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Data centre decommissioning
The room stays live. The plan has to account for that.
Exits happen inside a change window, next to live equipment, under building rules written by someone else. We plan removal zone by zone, with the paperwork agreed before anything is unracked.
Planned exits
Share the site, rack count and target window. We will walk through access, sequencing and documentation before anything is committed.
Request a data centre assessment
Data centre decommissioning
A rack is not a line item. It is a project.
Data-centre exits run inside a change window, beside live equipment, under someone else’s building rules. We plan removal zone by zone, with the documentation agreed before anything is unracked.
Rack elevation · 42U
Illustrative layout — your actual elevation drives the plan
Select a zone
Compute — rack servers
The bulk of a decommissioning scope. Every unit is logged, and data-bearing media is itemised on its own line of the handover record.
What we handle
- 1U–4U rack servers de-racked, rail sets recovered with them
- Make, model and serial captured per unit at collection
- Internal drives itemised separately and handled to your written instruction
- Units assessed for reuse before anything is routed to recycling
Request data centre asset assessment
We will walk through access, sequencing and documentation with you before anything is committed. If part of the scope sits outside what we handle, we will say so.
Why it is different
A rack is not a line item. It is a project.
A laptop refresh can absorb a mistake. A data centre exit cannot. Pull the wrong unit and you take a service down; miss a drive and you have an unaccounted-for data-bearing asset; block the goods lift at the wrong hour and the whole schedule slips a week.
That is why the useful work happens before the first cabinet is opened. The floor walk, the sequencing, the access constraints and the media instruction are what determine whether the removal is uneventful.
We would rather spend an extra day on the plan than improvise on the floor. If the schedule you need is not achievable safely, we will say so rather than agree to it and miss it.
- Scope agreed rack by rack, in writing, before removal begins
- Sequencing built around live adjacency and your change window
- Access, lift and loading constraints established at the floor walk
- Batteries and power equipment declared before transport is planned
- Every rack unit accounted for on a signed handover record
Engagement shape
Six phases, from floor walk to closing paperwork.
Floor walk & scope
We walk the room with your IT and facilities teams, rack by rack. What is leaving, what stays live, what belongs to a client or a lessor, and what needs declaring before anyone plans a lift.
Inventory baseline
We work from your CMDB or DCIM export where one exists, and capture the inventory during de-rack where it does not. Either way the baseline is agreed before removal starts.
Access & sequencing plan
Loading bay, goods lift dimensions, permitted hours, security escort, landlord or colocation notice. These determine the sequence far more than the equipment does.
De-rack & pack
Units removed in the agreed order, rails and accessories recovered with them, everything packed and palletised to survive transport intact.
Documented handover
A signed record of every item leaving the floor, with data-bearing media itemised on its own lines, countersigned by your site contact.
Assessment & disposition
Receipt reconciled against the handover record, condition and reuse potential assessed, and a closing disposition record returned to you.
Scoping checklist
What we will ask about before quoting anything.
- What stays powered
- Live adjacency is the single biggest constraint in a partial decommission. We agree which circuits, racks and cable runs are untouchable before anyone opens a cabinet.
- Access window
- Permitted hours, weekend or overnight working, security escort requirements and any notice period owed to a landlord or colocation provider.
- Physical route
- Goods lift dimensions and weight limit, loading bay access, floor loading, ramps, and whether racks leave as complete units or de-populated first.
- Media handling
- Whether drives and cartridges stay with you, are removed before handover, or transfer to us under an agreed written process. Agreed before collection, never during.
- Power equipment
- UPS units and battery cabinets are declared upfront — batteries change how a load is packed, transported and accepted at the other end.
- Ownership
- Leased hardware, vendor trade-ins and client-owned equipment are excluded from scope in writing before the collection, not discovered on the day.
FAQ
Questions we are asked before the first call
- 01Do you perform the de-racking yourselves?
- We coordinate and carry out physical removal as part of the collection. Where a site requires a specific certification, a permit to work, or an electrical isolation performed by a licensed contractor, that is arranged with your facilities team and we tell you plainly which parts we can and cannot do ourselves.
- 02Can you work overnight or at weekends?
- Yes. Data centre work is usually scheduled outside business hours precisely because the room stays live. Tell us the permitted window at the scoping stage and the plan is built around it.
- 03We are exiting a colocation suite. Can you handle the landlord requirements?
- We work to the provider's rules — insurance documentation, inductions, escort requirements, notice periods and make-good obligations. Send us the provider's requirements with your scope and we will confirm what we can meet before you commit.
- 04How is the inventory captured if we do not have a clean CMDB?
- During de-rack. Each unit is recorded as it comes out — make, model, serial where one is legible, and its rack and U position. It is slower than working from an export, so it is factored into the schedule rather than discovered mid-way.
- 05What about structured cabling and containment?
- Patch panels, cassettes, cable trays and containment can be included in scope. They are usually the last items removed and the easiest to leave unaccounted for, so they are listed explicitly rather than assumed.
Planning a decommission?
Tell us the site, the rack count and the window you are working to. The first conversation is about constraints, not commercials.