Plexent was chosen by a Fortune500 technology services and outsourcing corporation to leverage its intellectual property and project management expertise for a large scale data center migration project.
This initiative required migrating thousands of systems, hardware, applications,tools and processes from the end customer's 25+ data centers to the service provider's facilities.
The complexities around the size and scope of this project were met successfully by Plexent's certified Project Management Professionals (PMPs) who utilized the PMBOK® methodology while leveraging Plexent's vast itDNA® knowledge base. Based on an expanded Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) architecture, itDNA allowed Plexent to provide the added benefit of process improvement while consolidation and migration efforts were taking place. This synergistic approach,made possible by itDNA, resulted in a significant cost savings for the customer specifically in the areas of Service Level Management, Configuration Management, and Release Management.
Service Level Management
Situation
The service provider's client host server environment was historically heterogeneous,often with unsupported hardware and operating system/software configurations. Additionally, the infrastructure supported client-facing applications that were the prime revenue generators for the customer.
Opportunity
These challenges required a thorough Business Impact Analysis derived from the itDNA knowledge base in order to identify the critical business factors and potential risks associated with loss of service.
These identifiers included:
- Reviewing existing Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
- Analyzing potential service loss and adverse revenue impact
- Determining the temporal effects of a continued loss of service due to an incident
Recovery times and requirements to continue to provide a minimal yet acceptable level of service during the recovery period were likewise detailed.
Result
Plexent's Business Impact Analysis coupled with a strict project management methodology, provided the necessary enablers to develop a successful migration strategy. This strategy was cost effective yet provided the appropriate level of service management to meet customer demands and mitigate any risk of financial loss due to unplanned outages.
Configuration Management
Situation
Configuration items within the infrastructure environment were not centrally recorded. Data on many components was non-existent.
Opportunity
Remediation would require designing an effective migration and consolidation strategy, while providing continued support for on-going Service Management processes. Additionally, Configuration Items (CIs) would need to be identified and recorded in order to establish a verified Configuration Management Database (CMDB).
Result
As part of the project deliverables, a full system CMDB was developed which contained all the relevant details of CIs and relationships between the CIs. Relevant processes were also developed to ensure the integrity of the CMDB during and post-migration.
Release Management
Situation
Business needs required a mass migration of 2000+ servers over a relatively short time period with actualplanned outages kept to a minimum.
Opportunity
itDNA principles regarding Release Management provide a basis for gathering people, processes, and technology for a significant hardware release or application change.
Result
A comprehensive plan was designed to release new or changed CIs into the environment. Plan specifics included the following:
- Testing
- Communication
- Defining distinct roles and responsibilities matrices
- Coordinating with Change
- Management, Incident Management, Problem Management, and Configuration Management Processes
- Management of stakeholder expectation levels
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