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Moving

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Ok, not sure if this is going in the right place, but this seems the most likely place to start:

My office, with its 25 users, 4 servers and 35 workstations are likely moving to a new space this summer. So I want opinions from those who have done moves before on a few issues:

1. What sort of documentation should I be preparing for this? I have already downloaded a moving checklist (thank you TR) and I am sure I am going to need to remake a network map for the new space. What other sorts of documentation should I be looking at creating for this move?

2. What are the issues that I need to be aware of for finish out? I know I will have to cable and install some hardware in general, but when should I be doing this sort of work (or getting contractors to do it really).

3. Movers. I am assuming at this point, that movers will be employed to move the office. Has anyone used any particular movers and do you have recommendations as far as what type of movers to use and what sort of questions to ask to make sure my computer equipment isn’t harmed.

4. What sort of changes did you slip in with the move. Since moving is a time of massive upheaval anyway, I am thinking of slipping in some new items (new monitors to replace old equipment, new desks, etc) as part of the move. What sort of projects and/or modifications were you able to make along with the move and how ambitious should I be with these projects?

Thanks in advance for your input, and if we do end up moving this summer, I may ask for prayer requests for my sanity.

Topic

Moving

In reply to Moving

Will your IP addressing and naming standards going to be the same? If not, you may have a whole West Texas sized can off whoop waiting to go off underneath you if some programmer hard coded an IP address into an application…

I’d have the DR plan available, in the event of an unplanned outage. Then you would have a reference point for beginning recovery operations.

Make sure of all power, network drops, connectivity, etc before planning on moving servers. It never ceases to suprise me the number of bad network drops you can discover in a brand new facility. Plan to have your wiring crew standing by.

Best of luck on your move.

A few ideas

In reply to Moving

First, try to identify any shortcomings in your existing setup. All those times you said “I wish blah blah”. Don’t just repeat the same mistakes.

Have the new network baselined before you get on it. This will help later if you think you are having an issue.

Make sure your server rooms are on their own circuit.
Make sure your server room is cooled.
Make sure your server room is NOT CARPETED.

Decide where SOMEDAY SOMEONE MAY setup a computer or networked printer. Double what you think you NEED now for network. Cable is cheap, having to rerun new lines one at a time isn’t.
Also, if you have or are thinking of IP PHONES, this will DOUBLE your network over night.

Replace any hubs with switches.

Get a good map of the network, and lable your patch pannel.

Pick the best office first!

Do one thing at a time

In reply to Moving

In general — and this means in life, not just in IT — moves go the most smoothly when you concentrate on the move and are not trying to also make some other change at the same time. It’s a time of high emotional stress, there are lots of things that can go wrong, people are not at their best, and you’re not as big an expert about the new place as you were about the one you left.

If you want to change something else at the same time, think long and hard about it before jumping in. You don’t want to be remembered as the guy who screwed up the move by trying to be clever. If anything goes wrong, even if it has nothing to do with you, you will be blamed for it if you tried to add something additional.

Also Moving

In reply to Moving

We are also in the process of relocating office. The company is about the same size as well!

There are a lot of things to consider, and it is best to start at the beginning and go through them. We have the unfortunate situation where we havea time constraint on use to move very quickly so some things are not going as well as we would like.
Anyway since it is an office move can I assume you have someone organsing the lease on new premises? If so then they should form a committee – say that person, the office manager, yourself for IT and comms, and possibly someone on the accountancy side. Why? Well it is like this:
1. The person arranging the new premises will understand what furnishings and fittings are already there and what will be moved or added. Also what needs to be done in the premises you are vacating. You all need to know that for your respective areas. This will help you for wiring, computer room ventilation and power supply, etc.
The Office person will needs to coordinate advising clients and suppliers of the change of address, phone, mail, couriers, as well as order new stationary supplies.
IT will need to know if the new premises need wiring, what is there, what the computer room is, and airconditioning there.
A legal expert should ensure any new leases are really any good, as well as ensuring vacated premises do not cost to rehabilitate to the landlords satisfaction.
Together you can also look, with an architect, at existing equipment and how it will best fit into the new premises. This is not a trivial task.

IT will need to consider timing of swinging existing data and telephone circuits over to the new premises, who your suppliers are to do this, who to call in case anything breaks in transit, when to shut down servers, who the carrier will be, backups to make prior to the move, floor loads in the new premises for rack space, Internet and external data connection providers and users will need advising when the move will be made, DNS and web entries externally may need to be changed (check out anyway), and any arrangements for overtime.

All this has to tie into who who the removal company will be and what they will move and how so ensure the committee checks them out thoroughly.
If the new premises need decoration prior to moving in then sufficient time will be required for that so there are implications on the relocation date. Colors for walls, carpets, curtains, etc may need to be picked out, so ensure your architect helps in this, but do not trust them to make the decisions.
Telephones can be tricky, especially if you have to change provider (which we are doing) so check this out early. A simple change in area code can present all sorts of complications but if they can forward your old location to the new one for a period it may give you some grace period to advise everyone.

Above all act early on everything and do nothing in isolation to others in the company. Keep the other staff aware with weekly updates on progress, and sort out the floor plan and new staff locations early. There will be competition for space and privacy if they can get away with it so ensure you have CEO support for any plans your committee comes up with.

Record and document ever meeting and keep all emails. After it is done you can discard them, but until then it pays to have a record so that decisions are kept to.

Finally book a holiday a week or two after the relocation date for yourself – you are going to need to relax for a week to unwind the stress.

Good luck. I can let you know how we get on or more detail if you wish to contact me direct.

Success

In reply to Also Moving

We moved last Thursday afternoon and, despite heavy traffic between the old and new offices, we completed the main portions within 12 hours. That included taking down the computers, dissambling the racks and base isolators, cutting over all circuits, and rebuilding the entire rack system, racking servers, and getting the LAN up and running.
On Saturday ( Friday was Good Friday) we placed all PC’s on every desk and checked connectivity. In between we had the desks put in place and all power and phone connections in place as well.
The key to the success was the detail of planning we did, including how the racks were to be loaded on arrival, patching schema, phone numbers, signage for staff and visitors, and so on. This made it very easy for contractors to follow and ensured we had few surprises, none that were significant.

Success

In reply to Also Moving

We moved last Thursday afternoon and, despite heavy traffic between the old and new offices, we completed the main portions within 12 hours. That included taking down the computers, dissambling the racks and base isolators, cutting over all circuits, and rebuilding the entire rack system, racking servers, and getting the LAN up and running.
On Saturday ( Friday was Good Friday) we placed all PC’s on every desk and checked connectivity. In between we had the desks put in place and all power and phone connections in place as well.
The key to the success was the detail of planning we did, including how the racks were to be loaded on arrival, patching schema, phone numbers, signage for staff and visitors, and so on. This made it very easy for contractors to follow and ensured we had few surprises, none that were significant.

Thanks to all

In reply to Moving

Thanks to all of you for your advice on this. I am already adjusting my plan and making sure I get to see the space before we sign a new lease (if we sign a new lease).

Thanks a bunch.

Download detailed guide on Moving: An IT Perspective

In reply to Moving

You can download a guide covering every aspect of relocation that involves IT.

http://ataresearch.alltheanalysts.com/infotech/moving_an_IT_perspective.html

Topics covered include:

Communication and planning
Contracts and upgrades
Telephony systems
Server rooms and data centers
Dealing with movers and moving day

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