Project Description

A $6.9 billion global manufacturer of automotive, aerospace, marine, rail, and industrial supplies with 40,000 employees located in 36 countries needed to plan and execute a complete data center relocation. Altus adopted a proven methodology of collaboration to mitigate risk and to successfully migrate servers – leading to full customer satisfaction.

Profile

An innovative and diversified $6.9 billion global supplier of quality products, trusted grants and creative solutions for manufacturers of automotives, light commercial rail, heavy-duty & off-highway vehicles, power generation, aerospace, marine, and industrial solutions. The company has 40,000 individuals located in 36 countries.

Client Environment

The data center environment consisted of a variety of IT equipment from vendors such as IBM, Sun, HP, CISCO, and EMC.

The Challenge

The primary goal was to make the relocation of all IT systems a “non-event” outside of the company. All EDI processes were to be maintained while meeting the other targets set for the project. The project team was to develop strategies for the relocation that would maximize the re-use of existing equipment.

This project included the development of several cost cases for the relocation plan, which included a risk assessment for each cost case.

The Solution

The original data center relocation concept, which was a cost-based approach, had to be converted to a risk-based approach in order to meet the business requirements. High-profile servers were asset-swapped prior to the move to shorten the relocation time as much as possible and to reduce the risk profile.

To allow a multiple-week migration to occur, applications were completely mapped to determine dependencies. This ensured that inter-dependent applications were moved together on the same weekend.

Critical Success Factors

  • Altus adopted a proven methodology and approach
  • Used a collaborative rather than directive approach
  • Brought in resources when needed and on a timely basis
  • Used “mitigate the relocation risks” as the guiding principle
  • Leveraged IT best practices in accomplishing the relocation

Your company or enterprise business may not span the globe or employ a town’s worth of workers, but we’ll treat your data center move like it does! For data center migrations or relocations, please consider Altus Technologies and our record of achievement. Contact us to get a conversation started; learn about our many other Data Center services while you’re here.