Should I stay or should I go? That’s what your servers might ask if they could. The answer is clear: go. Just not to the same place as everyone else. During an office relocation, people move to a new office. Servers are better off moving to a data center. Here’s why.
Most companies plan a move around people: how many desks and meeting rooms are needed and how far it is to the nearest public transport stop. Technology comes later, typically when someone opens the server room and realizes that this part of the business will not simply fit into a moving box. Then comes the bigger question: should the servers move to the new office at all? The answer may affect operations for years.
How Moving Offices Can Affect Your Server Setup
Office relocation is on the agenda for more companies than just a few years ago. A survey of 500 managers responsible for office space found that the share of organizations considering a move rose from 23% to almost 32%.
The reasons vary—a growing team, less space after switching to hybrid work, a more energy-efficient building or a better address.
But new offices are designed around people: daylight, acoustics, shops and transport links. A server rack drawing ten kilowatts rarely enters the equation.
A company may therefore end up looking at a room marked “storage” on the floor plan and wondering whether it could become a server room.
What server relocation involves
Servers have requirements that regular offices rarely meet:
· Power: a new building may not have backup power or a UPS sized for your actual needs.
· Cooling: without proper heat removal, a small room can quickly overheat and shorten hardware life.
· Physical security: an office key card cannot replace controlled, monitored access.
· Connectivity: at a new location, you are limited to the providers available there.
· Access for technicians: getting into a locked building at night or over the weekend may be difficult.
Then there is the move itself: dismantling equipment, vibration, temperature changes and restarting systems in the wrong order.
Downtime is expensive. For 97% of large enterprises, one hour costs more than $100,000. Four in ten put the figure between $1 million and $5 million.
Why office relocation and server rooms have different priorities
Offices and server rooms essentially pull in opposite directions. People want windows, open spaces and a convenient location. Servers need stable temperatures, backup power and controlled access. Every square meter dedicated to hardware is paid for at office rental rates, even though nobody sits there.
Then there are the less visible costs: backup power, cooling, inspections, fire suppression, insurance and the hours IT staff spend looking after the hardware. Hybrid work has made the contradiction even clearer—companies are reducing office space while relying on systems that need to run 24/7, regardless of how many people turn up on Monday.
Server colocation: your hardware, someone else’s walls
Server colocation offers another option. The hardware remains yours, but it lives in an environment built for it.
Servers are housed in data halls with redundant power, N+1 cooling and controlled access. Certified data centers can guarantee availability above 99.98%. In a carrier-neutral facility, you can choose connectivity based on price and technical requirements rather than whoever happens to serve your office building.
Colocation services can also grow with your business—capacity can be added in days rather than through another office renovation. The hardware move itself can be planned and managed separately from the office relocation, without involving your own staff. TTC Teleport explains how such a server move works step by step.
What should move to the new office, and what should stay behind?
People, plants and the coffee machine can all move to the new office. The servers are better off staying where nobody will switch off a circuit breaker to knock down a partition wall. Business continuity then stops being a matter of luck and becomes a matter of signing the right contract.
