News International

Our Customer

The main UK subsidiary of an International News Corporation

Project Highlights

• Multiple Servers and Populated Racks to be moved in 24 hour timeframe
• Minimum of downtime essential as business-critical 24/7
• Datacentre migration from two sites to a new building
• Weekend working mandatory

The Brief

To relocate the entire Data centre from two East London locations to a new purpose-built centre less than three miles away. A variety of IT equipment including Servers, Populated Racks, Tape Libraries and Cabling and all within a very tight schedule of 24 hours to minimise downtime and loss of business to the customer.

The Project

Sunspeed was successful in winning this contract following an intensive ITT and a request for at least three references from similar projects that we had undertaken and which we were able to provide. A Project Manager was appointed to oversee the de-commissioning, transport and re-commissioning processes and a full equipment audit and site survey were completed to establish the scope of the project. A team of four personnel and vehicles were assigned; all worked continuously to complete the project within the timeframe and to budget.

Overcoming challenges

There were some challenges to this project which were overcome using Sunspeed's expertise, correct handling equipment and site surveys. These included an old SunFire 6800 which had not been switched off for a long period of time and it was essential that it was not allowed to 'bounce' during the move; temporary air-conditioning units had to be relocated before the Racks could be moved; a 72" Rack had to have new screws and cage nuts to allow it to be re-installed into the new racks and equipment had to be re-configured.

The move was a success and the customer was completely satisfied with Sunspeed's service.

This was a huge and very time-critcal project with only a 24-hour window of opportunity, but Sunspeed delivered successfully on all fronts.