Key takeaways

  • IT decommissioning covers the equipment and the racks it sits in. Data centre decommissioning covers the whole facility.
  • Facility closure involves power, cooling, fire suppression and building work. IT decommissioning does not.
  • Scoping clearly avoids paying for work you do not need, or assuming a supplier is covering work they are not.
  • Equipment usually has to come out first, so the two are often sequenced rather than combined.

“Decommissioning” gets used for everything from pulling a single server out of a rack to shutting down a building. When you ask suppliers to quote, that vagueness turns into mismatched prices and mismatched expectations. This guide sets out the line.

IT decommissioning

IT decommissioning is the physical removal of IT equipment: servers, switches, storage and similar kit. The work is disconnecting, unracking, handling, preparing for removal or handover, and clearing the racks. Our guide to what IT decommissioning is goes through each step.

It happens at rack level. The engineer works on the equipment on your list and leaves the cabinet empty.

Data centre decommissioning

Decommissioning a whole data centre is a facility project. Depending on the site, it may involve:

  • Power distribution, UPS and generators.
  • Cooling plant and containment.
  • Fire detection and suppression.
  • Structural, raised-floor and ceiling work.
  • Security systems and access control.
  • Contractual exit from the building.

These need specialist trades and, often, specialist contractors. They are a different job from removing servers, with different skills, risks and insurance.

Why the difference matters

Quotes are not comparable. A price for removing 40 servers and a price for closing a site cannot be set side by side. If you send the same vague brief to several suppliers, you will get answers to different questions.

Expectations get crossed. A customer who asks for “decommissioning” may assume the supplier will also take out the cooling, while the supplier assumes a rack-clearing job. Saying clearly what is in scope avoids that.

Responsibility is different. Facility work carries obligations that equipment removal does not. A supplier that only handles IT equipment should say so.

Where DACPROS sits

DACPROS does IT decommissioning: the physical removal of equipment from racks. We do not do building demolition or full data-centre decommissioning. Data destruction and recycling are handled through a partner.

How the two fit together

For a facility closure, the IT equipment normally has to come out before the facility work begins. That makes IT decommissioning an early, self-contained phase that can be scoped separately. A sensible sequence is:

  1. The owner migrates data and shuts systems down.
  2. The IT equipment is disconnected, unracked and handed on.
  3. The racks are cleared.
  4. Facility contractors take over the room.

For a smaller project, such as retiring a few cabinets in a colocation site while the facility continues, only step 2 and 3 apply.

How to describe your job

When you ask for a quote, state:

  • Where the equipment is, and how many racks.
  • What is going, as a list.
  • Where it is going next.
  • What you will handle yourself, such as shutdown and data.
  • Whether you need anything beyond the equipment, in which case say what.

To see how a rack-level project runs in practice, read our London colocation case study, or see the IT decommissioning service. For preparation tips, read preparing a rack for decommissioning.