Data Center Strategy and Services Experts An … · A successful data center relocation requires careful planning and, above all, experience, to execute successfully. It is important

ALTUS TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION

© Copyright Altus Technologies Corporation

An Introduction to Move Methods September, 2009

Data Center Strategy and Services Experts



About Altus – Who We Are

  Established in 1996 with headquarters in Northeast Ohio

  I/T Consultants averaging over 25 years of experience each

  Specialize in Data Center Strategy especially Acquisitions, Moves, and Consolidations (and related activities)

  Everyone, including project managers, have a deep technical background ensuring that plans are not only well run, but technically feasible

  The combination of strong project management skills and technical breadth and depth allowed Altus to create a methodology designed to create high level strategies that take in the “big picture” yet work all the way down to the most detailed level

  Recognized and used by IBM, EMC and others as as Relocation Specialists

  Have been relocating Data Centers for Fortune 500 companies for over a decade

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Altus Services – What We Do

•  Data Center Strategy – Future Growth Requirements

– Power Analysis

– Telecom Analysis

– Virtualization Analysis

– Tier Analysis

– Geo Political Analysis

•  Relocation & Consolidation – High Level Planning/Move

Strategy – Detailed Planning

– Move Execution

•  Production Control Analysis – Service Level Management

– Root Cause Analysis

•  Data Center Security – Physical Security (card-key

access)

– Network/System Security

– Firewall/DMZ Design/Implementation

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Data Center Consolidation and Relocation – Why Altus

Hiring an experienced relocation specialist reduces your risk

 A successful data center relocation requires careful planning and, above all, experience, to execute successfully. It is important to realize that any relocation will include unforeseen events.

 Trying to eliminate every possibility is unrealistic, but a specialist can lead you to minimize risks by planning ahead based on experience with similar environments and move strategies and showing you where to leave room in your schedule and budget for last-minute changes.

 An experienced specialist will direct you in working closely with your vendors to communicate your plans and enlist their help in the process.

 Protect and reduce your risk by hiring an experienced relocation specialist to help you plan and manage the process. This ultimately pays for itself. The money you spend is offset by the peace of mind you’ll gain by knowing your move is in the hands of an expert, and insures that your data center relocation is accomplished according to your business requirements.

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Facilities Technology IT Process Skills &

Staff

I Relocation Requirement and Assessment

II Relocation Planning – Transition Plan

III Implementation

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Introduction We will leverage the proven three-phase approach for data center relocations to assist our customer with the planning and execution of the move

Relocation Planning – Detail



Introduction By defining key requirements, we will work together with our customer to identify inhibitors and focus on the business drivers that must be met to reach the desired targets

Goal

Inhibitors

Business Drivers/Decisions

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 "I need the system back by ..."

 “You can take the system on …”

 Criticality to operations

 What risk level is acceptable

 Maintain service levels through relocation activities

 Time required to accomplish activity

 Risk Event

 Dependencies



Introduction The relocation requirements will be defined and refined using a decision making process driven by proven templates

Planning Questions

Requirements

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 Max outage window

 Data backup sizing

 Data restore timings

 Mirror, swap, swing, or refresh equipment

 What are the normal hours of operation?

 What is the service level target?

 What are the data feeds?

 What are the data outputs?

  ……



Introduction The use of this approach allows us, together, to assess the current infrastructure, document any gaps, and create a “target“ model

Our Responsibilities  Provide approach and guidelines to validate the data center relocation requirements.

 Provide technical assessment of present data center resources, processes, and infrastructure including gaps.

 Provide budget estimates for phased relocation plan for moving the data center assets based on risk, value, dependencies, scope, and impact.

 Provide timeline estimates for the phased approach including the development of a transition plan, detailed project plan, issue list, and risk analysis. This will be used to develop the final data relocation plans and time tables.

Customer Responsibilities  Provide resources at the appropriate level to sponsor and steer project.

 Participate in planning sessions, workshops, status meetings, and reviews.

 Provide documentation and information on existing infrastructure.

 Make the necessary business and technical resources available for planning sessions, workshops, and interviews.

 Provide on-site facilities to conduct planning sessions, workshops, and Interviews.

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Phase I Facilitated planning sessions will provide the high level "launch point" from which to drive the timetable, plan, and budget

Phase I – Relocation Requirement and Assessment

 Creates a road map to maximize present infrastructure capabilities and provides the analysis for the infrastructure adjustments needed to support the requirements of the data center relocation.

 Develops the strategic understanding of present infrastructure capabilities and the risk opportunities contained in the infrastructure.

 Provides interaction with skilled and experienced resources in the analysis of IT infrastructure, and in the development of the "Business Case” for relocations.

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Phase I Typical Planning Schedule – Phase I

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Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Hold kick-off meeting

Develop project charter

Facilitated Planning Sessions

Requirements development

Document current model

Define target model

Define infrastructure adjustments

Determine initial outage scenarios

Make initial risk assessment

Preliminary Communications Plan

Preliminary Recommendations

Preliminary Timeline

Preliminary Budget

Management Report Milestone



Phase I Phase I Outputs – Requirements Definition Initiation

Phase I Outputs:  Current Hardware Model

 Based on reasonable allocations, not current floor space occupancy  Planned Infrastructure Additions  Planned Infrastructure Adjustments  “Reasonable” outage scenarios  Initial Risk Assessment  Preliminary Timeline  Preliminary Budget

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Phase II – Part 1 Planning workshops will be used to build the transition plan. This plan defines the “basic shape” the relocation will take

Phase II - Relocation Planning – Transition Plan

 Documents the assumptions that will be used through out the planning process. Helps the steering committee understand the impact of the operating unit requirements placed on the relocation.

 Defines the amount risk associated with the project. Begins the process of deciding on the risk acceptance tolerance. Identifies the risk areas in the present infrastructure and possible mitigation opportunities.

 Clearly defines the scope and purpose of the project and begins the process of communicating that information through out the organization.

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Phase II – Part 1 Typical Planning Schedule – Phase II Transition Plan

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Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Hold planning workshops

Develop transition approach

Identify key risk elements

Identify constraints

Identify issues

Finalize target model

Document planning assumptions

Finalize outage scenarios

Refine risk assessment

Refine Communications Plan

Final Recommendations

Refined Timeline

Refined Budget Estimate




Phase II – Part 1 Phase II - Relocation Planning - Transition Plan

Phase II Outputs:  Planning Assumptions – Service level targets, transition options, timetables  Key Risk Elements

 Constraints

 Refined Schedule

 Budget for Detailed Plan

 Refined Estimate for Execution

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Phase II – Part 2 The development of the detailed plan creates the blueprint that will be used to make the relocation a reality

Phase II - Relocation Planning – Detailed Plan

 Documents the step by step approach to migrating the workload. The workshop allows for dialog through out the organization on the approach and builds a consensus view on the plan.

 Defines the dependencies between the users, the applications, and the infrastructure. This information is used to finalize methods, timetables, and costs.

 Continues the process of educating the steering committee on the tradeoffs between risk and cost.

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Phase II – Part 2 Typical Planning Schedule – Phase II Detailed Planning

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Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Hold planning workshops

Develop detailed plan

Validate planning assumptions

Mitigate constraints

Develop risk management plan

Finalize transition model

Determine risk acceptance

Define move elements

Finalize risk assessment

Finalize Communications Plan

Schedule move elements

Finalize Timeline

Finalize Budget Estimate




Phase II – Part 2 Phase II - Detailed Plan

Phase III Outputs:  Define Project Team  Select Planning Assumptions  Risk Management Plan  “Workaround” for Constraints  Obtain Executive “buy-in”  Detailed Schedule  Detailed Budget for Execution

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Phase III The move execution, or executing the relocation plan, is the final yardstick that will determine the success of the relocation

Phase III – Implementation

 Provides the necessary quality controls to maximize our customer’s chances for success

 Validates the dependencies between the users, the applications, and the infrastructure. This information is used to allow our customer to make an informed decision on whether to proceed at this point or not with the relocation

 Provides the opportunity to improve the IT operations effort on a go-forward basis by examining what went right and wrong

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Phase III Typical Planning Schedule – Phase III

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Week 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 Detailed plan walk through

Infrastructure build out

Test workload migration plans

Communication Plan

Dry Run Testing

Organizational Readiness

Go / NoGo Decision

Migrate Workload

Validate Migration

User Acceptance

Heightened Support

Cleanup

Document lessons learned


Milestone

Milestone



Phase III Phase III – Move Execution / Close Out

Phase III Outputs: Phase III – Plan Implementation

 Simulate relocation

 Test backup plans

 Install transition hardware  Communicate to customers

 De-install, move and re-install

 Validation and acceptance test

Close Out  Lessons learned

 Cleanup

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Next Steps

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