The Fallacy of Lift and Shift in Data Centre Migrations: A Risky Endeavor

 

Introduction

Data centre migrations, particularly those involving a "lift and shift" approach, pose significant risks to enterprises. This method involves moving an entire data centre, including its equipment and infrastructure, from one location to another. While this approach may seem efficient, it often carries high risks and limited mitigations, especially for enterprises lacking resilience. In this article, we will explore the challenges and pitfalls associated with lift and shift data centre migrations, emphasizing the need for more strategic and secure methodologies.

The Single Data Centre Dilemma

For enterprises with a singular data centre, a lift and shift migration is a worst-case scenario. Typically scheduled over a long weekend, this method assumes a longer timeframe for migration and allows for problem mitigation. However, the entire business becomes dependent on the success of this operation, akin to performing open heart surgery on a patient with limited resilience. In the event of any failure during the migration, outages and lost revenue are likely, extending beyond the assumed timeframe.

Even if the data centre has resilient compute, storage, and networking infrastructure, the risk of failure during the lift and shift process remains. Coupling and decoupling complex systems, particularly in geographically disparate locations, adds an additional layer of complexity and potential failure points.

Two Disparate Data Centres: A Misplaced Assumption

Enterprises with two disparate data centres might perceive a lower risk when implementing a lift and shift, but challenges persist, especially for transnational and time-sensitive businesses. Consider a financial institution that cannot afford extended downtime. If an outage occurs during the migration of the live production data centre, the financial institute faces a hard shutdown and risks losing data, violating its recovery point objectives.

The "Across the Wire" Method

A more strategic approach to data centre migration is the "across the wire" method. This involves having a minimum of two data centres, with migration occurring to a third data centre. Throughout the migration process, the initial primary and secondary data centres remain in production until the third data centre is live. Unlike the lift and shift approach, no equipment is migrated from the initial two data centres during the migration process.

This method mitigates risks significantly, as it ensures that both the primary and secondary data centres remain operational throughout the migration. The migrated data centre is only shut down once the process is completed. The equipment within this data centre can then be repurposed as spares or used to supplement resilience at the now live data centres.

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure for Secure Migrations

Executing the "across the wire" strategy is most effective with hyper-converged infrastructure supporting compute, storage, and networking. This modular infrastructure, capable of handling highly virtualized systems, is ideal for seamless and secure data centre migrations. Hyper-converged systems offer flexibility and scalability, minimizing the risks associated with traditional lift and shift methods.

Conclusion

The fallacy of lift and shift in data centre migrations becomes apparent when enterprises fail to recognize the inherent risks and limited mitigations associated with this approach. Instead, adopting strategic methods like "across the wire" with hyper-converged infrastructure provides a more secure and reliable solution. As businesses continue to navigate the complexities of data centre migrations, it is crucial to prioritize methodologies that ensure minimal disruption and maximal resilience.

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 * Originally published on LinkedIn by Ronald Bartels.