Certified Data Centre Migration Specialist (CDMS®)
Course Overview
Moving a data centre is one of the highest-risk projects an IT team will ever run, and most teams only run it once. The Certified Data Centre Migration Specialist (CDMS®) course gives you a step-by-step methodology for planning, de-risking and executing a data centre migration, so the move lands without taking the business down with it.
Over the two days, CDMS® training covers the full migration lifecycle: deciding whether to move at all, building the project around a real scope and budget, assessing risk, discovering what you actually have, sizing and designing the target site, sequencing the move into waves, running the physical relocation safely, then decommissioning and closing out the facility you have left behind.
CDMS® sits in the Risk track of the EPI Data Centre Training Framework and is globally accredited by EXIN. Your trainer is an EPI Certified Instructor who has moved and consolidated mission-critical facilities, so the practical hints and tips come from real migrations rather than a textbook.
Who is this training for?
CDMS® is built for IT, facilities and data centre operations professionals who are facing a migration, a consolidation or a change of data centre strategy, on either the customer side or the service provider side. That includes project managers, data centre managers, operations, floor and facility managers, IT managers, network and system engineers, data centre sales consultants, and logistics managers.
What will you gain?
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Develop and review your organisation's data centre strategy, including whether migrating is the right answer at all.
- Apply qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative risk assessment methodologies to a migration, with practical tips for reducing risk at each stage.
- Choose between heterogeneous, homogeneous and physical migration strategies, and decide when to transform the IT estate: before, during or after the move.
- Handle the legal side of a migration, from regulatory and contractual obligations through to the obligations that survive decommissioning.
- Run Business Service Reviews and set Service Level Objectives, so availability and recoverability targets are agreed before anything moves.
- Size and design the target data centre against real architectural, cooling, power and security requirements.
- Run a detailed discovery, map network and system dependencies, and use those dependencies to build migration waves that hold together.
- Apply the safety requirements that govern a live migration, covering technical safety review, electrical safety, lifting, personal safety and fire safety.
- Plan and execute the physical move, including rehearsal, route investigation, packing, transport, installation, and post-migration support.
Modules
- Data centre lifecycle
- Reasons to migrate a data centre
- Alternatives to data centre migration
- Consolidation
- Outsourcing
- Cloud computing
- Upgrade existing data centre or build new
- Project management and methods
- Scope statement
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
- Allocate time to the project
- Cost and estimation methodology
- Project communication
- Risk management and methods
- Risk identification
- Risk assessment methodologies
- Qualitative approach
- Semi-quantitative approach
- Quantitative approach
- Risk evaluation
- Risk treatment
- Risk in data centre migrations
- Different data centre migration strategies
- Heterogeneous migration
- Homogeneous migration
- Physical migration
- Different IT transformations
- Pre-migration transformation
- Migration transformation
- Post-migration transformation
- Regulatory requirements
- Contractual considerations
- Legal aspects when decommissioning
- The importance of Business Service Reviews
- The concept of Availability
- The concept of Recoverability
- The importance of Service Level Objectives
- Requirements on designing the target IT architecture
- Information needed for high level planning
- Requirements for the target data centre
- Sizing the data centre
- Architectural requirements
- Cooling requirements
- Power requirements
- Security
- The importance of discovery
- Automated discovery tools
- Asset management
- Network and system dependencies
- Detailed migration planning
- Migration waves
- Staffing
- Warranties and insurance
- Safety precautions
- Technical safety review
- Electrical safety
- Lifting
- Personal safety during migration
- Fire safety during migration
- Controversy between access and security
- Access control
- Managing security during migration
- Security during migration
- Key management
- Practical hints and tips
- Continuous improvement
- Rehearsal
- Route investigation
- Resourcing
- Logistics team
- Packing
- Transport
- Installing the equipment
- Post migration support
- Main points to consider
- Retiring ICT hardware
- Retiring data centre facility systems
- Retiring data centre building
- Consider environmental aspects
- Legal aspects
- Project closure
- Lessons learned
- Phased completion of project
- Criteria for project closure
- The outcome of the project
- End of project
Entry requirements
CDMS® has no formal prerequisites. The course is best suited to people with hands-on experience in a data centre or with IT infrastructure, because the methodology assumes you can read your own environment and challenge what you find. The Certified Data Centre Professional (CDCP®) course is recommended but not required. If you are not sure whether CDMS® or CDCP® is the better starting point for you or your team, talk to an Upskilled education consultant before you book.
Payment Options
What you need to know
A data centre migration is usually a once-in-a-decade event, so organisations rarely build the capability in-house. CDMS® gives you a repeatable methodology you can apply to a relocation, a consolidation of multiple sites, a move into colocation or a staged exit from an ageing facility. It is just as useful before you commit to a move, because much of the course focuses on deciding whether to migrate at all and what the alternatives cost.
Delivery Structure and Methods
At Upskilled Tech Academy, an EPI Certified Instructor leads the CDMS® course using a combination of lectures and question-and-answer sessions. Those sessions are where the value lies: you bring the migration you are actually facing, and the trainer works through it with you, drawing on experience from multiple complex moves. Participants consistently get more out of the discussion than the slides.
Upskilled Tech Academy offers the CDFOM® course in various delivery formats:
- VILT: Virtual Instructor Led Training, run live in a virtual classroom on scheduled intake dates.
- TOD: Training On Demand, so you can work through the material at your own pace.
Both formats cover the same syllabus and lead to the same certification. Private group sessions can also be arranged for a single organisation, which suits teams preparing for a specific migration. Get in touch about group training.
Exam: Certified Data Centre Migration Specialist (CDMS®)
This course includes a certification exam voucher. The exam is sat at the end of the course and runs for one hour. It consists of 40 multiple-choice questions, is closed-book, and the pass mark is 27 out of 40. Candidates who pass are awarded the internationally recognised Certified Data Centre Migration Specialist (CDMS®) certificate.
Certification and recertification
CDMS® is globally accredited by EXIN, a fully independent examination and certification institute that lifts the standard of the IT and data centre sectors through accredited course material and independent examination. The CDMS® certificate is valid for three years, after which holders recertify through the EPI Recertification Program. Speak with an Upskilled education consultant about your recertification options as your expiry date approaches.
Where CDMS® sits in the EPI Data Centre Training Framework
The EPI Data Centre Training Framework is a structured curriculum for people working in and around data centre facilities and operational management. CDMS® belongs to the Risk track, and the brochure names CDCP® as the recommended companion course because it covers the key components of the facility you are moving into. Upskilled Tech Academy delivers the following EPI courses:
Foundation
- Data Centre Foundation Certificate (DCFC®), the entry point for anyone new to data centres.
Design and build
- Certified Data Centre Professional (CDCP®), the key components of a data centre.
- Certified Data Centre Specialist (CDCS®), advanced design across power, cooling and fire protection.
- Certified Data Centre Expert (CDCE®), full facility design and build.
- Certified Network Cabling Design Professional (CNCDP®), structured cabling design.
Maintenance and operations
CDMS® Frequently Asked Questions
CDMS® is a two-day course. In the virtual classroom format, it runs live over two scheduled days with an EPI Certified Instructor, and you take the certification exam at the end of the second day. If you take Training On Demand, you work through the same syllabus at your own pace.
They solve different problems. CDCP® teaches you what a data centre is made of: power, cooling, cabling, fire protection, security and the standards behind them. CDMS® teaches you how to move one, covering migration strategy, risk assessment, discovery, dependency mapping, migration waves, the physical relocation and decommissioning the old site. CDCP® is recommended before CDMS® but is not required, and many people take CDMS® because a migration has already landed on their desk.
No. There is no formal prerequisite for CDMS®. EPI recommends CDCP® beforehand and the course is easier if you already have practical experience in a data centre or with IT infrastructure, but neither is a condition of enrolment.
Yes to both. A certification exam voucher is included in the course price. The exam is one hour long, has 40 multiple-choice questions, and is closed-book. You need 27 correct answers out of 40 to pass.
Three years from the date you pass. After that, you recertify through the EPI Recertification Program, which offers several options depending on the other EPI courses and certifications you hold. Speak with an Upskilled education consultant before your certificate expires.
No. CDMS® is an international industry certification, not an AQF qualification, and it does not appear on training.gov.au. EXIN, an independent examination and certification institute, globally accredits it, and employers in the data centre sector worldwide recognise it. If you are after a nationally recognised qualification instead, an Upskilled education consultant can point you to the right accredited course.
Yes. Upskilled Tech Academy offers CDMS® as a live virtual classroom (VILT) on scheduled intake dates, and as Training On Demand (TOD) if you would rather work through the material at your own pace. Both cover the same syllabus and lead to the same certification.
Yes. Private group sessions can be arranged for a single organisation, which is the usual choice when a team is preparing for a specific migration and wants to work through their own environment in the question-and-answer sessions. Get in touch about group training for a quote.
Project managers, data centre managers, operations, floor and facility managers, IT managers, network and system engineers, data centre sales consultants and logistics managers, from both end-customer organisations and service providers. The common thread is a data centre migration, consolidation or strategy decision that they are responsible for.
