A colo decommission is a different job from clearing a server room. You're working to somebody else's access rules, on somebody else's schedule, with a contract that keeps billing until the cage is empty and signed off. The IT is usually the easy part.
Notice period, end date, what condition the space must be returned in, who owns the cabinets, and whether cross-connects have to be cancelled separately. Cross-connects frequently keep billing after the cage is empty because nobody cancelled them.
This is the single most expensive thing to get wrong. Miss the window and most agreements roll for another term at full rate.
Colos require named individuals, often with ID submitted in advance, sometimes with background checks. Add your disposal vendor's crew to the list at the same time, not on the day.
Rack elevations, every device, every drive, every cross-connect. Photograph front and rear of each rack before anything is touched. Building the list.
Check switch port activity and traffic before powering anything down. In a colo it is common for one forgotten host to still be serving something.
Loading bay slots, freight lift reservations, and out-of-hours windows. This is routinely the constraint that sets the date, not the work itself.
Servers, storage, switches, PDUs, rails, shelves, cable management. Count drives against the list as they come out, including boot modules and cache cards.
On-site destruction inside the cage removes the transport risk completely. Otherwise you want a sealed, logged chain of custody from cage to facility. Which to choose.
Cabinets, overhead cabling, floor tiles if you lifted them, labels. Many contracts require the space returned exactly as handed over.
A facility walkthrough and a written confirmation the space is released, plus written confirmation that cross-connects and power circuits are cancelled. Without it, billing continues.
The physical work for a few racks is typically one to three days. The project around it usually runs four to eight weeks, because contract notice periods are commonly 60 to 90 days, facility access lists take time to clear, and loading dock and freight lift slots have to be booked. Working backwards from the contract end date is the only reliable way to plan it.
The tenant, in almost every case. Colocation agreements generally require the space to be returned empty and in its original condition, which covers cabinets you installed, overhead and underfloor cabling, PDUs and any floor work. Leaving it for the facility to clear is always billed back, usually at a rate that makes doing it yourself look cheap.
Yes, and it is common for regulated workloads. On-site destruction means drives are shredded or degaussed inside your cage, witnessed by your staff, so nothing readable leaves the facility and the transport window disappears from your risk assessment. It needs clearing with the facility in advance, as equipment coming in requires the same approvals as people.
Frequently a great deal, more than office equipment. Enterprise servers, storage arrays, switches and transceivers from the last six years have an active secondary market, and a full cage can offset a meaningful part of the decommissioning cost. Value falls sharply once a generation leaves mainstream vendor support, so timing matters.
Cancel it in writing as part of the decommission. Hardware support and software subscriptions tied to retired equipment are one of the most common ongoing costs after a decommission, because nobody owns the task of stopping them. Check the invoice after the next billing cycle to confirm it actually stopped.
Send the rack elevations and the contract end date. We'll work backwards with you and get our crew on the access list.