2 b brychan watkins
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Transcript of 2 b brychan watkins
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?