Migrating an estate out of an existing Data Centre

Migrating an entire estate out of a Data-Center or Co-Location facility is difficult. The most cited reasons are usually:

~Projects exceed time, budget, migration windows

~End user disruption

~Planning phase usually induces a delay, once the complexity and inter-dependency is properly scoped

~Planning around downtime mitigation can entail a long delay in the migration

~Lack of resources

~Stakeholder conflicts or inattention

~Target operating model and platform not built, not properly understood

 

Process in Migrating a Data Center:

1.Project Plan, IT Business Drivers, Budget

• Define Project Objectives
• Define Success Criteria
• Infrastructure Assessment
• Budget Requirements

 

2.Discovery by SMEs (subject matter experts)

·Set up Agile teams with Apps, Infra, Security working on the same team

·Specific Application team with Infra and Security on board

·Deep dive into Application Infrastructure

·Databases, Apps, documented, understood

·Compute, Network, Storage, documented, understood

·Ranking of Applications, documented, rationale

·Mapping out inter-dependencies, documented, agreed upon

·AD, Domains, LDAP, Security, documented, understood

·Testing and Validation plans by SMEs (based on discovery)

·High Availability, Backup, DR plans made by SMEs

 

3.Development

·Target Model build for networking, security using Agile

·Target Model, apps, databases, compute, storage using Agile

·Migration ranking, planning, using Agile, deliberate ranking/assessment model

·Migration Planning by SMEs, RACI, Approach, Tools, Techniques by App, by Database

·Decision on VMs, vs Containers using a deliberate assessment model

·Design Patterns to provide consistency in migration, deployment inside the migration planning

·High Availability, Backup, DR plans tested and models are built inside the migration planning and target operational model

·Testing and Validation plans for the Target Model

·ITSM, Trouble Ticketing, Support Plan, Systems, Flows, RACI

·Operational Support Plan by SMEs and RACI

·Proof of Concept

·End to End Design made based on Proof of Concept

·Test, Review, Assess the End to End Model with a 2^nd POC

 

4.Validation

·Extend the Proof of concept

·Ensure limited end user impact

·Assess networking, security

·Assess Compute, Storage

·Test, Re-assess application-infra dependencies

·Test, Re-assess application, database functionality, availability

·Test HA, DR

 

5.Migration

·Begin migrations tranche by tranche

·Constantly review, assess

·Have integrated ‘Agile’ teams infra, apps, security

·Ops involved with the migration

·Ops documented

·Test, confirm HA, DR, Access, Usability

 

6.Management

·Project Board to monitor, assess, confirm

·Agile updates, everything done in short sprints, assessed

·Monitoring and reporting is transparent, done with Jira/Confluence or similar

 

7.Operational support

·Steady state support by App, Infra and Operational SMEs

·Limit End User impact

·ITSM and trouble-ticket systems in place, operational beforehand

·Proactive alerts, monitoring, reporting

·Ensure operational excellence and functionality

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