· Palaniappan P
· 9 min read
Data Center Exit on AWS (2026): Wave Design, the 22-Month Program, and Why Big-Bang Cutovers Fail on People Before Tech
A composite mid-market manufacturer exited a colo of 150 workloads and ~400 TB in 21 months across 8 waves, with 47 minutes of unplanned cutover downtime (industry median per Gartner: ~4 hours per major cutover). The single-wave alternative bid came in at ~$4.8M; the wave-based program ran ~$2.1M. Here is how the wave plan, dependency cutoff, and rollback layer fit together against a hard landlord deadline.