance of the plans is critical to the
success of an actual recovery. The plans must
Mitigating Factors are the protection devices, reflect changes to the environments that are
safeguards, and procedures in place that supported by the plans.
reduce the effects of the threats. They do not
reduce the threat; they only reduce the effect of It is critical that existing change management
the threat. processes are revised to take recovery plan
maintenance into account.
Examples of mitigating factors in use include:
• Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS)

• Generator backups for replacement power
• Advanced fire suppression systems to
control the spread of fire
• Access card readers to control physical
access to company space.
• Remote recovery sites

Phase 3 Proof of Concept,
Research, and
Implementation
Proof of concept testing and implementation
strategies will be developed during this phase.
Once plans are developed, tests of the plans

will be conducted and any necessary
modifications to the DRAB made based on an
analysis of the test results. Thereafter the
plans will be implemented.
Phase 4 Testing/Exercising
Program
Adapting DR/COB to DCR
The planned Testing/Exercising Program will
be developed during this phase. It is at this point in the adaptation of your
Testing/exercising goals will be established organization’s DR/COB plans for the DCR
and alternative testing strategies evaluated. project that you should engage your
organization’s DR/COB, Information Security,
Testing strategies tailored to the computing Legal, and other teams.
and business environment will be selected, and
an on-going testing program will be
established. You should also have (by now) identified and
engaged the equipment, application, and
As the recovery operations strategies are services vendors - and technical SMEs that will
defined, specific testing procedures will be be necessary to ensure project success.
developed to ensure that the written plans are
comprehensive and accurate. And, naturally, the business units, end-user
management, and key customers that will be
directly impacted by the relocation or
consolidation should already be well-
represented on the DCR “pre-planning” teams.
And, if these are not, why aren’t they?
Phase 5 DR Test Plan
Execution Any master DR/COB plan must be adapted to
the specific requirements of a DCR. A key
In this phase, the blueprint will be tested. The area of difference between the two plans is that
approach taken to test the blueprint depends, while the enterprise DR/COB plan is intended
in large part, on the recovery strategy and to last forever, the DCR DR/COB plan ends
availability of resources for both infrastructure when the DCR project ends.
and personnel.
To better understand how and why this DCR
In addition, testing will be adapted to the target adaptation happens, let’s address two key
environment to minimize disruption to points: Availability, and Recoverability.
production environment.

Understanding Availability
and Recoverability
Availability
Within a Data Center - The ability of a
component or service to perform its required
function at a stated instant or over a stated
period of time.
Routine – These are business/technical

interruptions that are part of every-day
processing and are mitigated and returned to
normal delivery.
Examples include failed component,

operator error, and failed change
implementation.
Non-Routine – These are events or a chain of Recoverability

events that interrupt, cause slowdown, or
completely halt processing or service delivery
Between Data Centers, i.e. DR - The process
unexpectedly.
of restoring business services after a disruption
of service by transferring Information
Examples include CPU slowdown, denial
Technology (IT) resources to secondary or
of service attacks, and viruses.
backup locations.
Characteristics Catastrophic/Extraordinary – These are the

effects of a natural, technical, or human
• Routine or non-routine events disaster that would warrant the enterprise, or
• Technology can be employed to reduce impacted part of the enterprise, to operate in a
the potential data loss to almost zero disaster recovery mode.
• Availability objectives and capabilities are
addressed in systems design and are used Examples include natural disasters
by technology partners and data center failures.
• Availability objectives are demonstrated by
achieving and maintaining service level Characteristics
agreement
• Catastrophic/extraordinary events
• Technology can be employed to reduce
the data loss to a minimal amount
• Recovery objectives and capabilities are
addressed in systems design and are used
by technology and business continuity
partners
• Recovery time objectives and capabilities
are validated through annual testing

The following two Key Principles are
important concepts to be understood before
determining availability levels:
• Availability is different and completely

unrelated to Disaster Recovery / RTO
determinations
The business lens used for what would be Measure, Test, Trends
reasonable to accept in a “true disaster” has no
relevance in normal processing. Capacity planning for any data center
environment is generally defined as the:
• Availability is not purely the
Production Service Level Agreement
for an individual application • Measurement of present systems loads
• Tests for anticipated loads
The objective for this activity is to measure the • Analysis of usage trends over time
services being provided (which could depend • Determination of projected needs and cost
on multiple applications being functional).
The objective for DCR capacity analysis and
From a move perspective – we would rely on planning is to determine two things: how much
the availability design of a system to recover usable systems and data storage capacity is
from a disaster during a move. available before and after the move; and how
fast the infrastructure is growing.
These two measurements can then be useful in

determining the functional design of your new
DCR & Data Center Capacity facility, as well as indicating to Management
the velocity of budget changes over time.
Planning
The goal of this activity is to more accurately
This section will provide a brief overview of project computer and data resources that will
capacity planning and its role in a data center be needed at some point in the future.
relocation or consolidation project.
Tools & Techniques
No DCR pre-planning exercise would be valid
without some consideration of capacity analysis
The use of a variety of tools and methods can
and planning. However, a detailed discussion
help to automate as many of the tasks as
of capacity planning for DCR is outside the
possible and reduce IT workloads.
scope of this Guide.
In the mainframe and enterprise server

If you are relocating a data center to a new
environment, systems are expensive and
facility, this is an ideal time to determine how
purchasing cycles must be allocated over
fast you are expanding your information
several budget cycles. Capacity planning is
processing requirements; whether the planned
crucial to the longer term budget planning
facility will be large enough to handle current
needs of the organization.
and projected needs; and where capacity
bottlenecks are likely to appear in the near
term. In the “generic” server farm environment,
capacity planning horizons are as short as
three to six months; and often much less -
especially when management needs to act on
new business opportunities, implement
regulatory mandates, or close M&A activity.

As more organizations develop regional data
centers, both in response to new Federal and
state regulations and to exploit business
opportunities, the role of capacity planning for
Winging I.T. Capacity Planning
data center relocations and consolidation
increases in value. What kind of capacity planning is appropriate
for a DCR? Do you need to engage in a
lengthy and expensive analysis, using the
Enterprise systems capacity management and
latest solutions, with a similarly large
planning has been a staple of Fortune 500
commitment by your I.T. staff?
companies for a long time, and they are more
likely to commit the budget, staff and tools to
get the job done right. The best way to understand what is really
needed for DCR capacity planning is to look at
what it will be used for. It’s a high level
For the mid-range data center, the availability
assessment of current capacity and projected
and cost for suitable capacity planning
data center capacity growth rates in key areas.
solutions and subject matter expertise have
become affordable.
Think of it as analogous to building an
interstate highway map for driving cross-
For the smallest data centers, the process is
country vs. a topographic map useful for
just as useful; and free tools are available
backpacking in the wilderness.
online.
The level of detail that you need for the

Of course, capacity planning still takes a
highway map is much less than that which is
considerable amount of IT staff time. That is
required for the topo map – even though the
why too many I.T. groups simply opt for
area covered by the highway map is far larger.
acquiring additional hardware and software
when performance starts to suffer.
For the DCR project, you are building the
equivalent of a highway map or schematic that
It takes far less time and the results aren’t that
will provide high level capacity requirements for
different from the detailed analysis approach,
the new facility, with sufficient room to grow for
especially for the smaller or departmental data
the next several years. That’s all.
center.
DCR Capacity Planning Process
The process appropriate to the DCR pre-

planning phase should be simple and results
should be presented at a high level. This is an
approximation, not street-level details. Also,
keep in mind that it isn’t necessary to perform
every task all the time.
The process for estimating capacity planning

for a data center relocation or consolidation
may look like this:
Load testing – This should be one of the first

tasks that you do, particularly for any new
services or for critical systems before you move
them.

You need data to work with to develop a load
testing program. Getting the right data can be
a challenge, but this is how you find out how a Your business users may not be able to tell,
system or application behaves under different with the required level of detail, what their
loads. Be sure to check periodically to make usage levels or even peak load periods will be
sure you have the right capacity, or to flag work (other than the usual EOM, EOQ “freeze”
scheduling, or other load impacts. periods.)
Monitor Triggering Events – Even in the best- Trend analysis of past usage data is helpful,
run environments, rapid change can occur. but any recent growth spurts or M&A are likely
Sometimes you have to add capacity quickly. to reduce the usefulness of projects based on
DCR pre-planning should include the prior data.
development of scenarios and risk mitigation
plans to cope with doing this efficiently. In conclusion, keep your DCR capacity
planning simple and appropriate to the
Consolidation – This activity is useful when planning phase that you are in. Expect to
you are looking for ways to combine CPU and invest only the time for planning that is in line
network workloads. Consolidations here can with the expected outcome.
save money on software licensing and
equipment costs. The same advice is also appropriate for other
aspects of DCR “pre-planning” – keep it as
More relevant for a DCR project, capacity- simple as possible, but not simpler than
driven consolidations mean that you will have necessary.
fewer things to move – and a deeper
understanding of what’s in the box when you
do move I.T.
Trend Analysis - It seems rather pointless to

do all the work required to move to a larger
data center if the new facility will reach its
capacity in less time than it will take to earn a
return on the investment.
Look at the long-term usage trends to develop

projections about which systems will exceed
capacity or cross the margin of comfort needed
to maintain an operational cushion before your
absolute capacity limits are approached.
Use Modeling Tools – Well developed

capacity modeling and load simulation tools
can yield more precise information on usage
and help define specific configurations for your
expected workloads.
Use modeling tools for high priority services,

but resist the urge to “make a science project”
out of it.

1
23
PMCA’s DCR Project
Pre-Planning Templates:
Available Now
Pre-Planning Communication Plan Template (Excel)

Pre-Planning Project Initiation Presentation (PowerPoint)
Pre-Planning Issues Assessment Template (Excel)
Pre-Planning Equipment Inventory Assessment Template (Excel)
Pre-Planning Application Inventory Assessment Template (Excel)
Pre-Planning DR/COB Assessment Template (Excel)
Pre-Planning Organizational Matrix Template (Excel)
Pre-Planning Task List Template (Excel, Project)
DCR Pre-Planning Guides

Several complementary DCR pre-Planning guides are under development. Please
check back with us at www.pmca-us.com for information on subjects and availability
Each template or guide has instructions on how to use it and what role it plays in the
pre-planning cycle.
To get the PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide templates, simply register at

www.pmca-us.com with your name, title, corporate email, and phone number.
Or, call us at:
1.954.962.9864

Planning Your Data Center Relocation Project?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a partner who had expertise based on years of experience
relocating data centers very much like yours? PMCA can help. When choosing an
outside resource to help, there are a few things you need to check.
How long has this resource been around?

Will they provide one point of contact for all the different aspects of the project?
Are their partners certified to do the work?
Is your resource comfortable in a heterogeneous environment?
Will your resource put you first?
Will you get the level of experience and technical mastery that your DCR project
requires for low-risk, high-value success?
Now that you have a better understanding about the data center relocation and
consolidation “pre-planning” role in enterprise I.T., it’s time to go start up your own DCR
pre-planning activities.
Good luck and be sure to contact us for the Template Kit – and to learn more about how
PMCA can help you succeed.
PM CONSULTANTS & ASSOCIATES, INC.
Choosing the right DCR project planners and approach is the single most important thing
you can do to reduce risk, stay on budget, and assure success.
PM Consultants & Associates, Inc. (PMCA) delivers projects within demanding schedule
and budget constraints for Fortune 500 clients.
PMCA also provides Senior Data Center Relocation, Migration, and Consolidation
Project Planners and Managers to leading I.T. Consulting firms worldwide.
PMCA offers complete Project Management services, including Consolidation, Migration,

and Relocation planning, Disaster Recovery, and Business Continuity planning for your data
centers and other I.T. infrastructure projects.
PMCA Data Center Relocation Planning services are used by the Fortune 100,
government, and leading I.T. consulting firms, because we are globally recognized DCR
specialists.
PMCA’s DCR and Consolidation specialists have worked in every major industry and for
most of the Fortune 100 (and many government agencies) over the past twenty+ years. For
more information, contact us at: www.pmca-us.com, or call us at 954.962.9864

PMCA’s DCR Pre-Planning Template Kit
(available now)
DCR Pre-Planning Project Communication Plan

This template provides an outline structure for organizing the communication plan for
your DCR project. Customize it as required. Provided in the Excel 1997-2003
format.
DCR Pre-Planning Project Initiation Presentation

This template provides an outline structure for organizing the DCR pre-Planning
activities, and presenting that to the Stakeholders. Customize it as required.
Provided in the PowerPoint 1997-2003 format.
DCR Pre-Planning Issues Assessment

This template provides an outline structure for organizing the communication plan for
your DCR project. Customize it as required. Provided in the Excel 2003 format.
DCR Pre-Planning Inventory Assessment

These two templates (Equipment, Applications) provide an outline structure for
organizing the Inventory Assessment plan for your DCR project. Customize them as
required. Provided in the Excel 1997-2003 format.
DCR Pre-Planning DR/COB Assessment

This template provides an outline structure for organizing the DR/COB Assessment
for your DCR project. Customize it as required. Provided in the Excel 1997-2003
format.
DCR Pre-Planning Organizational Matrix

This template provides an outline structure for documenting the Operational matrix
for your data center’s DCR project. Customize it as required. Provided in the Excel
1997-2003 format.
DCR Pre-Planning Task List

This template provides an outline structure for documenting the tasks required for a
detailed DCR or Consolidation “pre-planning” activity. Customize it as required.
Provided in the Excel 1997-2003 and Project 2003 format.

NOTES:

PMCA DCR “PrePlanning Checklist Overview
You’re now ready to begin. First, here is a more detailed checklist to help you
get better organized for the critical DCR Pre-Planning phase.
Pre-Planning means those key activities and dependent tasks necessary before
you begin the arduous process of detailed project planning.
You’re setting the stage here to ensure later project success, so resist the
temptation to skip this phase.
Start by putting these tasks into a “pre-planning” project plan (or, order the FREE
PMCA DCR Template Kit), but keep in mind that, at this phase, your
objective is to determine the high-level scope, estimated budget, and
resource requirements for the project. The highly detailed system-by-system
and application-by-application analysis and planning comes later:
The key areas to focus on in preparation for a data center relocation or major
systems and application consolidation include:
Project sponsorship & leadership

DCR planning & risk assessment
Legal, mandates & regulations
Project management and execution
Budget & financial controls
Technology & vendors
I.T. management, process, staff
Capacity Planning
Facilities & infrastructure
Security
DR/COB plans
Each of these areas will require considerable effort and resources to identify,
analyze, document, develop appropriate solutions, project manage, and evaluate
outcomes. This checklist is a high-level reminder of the key areas that will
require your attention throughout the project.


Detailed DCR PrePlanning Checklist
Page 1
Business Case
o Business Case Preparation
o Executive Sponsorship
o Project Leadership
o Business Unit Liaisons
o Legal & Regulatory Management
o Financial Controls & Budget Management
o I.T. Operations & Technology Leadership
o Vendors & Services Providers
o DCR Specialists
Communication Plan
o Executive Communications Plan
o Enterprise Communications Plan
o Business Unit Communications Plans
o I.T. Operations Communications Plan
o DCR Project Communications Plan
o External Stakeholder Communications Plan
o DR/COB Communications Plan
Risk Assessment
o Business Risks
o Operations Risks
o Facilities Risks
o Infrastructure Risks
o Technology Risks
o Resource Risks
o External Factors Risks
o Project Risks
o Budget Risks
o Unknown/Orthogonal (at present) Risks
Financial Analysis & Management

o Project Budget Development & Approval
o Financial Controls
o Financial Risk Management (project budget cuts & delays)
Key Stakeholders
o Business Units
o I.T.
o Customers
o Vendors
o External, Other
Legal, Regulatory Stakeholders

o Legal & Regulatory Stakeholders
o Mandates
o Contract Administration
Project Sponsor
o Executive
o Business Units
o I.T. Operations
o Project

Detailed DCR Pre-Planning Checklist
Page 2
Project Management Scope

o Enterprise Program Management
o DCR Project Management
o DCR Domain Management Teams
Hardware
Applications
Networks
Facilities
o Key Domain Inventories
Hardware
Applications
Networks
Other
o Vendor Contacts
Hardware
Software
Services
Facilities Management
o Current Site(s)
De-Commissioning
Renovation & Rehabilitation
o New Site(s)
Construction
Renovation
I.T. Operations Management

o Data Center Operations
DCR Policies & Procedures (including SLAs)
Systems Deployment Policies & Procedures
Systems Retirement Policies & Procedures
Operational Readiness Methodologies
Operations & Facilities Processes
o Data Center Change Management

Consolidation Processes
New Installation Processes
Migration Processes
New Data Center Facilities Commissioning Processes
Facilities De-Commissioning Processes
o Data Center DR/COB Management

Primary Site
Recovery Site
Regional Sites
International Sites
Mobile Data Centers

Page 3
Data Center Relocation Management & Methodologies

o Capacity Requirements (current)
o Capacity Requirements (new)
o Data Requirements
o System Configuration Requirements
o Target Applications
o License Requirements
o Vendor Support (virtualized)
o OS compatibility Issues
o HVAC & Power Requirements
o Facilities Impacts (is there room to add the new equipment before the old is de-
commissioned & removed?)
o Technical Services
o Virtualization Platforms & Solutions
o Applications (new OS or hardware)
o LAN
o Data Storage
o DR/COB
Data Center Consolidation Management & Methodologies

o Capacity Requirements (current)
o Capacity Requirements (new)
o Data Requirements
o System Configuration Requirements
o Target Applications
License Requirements
Vendor Support (virtualized)
OS compatibility Issues
o HVAC & Power Requirements
o Facilities Impacts (is there room to add the new equipment before the old is de-
commissioned & removed?)
o Technical Services
o Virtualization Platforms & Solutions
o Applications (new OS or hardware)
o LAN
o Data Storage
o DR/COB
Application Management
o Enterprise Applications
Internally Developed Applications
• IBM Host
• Server
• Network
• Externally Hosted
• Web
COTS (commercial Off-The-Shelf) Applications
ERP
CRM
Database
Financial
Operations
HR
Sales
Other

Page 4
o Departmental Applications
• IBM Host
• Server
• Network
• Web
ERP
CRM
Database
Financial
Operations
HR
Sales
Other
o User / Productivity Applications

• IBM Host
• Server
• Network
• Web
Email & IM
Database
Financial
Desktop Productivity (MS Office, etc.)
Other
Key I.T. Management Domains

o Mainframe/Host
Systems
Environmental Factors
Vendors
DR/COB
Migration Analysis
Consolidation Analysis
o Servers
Systems
Vendors
DR/COB
Migration Analysis
Consolidation Analysis
o Attached DASD
Systems
Vendors
DR/COB

Page 5
o SAN/NAS
Systems
Vendors
DR/COB
o Data Storage (Auto Tape, Optical, etc.)

Systems
Vendors
DR/COB
o Printers (Enterprise, Specialized, Departmental, Local)

Systems
Vendors
DR/COB
o Data/LANs
Intranets
Internet
Wireless Access Points
Mobile Web
o Voice
Telephone Utility
PABX
IP Phones
Wireless
o Specialized Facilities & Equipment

Remittance & Bill Processing Systems
Mailrooms
Bulk Printing
Call Centers
Manufacturing Management & Control Systems
Shipping & Logistics Systems
o Other Systems
DR/COB & Security

o DR/COB Plan Adapted to DCR Project Requirements
o Security Plan Adapted to DCR Requirements
o Emergency Services & Hospital

Page 6
Utilities
o Communications Vendors
Telephone (Voice/Data)
Multiple-Grid Services
Cable, Satellite
o Waste Management Services
Public
Commercial
o Water /Sewer
Public
Commercial
o Electrical
Utilities
Self-Generated
Co-Generation
Multiple-Grid Services
o Natural Gas
o Diesel / Propane
o Renewable
Other (list)

DCR Project Management Checklist
While a detailed coverage of DCR project management practices and methodologies is outside the
scope of this Guide, this checklist will help focus your attention on the importance of relying on
accepted PM standards.
DCR Project Lifecycle

Project Integration Management
Time Management
Cost Management
Quality Management
Human Resources Management
Communication Management
Risk Management
Procurement Management
Vendor Management
The size of your DCR project will determine the structure of the PM team.
For a large enterprise initiative – or one that will have global activity - you should implement the
PMI Program Office model: an overall program manager will coordinate the activities of project
managers.
Project managers should be assigned to each key domain and/or location (in multi-site DCR’s).
Domains might include:
Mainframe/Host complexes
Server farms
DASD and Storage systems
Specialized equipment
Outsourced systems and services
Procurement and Logistics
Facilities
Voice/Data, etc.
The all-too-common practice of assigning one PM to run the entire project may work for small
efforts. But, a large DCR will need a dedicated PM team.

For Information, contact:
PM Consultants & Associates, Inc.

1737 NW 72 nd Way
Pembroke Pines, FL 33024
Email:
DCRguide@pmca-us.net
Or
Info@pmca-us.net
Phone: 1.954.962.9864
www.pmca-us.com
This Guide and the DCR Template Kit were created by senior members of
PMCA’s DCR leadership team. Authors: John Sarazen and Pete Bouvier.
Contributors: William Cserjes, Burl Minnis, Jerry Seay, Peter Jacklin, and
Robert Kuplent.


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PM Consultants & Associates, Inc.

The PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide is a “high-level” introduction to Data

www.pmca-us.com - Phone: 1.954.962.9864 - Email: DCRguide@pmca-us.net

PM Consultants & Associates, Inc. © Copyright 2007

Get Yourself DCR-Prepared ......................................................................................................................................... 4

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 2/71

PM CONSULTANTS & ASSOCIATES, INC.

For more information about PMCA’s data center relocation and

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 3/71

The DCR Assessment covers the initial site

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 4/71

DCR’s, by definition, are complex and expensive

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 5/71

DCR Pre-Planning Role The project’s sponsor and technical I.T.

Required technical and business resources,

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 6/71

Second Step: Complete your DCR “pre-planning.” Validate the

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 7/71

But, don’t be reluctant to use the services of a

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 8/71

But, rather, users and business managers, DCR Checklist

3 Third Step: Move everything (systems, applications, networks,

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 9/71

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 10/71

A few poorly-secured server racks fell apart in-

Some of our LANs and remote nodes struggled

But all-in-all, our methodology was adequate,

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 11/71

And anyway, we’d just done “the same thing”

We ‘sold” the CIO and business leads on our

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 12/71

As good as we were, and we were, we kept

This time, we got the big printers in the budget

However, it turned out that we actually

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 13/71

So, we moved everything and segregated what

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 14/71

Or rather, it was in the way that we “didn’t”

One of the more important tasks in a DCR

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 15/71

But this was a critical area of trouble for our

What ultimately emerged was a pattern of

We were simply too good, too confident at

The project was, and remains, a very painful

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 16/71

How Does a DCR Happen?

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 17/71

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 18/71

Reduced power, cooling and floor space also

A future PMCA Guide for Consolidation

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 19/71

Outsourcing and consulting firms are also

Stakeholders can include people not usually

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 20/71

However, don’t confuse an effective DCR

Of course, you’re quickly going to find that

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 21/71

Learn the process (to be expanded on later) at

A good methodology is based on many years

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 22/71

PMCA has experienced DCR planning

PMCA DCR Pre-Planning Guide, v1.05 www.pmca-us.com Phone: 1.954.962.9864 23/71

The key, again and again, to DCR project

• Project management and execution