Data Center Relocation Case Study: Dell PowerEdge Migration with Zero Downtime

Case studies provide the ground-level evidence that a logistics provider's capabilities match their claims. In data center relocation, the stakes are too high to select a partner based on marketing materials alone. The projects a company has actually completed, the challenges they encountered, and how they resolved those challenges are the most reliable indicators of what you can expect on your own migration.

STSI has completed over 500 successful data center relocations. The case presented here illustrates how our conception-to-completion methodology delivers outcomes in high-stakes, time-sensitive environments.

The Challenge: Three Dell PowerEdge R750 Servers, $250,000 in Equipment, Last-Minute Scope Change

A financial services client needed to relocate three Dell PowerEdge R750 servers from their co-location facility in Ashburn, Virginia to a new co-location environment in New York City. The servers were valued at $250,000 and supported a trading application with strict availability requirements. The move needed to be completed within a Saturday-night maintenance window to minimize impact on trading operations.

Three days before the scheduled move, the client's infrastructure team identified that the fiber optic connections terminating the servers' network interfaces required re-termination at the destination, a scope change that added a cabling component to the project and required coordination with the destination facility's cabling contractor.

STSI's Response to the Scope Change

When the scope change was identified, STSI's project manager contacted the destination co-location facility's operations team directly to arrange same-week fiber termination services. The fiber termination work was scheduled for the morning of the migration day, with a three-hour buffer before the server transport was scheduled to arrive. STSI absorbed the coordination effort, the client received a project scope amendment, and the migration schedule held.

This type of response to last-minute changes reflects the "never say no" philosophy that defines STSI's approach to mission-critical logistics. The goal is always to find the path to a successful outcome, not to document why a change creates a problem.

Physical Handling of the PowerEdge R750 Servers

Each PowerEdge R750 is a 2U rack-mounted server weighing approximately 45 pounds without installed drives. The servers were running a production database application and had been configured with specific BIOS settings, RAID configurations, and network bonding parameters that needed to be preserved through the move.

STSI's team photographed each server's installed position, front and rear, before extraction. Server-specific labels were applied to each unit and to its associated cable bundle. Drives were removed per the client's IT team's instruction (they preferred to transport drives separately in a ruggedized case for additional data security), and server slots were labeled with the corresponding drive labels. Each server was packed in anti-static foam within a custom-built wood crate with vibration damping material.

Transport and Chain of Custody

The servers were transported in a climate-controlled vehicle from Ashburn to New York City with continuous GPS tracking and chain of custody documentation. STSI's team maintained communication with the client's operations contact throughout the transit. The vehicle arrived at the New York co-location facility within the planned arrival window.

Destination Installation and Verification

At the destination, fiber terminations had been completed and tested by the cabling contractor before STSI's transport arrived. STSI's team installed the servers in their designated rack positions, re-connected all cabling according to the pre-move documentation, and reinstalled the storage drives in their labeled slots.

The client's IT team performed the server power-on sequence and application restoration. All three servers came online within the maintenance window, and the trading application completed its restart procedures before market open on Monday morning.

The Outcome

Zero equipment damage. Zero data loss. Zero missed delivery windows. One scope change absorbed without schedule impact. This is the standard STSI applies to every data center migration, from three servers to three hundred racks.

Contact STSI at spectransport.com/industries/data-center-migration to discuss how our track record of 500+ successful relocations can be put to work on your next project.