At Capital Internet, our data center colocation space is split into two sections. We have recently begun consolidating many of our colocation customers into the section that has more racks that have better cable management. Having room for cable management, as many of you probably know, is often necessary if you don’t want the dreaded “cable spaghetti”. The reason for this consolidation is to make room for one of our newer services to expand. Our dedicated server business is expanding creating a great opportunity for us to consolidate many of our colocation customers and create a setup for our dedicated servers.
Since we have colocation clients from 1 U to full racks, the first step is to gather as much information as possible, to find the most suitable customers for the move; the smaller the customers colocation space is, the easier the move is for the data center and the client, and the client will have less down time. If the data center asks you to move, one thing to remember is that the move will take place at your convenience and the data center will, at least in our case, move the equipment for you if you’d like. So you let the colocation center know when you are willing to move, and that dictates the time and date the move will happen. Remember, if you are asked by the data center to move and would be more comfortable moving your equipment yourself, that can always be arranged with the data center. Another option is to have the data center staff move the equipment for you, but to be present while the move takes place. In any of these situations, the data center staff will be available to help troubleshoot any issues that may arise, and make sure your servers get back online as quickly as possible.
From our side, in the data center, once the move is approved by the customer, it is handled very similarly to a new installation. Power requirements, data drops and rack space needed are all provided at the new rack location and a port is set up to mirror the customer port with the same IP addresses.
Moving your servers from one location to another in a data center may sound like a bit of a hassle. In this case, our customers that are moving will have their servers in a situation where there are more benefits. If your colocation data center asks to move your servers, just remember they are going to make it as fast and worry-free as possible, and any costs associated with the move will be the responsibility of the data center.