ZERO

Production Impact

The Challenge

Cloud migrations create a transitional period where legacy infrastructure and new environments operate in parallel. For Groupon, this meant approximately 7,000 servers at each of three data center locations—Sacramento, Dublin, and Ashburn—that needed to be decommissioned as workloads migrated, while the remaining systems continued serving production traffic.

The complexity lay in the organisation of the migration itself. Workloads moved in tranches, but equipment wasn’t arranged contiguously. A single cabinet might contain servers at positions 17 and 39 that were clear for removal, while positions 12 and 28 continued running live traffic. Every piece of equipment looked identical. The cabling environment was dense, with network connections to adjacent systems that could easily be disturbed during removal.

As a publicly-traded company with EU operations, Groupon required SOX compliance throughout, with GDPR obligations governing data handling at the Dublin facility. We understood that our role was to support their migration timeline without creating operational risk—removing cleared equipment efficiently while protecting the systems that remained in production.

Our Approach

We worked in close coordination with Groupon’s infrastructure team, receiving position-level clearance as each tranche of workloads completed migration. Our technicians operated from detailed rack maps showing exactly which positions were cleared and which remained live—verified before any disconnection.

The physical work required methodical attention. Each removal followed a documented sequence: verify rack and position against the clearance list, photograph current state, disconnect power in sequence, disconnect network connections carefully to avoid disturbing adjacent ports, and physically extract equipment without contact with neighbouring systems. In environments where cable runs connect dozens of devices, this level of care was essential.

We coordinated across three time zones to maintain progress at all facilities simultaneously. Groupon needed the work completed within their lease windows, and sequential execution would have extended timelines beyond acceptable limits. Our teams in each location followed identical protocols, with daily coordination calls ensuring consistent progress and immediate escalation paths for any questions about clearance status.

The volume of identical equipment created an equally important secondary consideration: protecting asset recovery value. When 21,000 servers of consistent make and model enter secondary markets simultaneously, pricing collapses. We’ve seen organisations lose significant value simply by releasing equipment without market awareness—the very act of disposition undermining the recovery they’re trying to achieve.

We approached remarketing with the same discipline we applied to the physical decommissioning. Our team monitored secondary market conditions and staged releases across retail and wholesale channels, timing sales to maintain pricing rather than accepting fire-sale returns. This required coordination between our field operations—which wanted to move equipment efficiently—and our asset recovery team, who needed to control the pace of market releases. The result was recovery value that significantly exceeded what an undisciplined approach would have achieved.

Technologies & Standards:

• NIST SP 800-88 Rev 1 compliant data sanitisation
• GDPR compliant data handling and destruction (Dublin facility)
• Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance for publicly-traded entity
• PCI-DSS compliance for payment-related infrastructure
• Position-level tracking and verification protocols
• Multi-site coordination frameworks
• Certificate of data destruction for all storage media
• Chain of custody documentation across international operations

Outcomes