Increasing complexity of IT infrastructure makes planning and executing a data center move or cloud migration a tricky business. Data centers power critical equipment and business applications. The CEO wants it done quickly; customers and process owners expect resources to be available 24 x 7 x 365 -- and there’s no tolerance for unplanned outages.

So, the pressure is on the IT team to make it all happen -- quickly and flawlessly.

Rarely do we see projects where customers are migrating simple, well documented single applications.

More often, companies need to manage a migration where there are multiple applications and servers working together to support a business process. This situation requires a thorough analysis and mapping of how those applications and servers are connected and dependent upon each other to work -- before the migration plan is built.

Dependencies Matter.

Here’s a cautionary tale about the importance of identifying and mapping the entire landscape and their dependencies. One large organization thought they had a good plan for their data center move. They moved their finance application 1,500 miles and planned to move their HR application separately, thinking there was little connection between the two that would disrupt the business. Reality quickly pointed out the error of their ways. They couldn’t process payroll when the physical separation prevented the finance server from being able to determine employee 401K investments. The organization had to scramble to process payroll manually and the IT team learned a lesson they likely won’t forget.

As this story demonstrates, there’s no doubt that dependency mapping is critical. It helps you to:

• Quickly discover components, and automatically map IT services
• Better understand the impact of a change prior to making it
• Create a more stable environment with minimum downtime
• Properly engage and prioritize resources to support each aspect of the mov

Large complex migrations, with their many interdependencies, require a carefully constructed plan and proven methodologies. Miss the mark on dependency mapping and you risk unexpected delays, disruptions, costs and a significant impact on your business.