3. Failure to Establish Pre-Move Baselines:

It was difficult for Oregon to determine whether the agencies it had moved were realizing any of the cost reductions originally sought because "the baseline data provided by the agencies before the consolidation was either grossly understated or nonexistent."

It's an old saw that you can't improve what you can't measure. A corollary is that you can't compare one thing to another if you don't know what the first thing was. Know your current data center TCO and have the numbers in hand before moving into your new facility or risk opening yourself up to ceaseless fingerpointing and complaining.

4. Upgrading Systems During the Move: Oregon consolidated its facilities before "the underlying architecture, standards, and licensing issues had been worked out." In our experience, any change undertaken during a move adds risks and complicates the project. This is especially significant when it comes to today's popular practice of using a data center move or consolidation to drive server virtualization.

Although worthwhile, virtualization is a significant project in itself, and attempting to implement server virtualization during a move means trying to do two very difficult things at the same time—a sure recipe for disaster. In short, try to minimize changes during the move planning and execution periods: don't switch vendors, and certainly don't virtualize. The exception to this rule is that it often pays to re-IP and purchase new networking gear before the move. This will save the effort of reinstalling new gear in the new site during the move.

5. There's No Substitute for Experience: Because a data center move is generally a once in a career event for IT professionals, few companies have the expertise on-hand to do it well. Very high density power and cooling environments require specialized expertise and coordination. Unfortunately, IT knowledge does not translate into an understanding of how to move a data center, nor does a knowledge of facilities (and operations) translate into an understanding of the singular requirements of today's data centers, not to mention tomorrow's.

Experience counts. If your organization has someone with the requisite experience, get him or her on the moving team. If it doesn't, find someone who does.

In this economy especially, it is critical that data centers both facilitate current operations and provide the flexibility for future business growth. A botched move can stop an enterprise dead in its tracks; a poorly managed one can force an organization to incur the expense of moving again far too soon. Avoiding these five pitfalls won't ensure success, but it's a good way to start preventing disaster.

Michael Bullock is the founder and CEO of Transitional Data Services, a Boston, MA-based consulting firm that provides data center design, construction and relocation services for large scale, ultra-high density data centers. Prior to starting TDS, Bullock held executive leadership positions at Student Advantage, CMGI and Renaissance Worldwide.