ICEFLO Data Center Migration Case Study: Global Bank uses ICEFLO on major Data Centre Migration programme

The Challenge: Finding the Ideal Data Centre Relocation Strategy

Migrating data centres of this scale represents a huge feat of planning, organisation and orchestration. From the outset, the data migration strategy was set and a "big-bang" approach was adopted. Earlier rehearsals hadn't gone as well as was hoped and the complexity of the task was daunting. Multiple workstreams were defined, including applications, infrastructure, networks, shared services, End User Access (EUA) and change management.

• 92 high-value Corporate payments systems to be migrated
• Over 20 technology suppliers involved, with 5 playing a major role
• Over 1,000 Business and Technology people participating in the cutover event
• Participants from 13 different locations, spanning countries around the globe
• Tight time constraints, with a maximum of 4 days to conduct the exercise

ICEFLO was adopted by the programme after a number of spreadsheet-based rehearsals had concluded. The first of many data center migration challenges the Bank faced was importing existing runbook content into the ICEFLO solution. End user training in the solution was also required to support the adoption. 

After some initial scepticism, the team responsible for building runbooks gained confidence in the ICEFLO solution and embraced the change in toolset. Building better quality plans became possible and the integrated view of the data center cutover plan began to emerge.