Server Migration Services in Switzerland

Server migration refers to the physical relocation of servers, storage arrays, networking hardware, and supporting infrastructure from one datacenter location to another. This is a hands-on engineering task, not a software process. It requires certified technicians who can decommission equipment safely, package and transport hardware under chain-of-custody controls, and then reinstall, cable, and validate the equipment at the destination facility. Reboot Monkey provides this service across Switzerland as a third-party operator. We work inside the datacenters operated by Equinix, Digital Realty, Green.ch, NTT Global, Swisscom, and other Swiss facilities. We do not own or operate any of those facilities. We are the independent engineering team that does the physical work inside them. A typical server migration engagement covers six distinct phases. The pre-migration audit documents the existing rack layout, power draw per device, cable labelling, and network topology. The shutdown and decommission phase follows a tested sequence to avoid data loss and hardware damage. Packing and transport uses anti-static packaging, vibration-dampening cases, and, where required, secure chain-of-custody documentation. At the destination, rack-and-stack installs hardware to the agreed layout drawing. Cabling and cross-connect work restores connectivity. The final phase is post-migration testing, which verifies every device powers on, network paths are clean, and the customer's monitoring system reports green. For regulated Swiss clients, particularly those in financial services, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare, chain-of-custody documentation and a written handover record are not optional extras. They are compliance requirements. Reboot Monkey produces a full migration report covering serial numbers, rack positions before and after, technician sign-off, and timing of every phase. This record satisfies audit requirements under the new Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP, effective 1 September 2023) and, where applicable, FINMA Circular 2021/2 on outsourcing requirements for regulated financial entities. Migrations range in scale from a single server moved between two racks in the same facility, to full datacenter consolidations involving hundreds of devices across multiple Swiss cities. Reboot Monkey scales the team to the scope of the project. A single-rack migration may require one engineer for a few hours. A facility-to-facility migration of 40 racks between Zurich and Geneva requires a coordinated team with a project lead, transport logistics, and parallel workstreams at both ends.

Switzerland's colocation market is concentrated in three geographic clusters, each with distinct characteristics that affect migration planning and logistics. Zurich is the primary datacenter market, accounting for the largest share of Swiss colocation demand. The Equinix campus operates facilities including ZH2, ZH4, and ZH5, serving a dense interconnection ecosystem with over 312 ASNs present at ZH2 alone. Digital Realty operates the ZUR campus in the Glattbrugg area, with multiple buildings totalling over 25,000 square metres of technical space. Swisscom, Green.ch AG, NTT Global, and Vantage Data Centers also operate Zurich-area facilities. The Swiss Internet Exchange (Swiss-IX), Switzerland's national neutral internet exchange, is connected to multiple Zurich carrier hotels, making Zurich the country's primary interconnection hub. Geneva accounts for a significant share of Swiss colocation demand. The city hosts a distinct cluster driven by the presence of the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation, the World Health Organisation, the International Red Cross, and other international bodies. SafeHost SA operates facilities in the Geneva region, including its SH1 and SH2 locations. The CERN Internet eXchange Point (CIXP), based in Geneva, serves over 120 members and handles traffic from scientific and academic institutions across Europe. From a migration logistics standpoint, Zurich and Geneva are approximately 280 kilometres apart by road, which is a standard same-day return journey for a migration team. Basel is Switzerland's third datacenter cluster, representing a growing share of national demand. The city's relevance stems from its pharmaceutical and life sciences sector. Roche, Novartis, and Sandoz all have major operations in Basel, and their IT infrastructure requirements create sustained demand for colocation and migration services. Basel also offers a geographic advantage for DACH-region consolidations. The city is approximately 85 kilometres from Zurich and sits at the intersection of Switzerland, Germany, and France, making it practical to stage migrations that touch facilities on multiple sides of the border. For any migration that spans two Swiss cities, transport documentation must account for the commercial nature of the freight even within Switzerland's domestic borders. Reboot Monkey handles transport logistics as part of the migration scope and coordinates customs documentation where cross-border transport is involved. <a href="/en/data-center-migration/switzerland/">Datacenter migration services in Switzerland</a> involving full facility relocations require additional coordination with building management at both origin and destination. Reboot Monkey manages the access scheduling, freight lift bookings, and floor loading assessments as part of the pre-migration planning phase.

Reboot Monkey operates as a third-party DC services provider. We hold access credentials at Swiss facilities operated by multiple operators and deploy field engineers from our Swiss-based team. Engineers cover German-speaking regions from Zurich and Basel, French-speaking regions from Geneva, and the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino on request. The delivery model is structured around four principles: scope clarity before work begins, a single point of contact throughout the engagement, documented handover at every phase transition, and post-migration verification before the job is closed. A server migration project starts with a scoping call to document the current state. The client provides rack elevation drawings, a device list with serial numbers and model numbers, network topology diagrams, and any shutdown dependencies. Where that documentation does not exist, Reboot Monkey sends an engineer to conduct a pre-migration audit and produce it. This audit typically takes two to four hours for a standard rack and is billed separately from the migration itself. Migration scheduling is driven by the client's change management window. Swiss enterprises in financial services and pharmaceuticals typically require change advisory board (CAB) approval before any physical infrastructure change. Reboot Monkey provides a detailed migration runbook, including a step-by-step task list with estimated times, rollback procedures for each phase, and escalation contacts, to support CAB approval processes. On migration day, the lead engineer checks in at the origin facility, confirms access credentials are active, and briefs the team before work begins. All activity is logged with timestamps. Each device decommission step is photographed and recorded in the migration log. Equipment is packed using anti-static bags, foam-lined transit cases, and, for large migrations, purpose-built server transport racks with foam inserts and vibration dampening. At the destination facility, the rack-and-stack follows the agreed layout drawing. <a href="/en/rack-and-stack/switzerland/">Rack and stack services in Switzerland</a> include mounting hardware, initial cable routing, and power strip configuration. After installation, a cabling engineer handles structured cabling, cross-connects, and patch panel labelling to the client's cabling standard. Post-migration testing follows a written checklist. Every device is powered on, boot-up is confirmed, network connectivity is tested to defined endpoints, and management access (IPMI, iDRAC, iLO) is verified. The migration is considered complete only when the client or their remote team confirms every system is operational. For priority one incidents during migration, such as a device that fails to boot at the destination, the on-site team escalates immediately to Reboot Monkey's 24/7 NOC. The P1 response target is 15 minutes to acknowledgement and four hours to on-site resolution. <a href="/en/smart-hands/switzerland/">Smart hands support in Switzerland</a> covers the deeper diagnostic and troubleshooting work that may be required if hardware shows unexpected behaviour after relocation. Contact Reboot Monkey for a quote tailored to your facility list and service requirements.

Switzerland has specific regulatory and physical infrastructure requirements that affect server migration planning. Reboot Monkey engineers are briefed on all of these before working in Swiss facilities. <strong>Power and electrical infrastructure</strong> Switzerland operates on 230V/50Hz alternating current. The standard domestic and commercial socket in Switzerland is the Type J three-pin plug (SEV 1011 standard), which is unique to Switzerland and not interchangeable with European Schuko (Type F) or UK plugs without an adapter. Servers and rack-mounted equipment imported from other countries may arrive with different power cords. Before migration, Reboot Monkey verifies that every device in scope has the correct power cord specification for the destination facility. For equipment with universal power supplies (100-240V input), only the cord needs to change. For older equipment with fixed-input power supplies, a step-down transformer or replacement power supply may be required. This verification is part of the pre-migration audit. <strong>nFADP compliance</strong> The new Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP) took effect on 1 September 2023. It modernises Switzerland's data protection framework to align with GDPR principles while maintaining Switzerland's independent legal status outside the EU. For server migrations, nFADP has direct operational implications. Personal data processing records must be maintained, including records of where personal data is stored and which third parties access it. When servers containing personal data are moved from one facility to another, the data controller's processing register must be updated to reflect the new physical location. Where Reboot Monkey engineers access or handle systems that process personal data during migration, they do so under a data processing agreement that meets nFADP Article 9 requirements for third-party processors. The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) is the enforcement authority for nFADP. Non-compliance with notification and documentation requirements can result in administrative fines of up to CHF 250,000 per incident. <strong>FINMA outsourcing requirements</strong> For clients operating under FINMA supervision (banks, securities dealers, insurance companies, and asset managers), FINMA Circular 2021/2 on outsourcing requires that critical or sensitive functions performed by third parties be governed by a written outsourcing agreement that specifies, among other things, the service scope, location of data processing, audit rights, and data security obligations. Physical datacenter services, including migrations, fall within scope when they involve systems that process client assets or regulated data. Reboot Monkey maintains service agreements that include the provisions required under FINMA Circular 2021/2. For FINMA-regulated clients, we provide chain-of-custody documentation as a standard deliverable, confirming the identity of every technician who handled the equipment, the time of each handling event, and the physical location of equipment at all times during transit. <strong>Swiss banking secrecy and NDA requirements</strong> Switzerland's banking secrecy framework (Banking Act, Article 47) creates confidentiality obligations for employees of banks and financial institutions. This extends to third-party contractors who access systems or premises covered by client confidentiality. Before any Reboot Monkey engineer enters a Swiss financial institution's colocation environment, they sign a facility-specific non-disclosure agreement. This is standard procedure, not an exception. The combination of nFADP, FINMA requirements, and banking secrecy makes Swiss server migration a more documentation-intensive process than equivalent work in most other European markets. Reboot Monkey's Swiss migration methodology is designed around this documentation requirement, not treated as an add-on.

Reboot Monkey is not affiliated with any Swiss datacenter operator. We are not a Equinix partner programme member, a Digital Realty managed services reseller, or a Swisscom ecosystem participant. This independence is deliberate and operationally significant. Facility operators in Switzerland provide their own on-site support services under names like Equinix Smart Hands and Digital Realty On-Site Operations. These services are delivered by the facility's own staff and are subject to the facility's own service model, pricing, and availability. They are useful for tasks within the facility's defined scope. However, facility staff typically do not perform deep diagnostic work on customer-owned hardware, do not engage in post-migration verification testing, and are not available to coordinate work across multiple operators simultaneously. When a migration involves moving equipment from a Digital Realty facility in Zurich to an Equinix facility in Geneva, a client who relies on facility-provided services must engage two separate operators, coordinate schedules between them, and manage the transport logistics independently. Reboot Monkey handles the full end-to-end scope under a single service agreement, including both ends of the move and the transport between them. Vendor neutrality on hardware means Reboot Monkey engineers hold certifications and hands-on experience across the equipment brands present in Swiss datacenters: Dell, HPE, Cisco, Juniper, NetApp, Pure Storage, Arista, and others. We do not require the client to operate on any particular vendor's equipment to engage our services. The comparison below illustrates the operational differences between facility-provided and third-party migration support. <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Capability</th> <th>Facility-Provided Support</th> <th>Reboot Monkey (Third-Party)</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Scope</td> <td>Tasks within that facility only</td> <td>Any Swiss facility, any operator</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Multi-facility migration</td> <td>Requires two separate engagements</td> <td>Single engagement, both ends</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Hardware vendor coverage</td> <td>Limited to in-scope hardware</td> <td>Dell, HPE, Cisco, Juniper, NetApp, Arista, and others</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Chain-of-custody documentation</td> <td>Facility-specific format</td> <td>Standard format, audit-ready for nFADP and FINMA</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Post-migration verification</td> <td>Not typically included</td> <td>Included in every engagement</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Transport management</td> <td>Not provided</td> <td>Included, with customs documentation where needed</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> For clients with equipment distributed across multiple Swiss facilities, a single Reboot Monkey engagement covers the entire migration scope. <a href="/en/remote-hands/switzerland/">Remote hands services in Switzerland</a> provide the ongoing post-migration support once the migration is complete, under the same vendor-neutral, multi-facility model.

Server migration in Switzerland is most frequently required by four buyer categories, each with distinct drivers and documentation needs. <strong>Financial services firms (Zurich and Geneva)</strong> Banks, asset managers, insurance companies, and fintech firms colocating in Zurich or Geneva typically migrate servers when consolidating from older to newer facilities, when their primary colocation contract expires, or when FINMA audit findings require infrastructure changes. The Swiss Banking Act and FINMA Circular 2021/2 mean that physical infrastructure changes are subject to formal change management processes. Reboot Monkey provides migration runbooks and chain-of-custody records that support both internal approval processes and external auditor requirements. The Zurich financial cluster includes operations from institutions connected to the SIX Swiss Exchange and large international banks with Swiss booking centres. <strong>Pharmaceutical and life sciences companies (Basel)</strong> Roche, Novartis, Sandoz, and their supplier ecosystems operate significant IT infrastructure in and around Basel. Migrations for this sector frequently involve equipment used in regulated research or manufacturing environments, where validation documentation (IQ/OQ records for infrastructure changes) may be required. Reboot Monkey's written migration reports provide the documentation baseline required for IT infrastructure qualification processes in GxP-regulated environments. <strong>International organisations (Geneva)</strong> The United Nations, the WHO, the WTO, the International Red Cross, and dozens of affiliated agencies and NGOs maintain datacenter infrastructure in Geneva. Migrations for this segment typically involve high confidentiality requirements and specific access control protocols. Reboot Monkey engineers complete facility-specific access vetting and sign applicable confidentiality agreements before any engagement. <strong>Mid-market technology companies (Nationwide)</strong> Swiss technology companies and managed service providers (MSPs) without dedicated on-site IT teams use Reboot Monkey when they need to move equipment between colocation facilities without deploying their own staff. For this segment, the key value is operational: a fixed-price migration with a clear scope, a single engineer contact, and a written confirmation that everything was done correctly. The Swiss colocation market had high occupancy rates across major facilities, meaning facility capacity is constrained and companies frequently need to move to secure space at a different operator when their current contract does not offer expansion room. For any of these buyer types, the starting point is a scoping conversation. Reboot Monkey does not issue standard migration quotes without reviewing the device list, origin and destination facilities, and timeline. The quote reflects the actual scope of work, not a generic per-rack rate. <a href="/en/contact/">Contact Reboot Monkey</a> to discuss your server migration project in Switzerland.