Leading Global Provider of Secure Digital Infrastructure Services
Massive Data Center Consolidation
Business Challenge
The client, a leading global provider of secure digital infrastructure, had gone through several years of rapid acquisitions of smaller firms around the globe. As part of their organizational strategy, they needed to consolidate all oftheir data center operations under a central leadership and a single organization. As a result of the acquisitions, the client needed to evaluate ten domestic data centers and decide if they should be consolidated into two of the Client’s existing data centers or if new data centers should be built. The client also needed to manage the new data center migration strategy within a very aggressive time frame of 12 to 18 months.
The Solution
"Strategy, Inventory, Budget and Recommendation for consolidating ten large Data Centers containing thousands of applications (one with an associated 4 terrabytes of data) was delivered in 12 weeks.
Expected cost savings for client: over $20M"
Acumen Solutions is providing the following three services to this client:
- Strategy - which included an inventory of assets, a full cost analysis for their budget purposes and a recommendation for how best to proceed with consolidation. (complete)
- Project management and execution – to deliver this consolidation on time and on-budget. (on-going)
- Support the strategy, planning and execution of the build-out of a new Data Center. (on-going)
Acumen Solutions began this project with a 12 week feasibility study to determine whether or not the data centers could be consolidated in a commercially advantageous manner within the given timeline. Acumen Solutions evaluated how cost effective it would be to do the consolidation under the time frame proposed and if it should be done at all. We conducted a thorough study of the client’s current data center spending levels with their key suppliers of IT hardware, software, and services and the prices, terms, and conditions that they have given them relative to their spending levels with them. Acumen Solutions used its proprietary cost-benchmark database to create an internally focused view of the client’s data center IT costs, organized by IT service, with comparisons with benchmarks based upon organizations of a similar size and nature. We then formulated an action plan for achieving those savings in the least-disruptive and most efficient manner.
Acumen Solutions inventoried all of the hardware that the client had in its data centers and analyzed the applications that they used. At the end of the study Acumen Solutions recommended a consolidation into two data centers andprovided their analysis of how much it would cost, how much the client would save and what it would take to get it done.
Next Acumen Solutions was engaged by the client to executethe recommendations that they made for the consolidation of the data centers. During the execution phase, Acumen Solutions has recommended what technologies the client should use on a daily basis. In addition to technology selection, Acumen Solutions mapped out the network architecture and performed all tasks required for the data center consolidation including scheduling resources, and putting together bills of materials, etc. This included everything from the high level planning through very detailed execution such as tracking that everything is tested and optimized prior to conversion. This is a full life cycle data center migration project.
Return on Investment
As a result of this data center consolidation work the client expects to realize a total cost savings of over $20 million dollars.
