ADVANTAGE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY DATA CENTRE MIGRATION
Prepared by James Moran, a project management instructor at the College of Business, Oregon
State University.
Brian Smith, network administrator at Advanced Energy Technology (AED, has been given the
responsibility of implementing the migration of a large data centre to a new office location. Careful
planning is needed because AET operates in the highly competitive petroleum industry. AET is
one of five national software companies that provide an accounting and business management
package for petrol distributors. and small-size oil extraction companies. A few years ago, AET
jumped into the 'application service provider' world. Their large data centre provides clients
with remote access to AET's complete suite of application software systems. Traditionally, one
of AET's primary competitive advantages has been the company's trademark IT reliability. Due
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to the complexity of this project, Brian will have to use a parallel method of implementation.
Although this will increase project costs, a parallel approach is essential if reliability is not to be
compromised.
Currently, AET's data centre is located downtown on the second floor of a renovated old bank
building in an American medium-size city. The company is moving to a new, one-level building
located in the recently developed industrial complex at the city's international airport. On
1 February, Brian is formally assigned the task by the Vice-President of Operations, Dan Whitmore,
with the following guidelines:
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From start to finish, it is anticipated the entire project will take three to four months to complete.
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It is essential that AET's 235 clients suffer no downtime.
Whitmore advises Brian to come back to the executive committee on 15 February with a
presentation on the scope of the project that includes costs, 'first-cut' timeline and proposed
project team members.
Brian has some preliminary discussions with some of AET's managers and directors from each
of the functional departments and then arranges for a full-day scope meeting on 4 February
with a few of the managers and technical representatives from operations, systems, facilities and
applications. The scope team determines the following:
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Three to four months is a feasible project timeline and first-cut cost estimate is $180000-
$190000 (this includes the infrastructure upgrade of the new site).
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Critical to the 'no-downtime' requirement is the need to completely rely on AET's remote
disaster recovery 'hot' site for full functionality.
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Brianwill serve as project manager of a team consisting of one team member each from
facilities, operations/systems, operations/telecommunications,
systems and applications and
customer service.
Brian's executive committee report is positively received and, after a few modifications and
recommendations, he is formally charged with responsibility for the project. Brian recruits his
team and schedules their first team meeting (1 March) as the initial task of his project-planning
process.
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Once the initial meeting is conducted Brian can hire the contractors to renovate the new
data centre. During this time Brian will figure out how to design the network. Brian estimates
that screening and hiring a contractor will take about one week and that the network design will
take about two weeks. The new centre requires a new ventilation system. The manufacturer's
requirements include an ambient temperature of 19 degrees Celsius to keep all of the data servers
running at optimal speeds. The ventilation system has a lead time of three weeks. Brian will also
need to order new racks to hold the servers, switches and other network devices. The racks have a
two-week delivery time.
The data centre supervisor requested that Brian repl~ce all of the old power supplies and
data cables. Brian will need to order these as welt.Because Brian has a great relationship with the
vendor, they guarantee that it will take only one week lead time for the power supplies and the
data cables. Once the new ventilation system and racks arrive, Brian can begin installing them.
It will take one week to install the ventilation system and three weeks to install the racks. The
renovation of the new data centre can begin as soon as the contractors have been hired. The
contractors tell Brian that construction will take 20 days. Once the construction begins and before
Brian installs the ventilation system and racks, the city inspector must approve the construction of
the raised floor.
The city inspector will take two days to approve the infrastructure. After the city inspection and
after the new power supplies and cables have arrived, Brian can install the power supplies and run
the cables. Brian estimates that it will take five days to install the power supplies and one week
to run all of the data cables. Before Brian can assign an actual date for taking the network offline
and switching to the new site, he must get approval from each of the functional units ('switchover
approval'). Meetings with each of the functional Units will require one week. During this time he
can initiate a power check to ensure that each of the racks has sufficient voltage. This will require
only one day.
Upon completion of the power check, he can take one week to install his test servers. The test
servers will test all of the primary network functions and act as a safeguard before the network is
:aken offline. The batteries must be charged, ventilation installed and test servers up and running
oefore management can be assured that the new infrastructure is safe, which will take two days.
"hen they will sign off the primary systems check, taking one day of intense meetings. They will
also set an official date for the network move.
Brian is happy that everything has gone well thus far and is convinced that the move will go
,Jst as smoothly. Now that an official date is set, the network will be shut down for a day. Brian
ust move all of the network components to the new data centre. Brian will do the move over the
eekend-two
days-when
user traffic is at a low point.
Generate a priority matrix for AET's system move.
Develop a WBS for Brian's project. Include duration (days)and predecessors.
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Using a project planning tool, generate a network diagram for this project.
ate: Base your plan on the following guidelines: eight-hour days, seven-day weeks, no holiday
::-eaks, 1 March is the project start date.)
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