Lee Armstrong IT project Manager | Interserve Birmingham,, United Kingdom
Good afternoon all, (new to site)
I’ve been tasked to project manage a large data centre move, which will be very complex and I need to provide the relevant designs/plans before proceeding. I was wondering if anybody on this site has had any experience involving DC moves and can advise me of any pit fall (lessons learnt), possible risks and prioritises. I thoughts at present are to create a product flow to analysis the requirements and split the project into work packages
Any suggestions and thoughts you may have will be gratefully received
Thanks in advance
Lee
Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Anonymous
You need to think about building changes (often over-run timeline), delays in getting new equipment on site, outage windows and customer SLA's, overtime, resourcing, leave (annual/sick), knowledge bottlenecks, power, disaster recovery testing, backup processes, business continuity planning, interfaces between servers on site, if vendors/contractors are required, emergency processes (if there is a fire then....)
Lee - I hope your plan is underway and you've gotten your first stakeholder meeting out of the way. I read Craig's note. Clearly a voice of experience. As he mentions - there are many more items that you will need to consider. He mentions a few, and I'd like to elaborate a bit on some of the others. You will need to work backward from your drop dead date to understand what in-scope items you must have on the critical path, and what can be enabled following go-live. Obviously those items concerning the physical plant (heat, light, telecomm, LAN, WAN, power, sq footage, etc) must be present for any enablement. To make a short timeline - enable the smallest amount of function that will allow you to go-live on schedule without ticking off too many of your primary stakeholders. As Craig mentions - obtaining their concurrence on scope will be a critical factor in your success. Lastly - while all of this may seem obvious - if it is a new build DC then please consider hardening the raised floor. Too often Disaster/Business Recovery is added late in the cycle and scheduling generators can be a 6-9month exercise in frustration.... So define all the critical deliverables, put them in a timeline, have your stakeholders approve the scope, start the planning. Have a great time... Saving Changes...
Lee Armstrong IT project Manager | Interserve Birmingham,, United Kingdom
Craig/Donald, thank you. Both comments were very useful (sorry for the late reply). Unfortunately after starting the project the company director has stated this will be managed by a professional project manager with data centre move experience (real kick in the teeth). Thanks again for all your help Saving Changes...
Lee - I wouldn't take it personally - ask if you can work closely with the PM and learn. Most of us here have been where you are now - and survived.
Don Saving Changes...
Lee Armstrong IT project Manager | Interserve Birmingham,, United Kingdom
Donald, sound advice unfortunately I‘ve handed in my notice for pastures new (not because of this reason), I’ll be getting back into larger projects to assist with my PMP preparation. Seasons thanks – Lee Saving Changes...
