Maximize business outcomes for your data center relocation
Author: DXC Technology
Relocating infrastructure assets comes with looming deadlines to resume normal operations— especially when consolidating floor space or for a facilities move. But, it presents an opportunity to make other changes in your program. Each additional change can provide benefits; however, it could stretch budgets, complicate work, and put timelines at risk.
You must establish the fundamental outcomes for a data center relocation, understanding what valuable technology refreshes are needed now and which updates you can defer. Work must be segmented into manageable pieces to create a roadmap that includes a data center exit and beyond. You must determine how to:
- Maintain current operations and contribute to the new project
- Work in new ways with multiple partners to meet deadlines
- Identify the type of leadership needed
- Provide incentives and teaming models that drive successful behaviors
- Select a framework to prioritize and target high-value outcomes
- Control where and how change occurs
- Partition and manage risk
- Define scope and assign accountability
- Identify capability gaps
Reconsider the typical assets involved to include application assets. These should be considered with server assets to help avoid business process interruptions. When migrating or transforming applications, there are several treatments to apply: ReHost, Upgrade, Re-Factor, Replace, Re-Architect, or Retire.
In typical organizations, the majority—60 percent to 80 percent—of applications and their related infrastructure can be relocated as infrastructure-led workload migrations rather than more complex transformations. The challenge becomes balancing transformation needs with agility and growth objectives.
It’s important to consider application transformation because there are tactical and strategic options. Your IT team’s challenge is to be stable, yet provide innovative business support.
With this, the selected treatment for an application directly impacts business value generated. It’s crucial to discover upfront which treatment to use for each application. Thus, avoiding rework and false starts. The discovery and planning activities mean request for tender (RFT) processes are better informed and produce more realistic responses for price and schedule.
This understanding of complexity, risk, and costs for each treatment type enables better alignment for business outcomes with your available budget and timeline.
Thinking through and overcoming challenges require you to adopt new approaches. This paper discusses how you can rethink your strategy, maximize your investments, and gain business value.
Download the paper.