The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/34686
CASE STUDIES Our first challenge was to make the move with as little disruption as possible and to take advantage of existing technologies. Since we were already doing a significant amount of virtualization at the old site, we also felt that this was a perfect opportunity to set up a new state-of-the- art datacenter in a facility that was designed to support virtualization initiatives. Our management team had given us some aggressive cost-reduction goals, even before the recession, yet we projected continued rapid growth of the business that would demand higher levels of service from IT. This project was our largest single opportunity to deliver on both of those expectations — and we had to do it without adding staff. The decision to move the datacenter was far easier than actually doing it. Our IT staff needed to provide “We are plotting the centralization of our document management and litigation support systems.” ongoing support to McKenna Long & Aldridge, even as we faced the daunting task of identifying, understanding, evaluating, selecting and implementing all of the building blocks for the new datacenter. SELECTING THE SOLUTION After considering a number of approaches, we selected CDW to present us with a range of options for each major element of the new datacenter including: the carrier provider; the facility; and the server, storage and network platforms. As a leading partner to the industry’s major carriers, original equipment manufacturers and software vendors — and with teams of specialists, engineers and architects for each system — CDW was well-positioned to understand our needs and translate them to prospective providers. CDW’s design and installation expertise also gave us confidence that the move would stay on track once launched. 56 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer The Building Blocks Under the deadline of the expiring colocation contract, we were challenged to solve the myriad, interlocking problems at the lowest possible risk. CDW worked with a number of its partners to prepare and present several tailored, integrated solution stacks for us to consider. They introduced the newest technologies available and provided white papers and information sessions from prospective equipment sources. We were already a very satisfied NetApp customer, having migrated most of our storage architecture to NetApp in conjunction with the firm’s VMware-based server virtualization initiative. CDW’s project leadership convened meetings with NetApp and VMware representatives to whiteboard solution alternatives that would assure us a continued tight integration in the new datacenter. Very early in the planning, once we decided to move to Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) for our server and networking infrastructure, CDW coordinated partner activities on the project, leading design and validation meetings to ensure that all components would be compatible; for example, confirming that Cisco UCS is optimized for VMware’s vSphere 4.0. After CDW and the partners presented the options, we chose: • The carrier and facility: Net2EZ, a national provider of network services and colocation solutions, would provide the colocation environment, scalable bandwidth and redundant connections to reliably support the new datacenter in a DuPont Fabros colocation facility in Northern Virginia. Net2EZ now supports the datacenter and its interconnection with McKenna Long & Aldridge offices around the country, but the DuPont Fabros location is carrier-neutral, giving us the future option of changing carriers without relocating physically. • The server platform: Cisco UCS, an integrated server/ network datacenter platform would simplify management while providing flexibility to grow and change with the firm’s business requirements. The new architecture includes the VMware server virtualization platform, for which Cisco UCS is fully optimized. • The storage platform: NetApp would support the law firm’s unified data management strategy with its unified storage architecture, built around an FAS 3140 cluster and its NFS protocol and enabled with Cisco Nexus 10 GB infrastructure. Initially, with this mix of new technologies and since there was a tight time frame for the move, we were concerned about the risk factors associated with potential