Datacenter Exit Cutover Checklist
A cutover and decommission checklist for exiting an on-premises datacenter: dependency verification, change freeze, final backup, DNS cutover, soak-period rollback, and secure media destruction.
When to Use This Checklist
Use this for the final phase of a datacenter exit, once workloads are running in the cloud and you are ready to switch traffic and decommission on-prem hardware. It is a cutover and shutdown checklist, not a migration-planning one. The stakes are high: a missed dependency here causes an outage and an irreversible data loss can follow decommission.
How to Use This Checklist
Run this during a planned, communicated cutover window with a change freeze in both environments. The discovery items are gating: do not cut over until you have proven no production traffic still depends on the datacenter. Take and verify a final backup before touching anything.
Keep the on-prem environment powered but isolated through a soak period so rollback stays possible. Only after the soak period passes should you decommission hardware, wipe media, and cancel circuits. Treat secure data destruction as a compliance requirement, not a cleanup task.
What Good Looks Like
A clean exit has every workload validated in the cloud, no residual dependencies on the datacenter, and a final verified backup. DNS and traffic cut over within the window, monitoring confirms the success criteria, and the on-prem environment stays available for rollback through the soak period. After soak, hardware is decommissioned, media is securely destroyed to standard, circuits and licenses are cancelled, and the CMDB reflects reality.
Common Pitfalls
The worst pitfall is decommissioning too early, before the soak period proves the cloud environment is stable, leaving no way back. A close second is a hidden dependency, such as a batch job or hardcoded IP, that only surfaces after shutdown. Skipping the final verified backup risks permanent data loss. Forgetting secure media destruction creates a compliance exposure, and leaving circuits and licenses running wastes money the exit was meant to save.
Related Resources
Use the 7 Rs strategy and landing-zone practices for the migration that precedes this, and incident-management practices to staff the cutover window. Secrets-management practices help ensure no on-prem credentials are left active after decommission.