Corporate Data Center Relocation

PROJECT PROFILE

Our client for this project was a manufacturer with an existing data center they wished to be relocated within the same building.

Key Requirements included:

• Total downtime <12 hours: It was critical that the data center was down for no more than 12 hours during the transition and cutover to the new data center.

• Must reuse existing equipment (no swing gear): With the exception of new equipment cabinets must re-use all of their existing hardware and software.

• Space Constrained: The physical size of the two data centers, hallways, etc. was such that we could not simply have a large crew move everything at once. So all activities needed to be carefully sequenced.

• Repurpose old data center space: The old data center space was to be reconfigured and prepared for re-use as general office space.

OUR APPROACH

We had overall project management responsibility from inception to completion.

Key Activities included:

• We performed a detailed inventory on all existing data center hardware and software.

• We created a design for the new data center that accommodated existing requirements while enhancing reliability of power, cooling, fire suppression, network connectivity, and providing for future growth.

• We managed the construction of the new data center facility.

• We simulated and timed how long it took to perform a normal shutdown on each piece of equipment, the time it took to uninstall, relocate, and perform normal startup with detailed instructions on how to accomplish same.

• We created a detailed plan with work broken into 15 minute segments to allow us to manage what work was being performed at any given time to allow us to avoid resource collisions and equipment being restored out of sequence. The plan included contingency for rollback and fix-forward strategies.

RESULTS

The data center moved within the 12-hour window as planned. All data center services restored successfully in the new data center with no loss of capability.

The old data center space was reconfigured for general office space use by removing all wiring, hardware, etc. from its prior use as a data center.

The client's Chief Information Officer (CIO) said about the project that it was one of the best-executed projects he had ever seen. He decided after the project, and with our blessing, to hire one of our project resources as a full-time employee working directly for him.