IT equipment is the last thing moved and the first thing switched on.
Each rack is surveyed, documented and crated before it crosses a border, then rebuilt against that record.
IT is not moved carefully. It is moved in order.
Crating a server rack is the easy part.
The hard part is the order. The server room is the last thing off and the first thing back on. So the plan is built backwards from the moment people expect their machines to work.
Each rack is photographed and its cabling recorded before a cable comes out. A diagram drawn later shows only what someone remembered.
Drives travel as their own category. Networking gear keeps its patching record. A storage array travels in its own case, because vibration harms it.
AV and telecom kit often belongs to a landlord or a third party. The survey finds that out early.
What the quote covers
What is in an IT relocation quote, and what sits outside it.
Read the second column before comparing two quotes. It names what a total leaves out.
In every IT relocation we quote
- A survey of the room, the rack and the access at both ends
- Photographs and a cabling record of each rack before break-down
- Anti-static handling for drives, boards and any part removed from a chassis
- Purpose-built crates for anything that cannot travel on a general load
- Item-level labels, applied as the equipment comes apart
- Customs papers declaring it as equipment, not household goods
- All-risk marine cover at declared replacement value, included as standard
- One coordinator, the same one, from survey to reinstall
Not in the quote
- Duties and taxes, which the destination’s customs authority sets
- Software licensing, re-imaging or anything inside the machine
- Structured cabling at the new site, which is a building trade
- Equipment a landlord or third party owns, until its owner releases it
- Any manufacturer warranty a broken seal voids, so check before the survey
How it works
From the survey to the morning everyone sits back down.
Five stages, and you have the same coordinator through all of them.
Survey and quote
Somebody walks the room, the rack and the route out, including lifts, doors and loading access. The survey also settles what is leased, what is owned and what belongs to someone else.
Documentation and sequencing
Racks are photographed and cabling is recorded before anything is disconnected. The shutdown order is agreed with whoever owns uptime. The restart order is agreed at the same time.
Break-down and crating
Equipment comes apart in the planned order and is labelled as it goes. Drives and boards are handled anti-statically. Anything that cannot take vibration gets its own case.
Transit and customs
The consignment travels as equipment, with papers prepared for that classification. The coordinator who has held the file since the survey still answers.
Reinstall and hand-back
Racks are rebuilt against the record taken before they came apart, not from memory. The room is handed back against the same item list it left on.
Your quote
Why two server rooms of one size are quoted differently.
There is no price list. A figure that ignored your rack and your access would mislead.
- 01
What is in the rack
A rack of workstations and a rack holding a storage array are two different jobs. The array needs its own case. - 02
The access at both ends
A goods lift that takes a full crate, or a stairwell that does not, can turn a night into a weekend. - 03
How much downtime you can afford
A move that must be back by Monday morning costs more than one that can take a long weekend. It buys parallel work. - 04
Who has to agree
Leased kit, landlord-owned AV and anything under a maintenance contract need someone else’s yes. That costs calendar time rather than money. - 05
Specialist reinstalls
Some equipment stays under warranty only if the maker’s own engineer breaks the seal. Then their schedule sets the date.
Where a move starts
The Indian cities an IT relocation usually leaves from.
Equipment moves from where the office is, and the office is usually in one of three places. Which one changes the road leg and the sailing it can reach, not the sequence inside the room.
Reviews
What IMove customers say about their moves.
We shifted from Bangalore to Auckland and our complete move was handled by Venissa from IMove Global Mobility LLP.There was a vessel delay due to port congestion in Hong Kong, but the team communicated well and managed everything smoothly. Still very happy with the service. Highly recommend their service for international relocation. Thank you Vanessia and I Move
Kumail Abbas Jung Mir · Household move · Bangalore → Auckland
Special mention of appreciation to Venissa for handling our shipment door to door from Bangalore to Chicago. Her crew had packed all the items very well and marked each item for identifying as it was a shared container. All the items were intact and without damage or scratch especially the Marble dinning tables, chairs, Diwan and the console. Venissa was tracking the shipment from port to port an updating us every step of the way. Her counterpart team in New Jersey also did a very good job of unloading, opening crates and assembling the furniture. Also they removed all the debris from our site. Overall we were very impressed with the service the Venissa - IMove had provided and will definitely recommend them to our friends and also to people who wish transport items from India. Well done IMove. Once again special thanks to Venissa.
Harish Manjunath · Household move · Bangalore → Chicago
I recently moved from Australia to India and IMOVE handled Indian customs and the experience was seamless. They delivered my shipment within the promised timeframe, and the process was straightforward from start to finish. Riju kept us informed every step of the way, providing regular updates, assisting with the paperwork, and ensuring everything went smoothly. Their professionalism and excellent communication made the move incredibly easy and stress-free. I highly recommend their services to anyone looking for reliable relocation services.
Anushree Chacko · Household move · Australia → India
Questions
Questions to ask before you sign.
Can you guarantee zero downtime?
Downtime on an IT move is kept down by planning, so the survey sets the order in which machines go offline and come back, the work that runs out of hours, and the steps that need your own IT team, such as backups, failover and rehearsing the restart.
The plan is built backwards from the moment people expect their machines to work. Anything inside your systems stays with the people who own them.
Do you back up our data before the move?
No, because a backup belongs with the people who will have to restore from it, taken on a schedule you already trust, checked by somebody who knows what a good restore looks like, and held somewhere a moving company has no access to at all. A mover holding your data adds a risk.
Drives travel as their own category. They are removed where that is safer, then carried anti-statically, crated to shape and logged item by item.
Is our equipment insured while it is in transit?
Insurance is all-risk marine cover at declared replacement value, included as standard, and the values it covers are set at the survey rather than guessed at afterwards, which is the difference between a claim that settles quickly and an argument about what an ageing switch was worth. The cover does not stretch to anything a manufacturer excludes because someone other than its approved engineer broke a seal.
How is IT equipment cleared through customs?
It is declared as equipment rather than as household goods, which is a different classification with its own papers, such as serial numbers, declared values and a description a customs officer can match against what is inside the crate without having to open every one. A file prepared that way from the survey keeps the consignment moving.
Duties and taxes are set by the authority at the destination. They are not ours to set or to absorb.
Can you move a live data centre without stopping it?
Not in one piece, but a phased move can get you close, because capacity is stood up at the new site before it comes down at the old one, so the business runs on whichever half is not in transit while the other half travels. That is a longer project with a larger budget.
If it is your plan, say so at the survey. The sequence, the crating and the customs file are all built differently for it.
Tell us what is in the room.
Two countries and a phone number is enough to start. A coordinator comes back within 2 hours. The figure follows a survey, never a guess over a rack described down a phone line.