The Challenge

The client was consolidating infrastructure across two regulated gambling jurisdictions. The project involved two separate but simultaneous cross-border moves, each with its own customs requirements, logistics chain and installation demands:

Move 1: 14RU of Cisco switch and network infrastructure from Northern England to a data centre in Sliema, Malta — requiring full reconfiguration after reinstallation

Move 2: 20RU of server equipment from Stockholm, Sweden to a data centre in Gibraltar — requiring customs clearance at the Spanish border before entry to Gibraltar

Both moves needed to run concurrently, with equipment arriving at its destination fully operational within six days of leaving the origin site. The client wanted a completely hands-off service — one provider handling everything from deracking to customs paperwork to final verification.

Our Approach

DataMove managed both relocations simultaneously using our own vehicles and engineering teams. Each move followed the same structured process:

Deracking and packaging: Equipment was carefully removed from the origin racks, labelled, documented and secured in specialist flight cases for road freight

Road freight: Both shipments were transported by road in DataMove vehicles — Northern England through France, Italy and then the ferry to Malta, and Stockholm through Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain and finally into Gibraltar.

Customs clearance: All export and transit documentation was prepared in advance. Malta customs was pre-booked with payments cleared before arrival, ensuring no delays at the destination. At Gibraltar, the team managed the border crossing from Spain, including a three-hour wait for paperwork to be stamped and formally exited from the EU before entry to the territory. Our forwarder partners in Gibraltar ensured all import duties were received from us and cleared before arrival.

Installation and verification: At both destinations, equipment was reracked, cabled and powered on. The Cisco switches in Malta required full reconfiguration to the client’s specifications for their new project scope. Both installations were verified via video call with the client and followed by internal checks to confirm all systems were back online

Why Downtime Wasn’t the Issue

Unlike many data centre migrations where minimising downtime is the primary concern, this project was about redeploying valuable infrastructure to new jurisdictions. The equipment being moved was staging infrastructure with redundancy already in place at third-party data centres, so live services were unaffected throughout.

The priority was retaining the value in existing hardware and reusing it at the client’s new operational bases in Malta and Gibraltar — avoiding the cost of purchasing extremely expensive new equipment while ensuring the relocated kit was fully operational on arrival.

The Outcome

Both moves were completed within six days, on schedule and without incident. The client’s infrastructure was live at both destinations, verified remotely, and the entire project was delivered with what the client described as a fully “hands-off” experience.

The project demonstrated DataMove’s ability to manage multiple simultaneous cross-border relocations across different jurisdictions — coordinating customs, logistics, engineering and client communications in parallel.