For many companies, the data center is the heart of the operation. More and more businesses are going completely digital, meaning that sensitive and essential information is all stored in the data center. As a company's needs grow, it is not uncommon to need a larger data center, which requires a move to a new location. If your business needs to make a move to a different data center, avoid the following common mistakes:

Lack of Planning

A data center move should not be taken lightly. Facilitating a successful data center move requires attending to a myriad of details. The move can't be planned in days or a couple of weeks-- you should plan on preparing for a data center move for an extended period of time. No matter how eager you are to move your data center, it is much better to take things slowly to help prevent major issues that can cost time and money.

Failure to Put Someone in Charge

Ideally, there should be one qualified person overseeing the entire data center move. When one person is assigned to supervise and organize the data center move, there is less likely to be confusion or miscommunication during the process. The person in charge of the data center move can collaborate with professionals in the IT department to ensure that all relevant tasks are completed in advance of the move.

Forgetting to Back Up Data

It seems obvious, but forgetting to back up data before a move to a new data center is not uncommon. Before any servers or computers are moved, it is absolutely essential to back up all data. Make sure that someone checks the back up to ensure that everything is downloaded properly. While the likelihood of losing all of your data during a move to a new data center is low, it can be catastrophic if it does happen and all files have not been backed up in advance.

Trying to Complete the Move Too Fast

Moving to a new data center can contribute to downtime, which is why many companies rush to get the move done as quickly as possible. However, attempting to move your entire data center and get everything set up in the new location over the course of a weekend can have its own set of problems. Moving a data center in phases can limit the number of mistakes made and allow a company to better schedule downtime.