Our data center move checklist had 3 major parts - what to do before the move, what to do a short time before and at the time of the move, and how to validate that everything was up and running correctly. The advance portion of it included things like notifying customers of the planned downtime, figuring out who’s DNS was where so it could be properly modified at the time of the move, and quite a few others.

The decision to move your IT infrastructure from one data center to another is not one that ever should be taken lightly. There can be a considerable investment in planning time and personnel, and there is usually some downtime unless you have purchased twice as much equipment as is needed to do a live cutover. However, by planning it well you can minimize the negative factors and make the transition painless.