How to Move a Datacentre

Brychan WatkinsHead of IS, Action for Children

Ben GrinstedSenior Infrastructure & Security

Analyst

History

What were the issues?

• Data Centre in a converted kitchen• In 3.5 years:• 5 Power cuts

• 2 Major Communications failures

• 1 Burst water main

• Site power consumption within 5 amps of the max (of 200 amps per phase).

• Disaster Recovery time estimated at 4 months

Part of a Programme

• Increase flexibility of access• Network Improvement• Reduce Environmental Impact• Data consolidation & data security• Improve Systems Availability• Introduce effective service

continuity• Unification of Communications• Improve IS Security

What did it take?

3 years of precursor projects6 months of planning4 months of prep work4 days - Thursday 5pm to Tuesday 9amSeveral 100 hrs of overtime6 hrs contingency - all used.1 completely new networking technology

(Xsigo)6 'specialist' IT removers2 lorries1 Toyota to crash into the back of the

above

What did it take?

IS staff working 400+ hrs over the weekend.Testers across the UK 1 rogue router plugged in where it shouldn't

have been30 pizzas (approximately)1 lonely Mimesweeper box to hold all the email 1 trip the wrong way down a dual carriage way

in Docklands.1 Fanatical project manager 2K Capital underspend (who counted the VAT

twice?)

The Precursors

• Virtualise our servers - VMware.• Storage Area Network – dual

Netapp• Disk based backup – Evault• Network upgrade – 100Mb/sec

MPLS

Where did we move to?

Packing up

Transporting

And installed

The new datacentre

What have we achieved?

• Greatly improved service stability• Better than 99.93%

• Zero power or cooling failures

• Separated Test/train and live systems

• No one fiddling with the equipment

• New ways of working• Lights out remote management

• Emphasis on good change control

• Capacity management

What have we achieved?

Effective Disaster recovery capability• Now estimated at 2 days for critical

systems.Highly flexible computing provision• Xsigo ‘virtualised’ core network.• Have now created own internal

cloud• Going for 90% virtualised.

Effect on the Business

• Minimal• ‘Thin cliented’ a few older applications

• Most users did not notice.

• Because• Most computer use not at HQ

• Most applications Web or Thin Client Delivery.

• Key enabler for our move to Watford

And then we did it again

Watford Fallback Datacentre

Questions?