The IT checklist for an office move

Desks and boxes can move on a truck in a day. Your network cannot. The parts of an office move that cause outages are the parts with lead times you do not control, and the fix is to start them before the lease is even signed if you can. This checklist runs backward from move day.

Six weeks out: order the internet circuit

The circuit is the long pole. Carrier install windows routinely run four to six weeks, longer if the building needs construction to reach the demarc. Nothing else on this list matters if the internet arrives two weeks after your people do.

• Confirm which carriers serve the building before you commit to it, not after
• Order the circuit with a due date at least a week before move day
• Ask where the demarc is. If it is in a basement four floors from your suite, plan the extension now
• Keep the old office circuit active through at least one week of overlap

Four weeks out: cable while you still can

If the new space is being built out, this is the window where cabling is cheap and clean, because the walls are open. Walk the floor plan with whoever runs your network and mark every drop: desks, printers, wireless access points, cameras, door controllers, TVs. Then add spares at the desks you expect to fill next year, because the second visit costs more than the extra runs.

• One drop per device, counted from the floor plan, plus spares where growth is likely
• Ceiling-mounted drops for access points, placed for coverage rather than convenience
• Every run terminated, labeled at both ends, and tested before the furniture arrives

Two weeks out: rack, power, and staging

The network closet needs a rack, dedicated power, and ideally a UPS sized for graceful shutdown rather than heroics. This is also the week to stage equipment: configure the firewall, switches, and access points on a bench, label them with their destination, and test the configuration before anything ships. A staged cutover is a mounting job. An unstaged cutover is a debugging session with an audience.

Move week: cut over in the right order

The order matters because each layer depends on the one before it:

• Circuit live and tested at the demarc, with the carrier still on the phone
• Firewall and core switch up, then VLANs and DHCP verified from a laptop
• Access points online, both staff and guest networks tested
• Printers, cameras, and door controllers last, each checked off the drop list
• Old office: circuit kept as fallback until the new site has run a full business day

None of this is exotic. It is sequencing. Most office moves in the Cincinnati tri-state go wrong for boring reasons: a circuit ordered late, cabling attempted after drywall, or a cutover improvised on the day. Six weeks of small decisions at the right time makes move week the least interesting week of the project, which is the goal.