4 Tips for Moving your IT Infrastructure

Growth in business is a great and exciting thing., moving your IT Infrastructure can be overwhelming. Profits increase, steady workflow and job security for employees helps company morale. However growth can also mean the space your business started in can become too small and suddenly you have logistics issues and determine you have to move to a bigger location. Moving your corporate office to a new location can be a daunting task.

Here are some tips to simplify the task

Hire a consultant to help you design and implement a strategy.

• We recommend reaching out to a telecom consultant like?Agility Communications to design and implement your strategy, coordinate vendors, check availability of services at the new location can save you time and money. The key to any project is to allow enough time to design, plan, and order services from the various providers and get the service implemented before the move. Contrary to managements opinion it often takes 2-3 months for services to get installed at a new location.

Evaluate your current Phone and Data Network.

• A move can be the best time to upgrade infrastructure to allow for future growth. Consider fiber optics, hosted VoIP and other new technologies to replace your aging equipment. Most cloud solutions allow you to upgrade without any out-of-pocket capital expenditure. A consultant can provide you with available solutions from many different carriers and discuss the pros and cons of each to find what will fit your situation best. Often times newer technologies will also cut the install times dramatically as well.

Assess your requirements for the new location in advance.

• Sometimes the stress of a move can cause people to just want to get there and then figure everything out after the move. My recommendation consider some changes up front before you move.Are you adding employees or downsizing?Do you plan to implement new systems that will require more bandwidth?Can you get fiber at the locations your considering?Have a consultant find out in advance what you can get before you sign a land/lease agreement.

Spend time testing

• Prior to cutting over your production network to the new services take time to test new equipment, make sure security protocols are in place, bandwidth is flowing at the proper rate and that all services are working as they should prior to cut. Lastly think about business continuity. This is a perfect time to get your?back up solution?in place and to replicate your critical data to the cloud or to upgrade that old phone system.

With many different aspects to consider during this stressful time it can be easy to overlook things. To avoid this, you need to work closely with your?telecom consultant?during and after your move to minimize disruptions to your daily operations. Your computers and IT infrastructure is mission critical, and it isn't the commodity you think it is, it's the lifeline of your business so a little preparation will go a long way in making the move smooth.

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