The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/34686
SCALING THE DATACENTER MOUNTAIN “The new datacenter has been a practically no-touch system.” delays. We also knew there were going to be some considerable up-front costs, but the technology was solid and something we knew we could build on for the future, so we initiated the plan. The new solution stack provided immediate and significant cost reductions on our carrier services, and the Cisco UCS blade server/network reduced the power requirements and the physical footprint of the new datacenter facility. We also saw immediate cost savings with a reduction in cooling needs. The unified solution provided a dynamic computing, storage and network platform that facilitated immediate storage space savings and improvement in data flow and communication within our firm. Moving forward, the new architecture will enable stronger business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) capabilities through site-to-site failover and a centrally managed storage system. As we migrate core applications such as Exchange, SharePoint and SQL (for billing and business processes), we are plotting the centralization of our document management and litigation support systems. The Move With the fundamentals planned, CDW’s project team worked closely with Cisco, NetApp and other providers to ensure that all components of the new architecture were configured, tested and fully prepared for integration upon delivery. We kept in close communication with CDW’s team, as well as the solution partners, ensuring that all parties clearly understood the nature and detail of every challenge encountered, and that all of the partners were in agreement on the details of the system’s integration. The technology partner teams, led by CDW and working closely with our own IT staff, plotted a timeline to complete delivery, installation and cutover of datacenter services ahead of the termination date on the old colocation contract. As CDW helped coordinate deliveries to the new facility, our IT team prepared the site and was on hand to assemble the new equipment as it arrived. CDW’s professional services team provided an on-site engineer to work with our staff on the initial site survey, ensuring that power, cooling and other aspects of the location met the necessary specifications. Once the equipment was in place, CDW returned to assist with cabling the Cisco UCS and NetApp systems, working with the partner representatives remotely to ensure that all of the connectivity was locked in place. The CDW on-site engineer’s primary mission was to configure and integrate the Cisco UCS system, providing knowledge transfer as he worked side-by-side with our team. CDW’s extensive prior experience with the platform made it possible to complete cutover and migration of the datacenter within five working days from the start of assembly. The move to the new datacenter was completed within three months of our first meeting with CDW. Their voice and data teams double-checked the first carrier services and colocation billings to be certain that they were accurate and met the terms of the contract. Today, Peer to Peer the quarterly magazine of ILTA 57