This article will explore relocating your business while securing your IT infrastructure. This article was provided by Brian McDonnell, Anthony Mills and Lou DeCicco of Waytek
Relocating Your Business While Securing Your IT Infrastructure (PDF)
Relocating your business from one location to another can have a positive impact on your company for multiple reasons. You can acquire more room for growth and often can improve productivity and culture, while perhaps saving costs. Like a personal move, however, a business relocation can also be highly stressful.
It is imperative that your company takes the time to form an adequate plan to schedule and budget for the move. When it comes to your IT infrastructure, most companies need professional advice for project management and logistics. It is important to pay attention to business-critical systems, in order to avoid any or little downtime or data loss.
Establish a project team as soon as possible. Those included in the team should be your IT operations experts and representatives from your vendors, such as data companies, telephone companies, applications and technology partners and internet service providers. You should also include key people within your company associated with the move.
The Plan – The most important part of the move is to initiate and implement a Project Plan. The plan is critical to your IT infrastructure and should include a timeline and costs.
- Start early and establish a Checklist that shows how each phase fits into your schedule.
- Engage your IT team early. There is a lot of planning in transitioning IT to a new site. A primary aspect of your move should be the relocation of telecommunication and your IT infrastructure.
- Take an inventory of the systems and infrastructures that will be affected by the move. This includes a thorough change-management policy for your servers and applications.
- Back up all of your data. Make sure that you have a complete and current backup of all of your data
and applications. - Have a Disaster Recovery Plan. It is always possible for unplanned obstacles to occur. Work closely with your providers to schedule build out and installation. Know what to do in a disaster scenario, such as a server not functioning on arrival and how that would be remedied. If you cannot afford down time, you need to have a backup data center that is able to perform all operations while the primary data center is being moved.
- A move is a good opportunity to consider upgrading any technology that is outdated. Do you need to migrate to the Cloud? Could you use better bandwidth? Does your phone system need to be upgraded? Do you need improved devices?
- Review your contracts and service agreements and see where changes need to be made.
- Remember to communicate with your employees every step of the way. They should know what is expected from them and that they are educated in their role in moving your IT infrastructure.
When your team communicates and has realistic expectations, your end result should be successful with
minimal issues. Relocating your business, including your IT infrastructure, should be completed on-time and within budget, enabling you to enjoy the benefits of your new location and improved infrastructure.
Waytek is a premium Managed IT Service Provider offering vertical expertise in such fields as continuing care, law, medical and dental practices. With over twenty years of experience, Waytek brings solutions that enhance productivity, efficiency and security. We stay a step ahead in the area of IT support and services and work to keep you a step ahead of business needs in an ever technology-driven world. Our priority is to align ourselves with your business, in order to understand and meet your needs. As the Wall Street Journal recently noted, “every business is a technology business.” Technology is at the core of changing shifts in productivity and how a business or organization gets its work done. We focus on your IT, so you can focus on your business.
