Data Center Solutions

About Client
Client delivers digital entertainment to consumers around the world. Client gave the Internet a voice in 1995 with the first audio streaming solution for the Internet, streaming audio. Continued innovation led to generations of streaming video and its desktop player, which is downloaded millions of times per week.

As services expanded, Client required two data centers with close proximity to a new business partner. Metagyre was engaged to design and manage activities related to the new data centers in Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

This project consisted of building out two new collocation centers, deploying network, server and storage equipment and bringing them on-line. Each data center supported a physical production environment and a virtualized test environment. Client uses a number of technologies to deliver world class services to their customers. This technology includes: EMC storage, Cisco, Checkpoint, Citrix, Dell, VMware, Linux, MySQL, and Oracle.

Design and Build Out

• Design and build out the two new data center facilities including electrical, structured cabling and internet connectivity utilizing collocation facility staff.
• Manage the procurement, shipping and deployment of network, storage and server equipment into the new locations.
• Schedule collocation facility activities for equipment receipt and storage prior to deployment.
• Design rack layouts, server placement, power distribution and port assignments.
• Schedule and manage all professional services and sub-contracts for activities requiring third party activities or equipment purchases. Professional services included the deployment and initial configuration of new storage services.
• Schedule and manage client staff to perform the configuration of new networks, storage assignments, physical server and virtualization services.
• Plan application and data tasks for all applications within the two data centers including the test plans for each.
• Secure stakeholder buy off for each component (owned and shared by multiple stake holders).
• Test core data center infrastructure, redundant power and networking.
• Stage, test and verify networks, servers and storage as operational.

Data Center Build out
Metagyre performed all design and procurement activities on location in Seattle while working closely with client staff to ensure buy off from stakeholders across numerous departments and external business partners. Because of the remote location and Client’s desire to perform the build with their own staff, Metagyre performed several dry runs with the Client team to guarantee all scheduled activities were understood and could be performed within the desired time frames. Additionally, Metagyre managed the equipment procurement and shipping process to reduce delays imposed by customs and other European import regulations.

During the on site deployment, Metagyre managed the teams remotely and provided technical and logistical assistance while reporting progress to stakeholders. Vendor involvement was tightly synchronized by Metagyre to make sure remote staff time was optimized and required vendor support was available.

Following the build out and resiliency testing, the Client application development team deployed the application stack into the test and production environments.

Obstacles
These data centers represented new business ventures for Client with very tight budget constraints. In order to minimize the infrastructure investment and maximize financial return, Metagyre led numerous iterations of design sessions with client engineers. Our understanding of the complete data center stack allowed us to ensure the network, storage, server and infrastructure provided a complete solution within the business and budgetary constraints.

Project Summary
Client’s new data centers were successfully implemented in the originally budgeted dollar amount and time frame. By carefully running activities across diverse teams and vendors, Metagyre was able to complete the project in a heavily matrixed organization. Following the deployment, Client has continued to expand its online services.