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Academic Research Search Engine and Content Provider Data Center Assessment
Background
This client provides seamless access to and navigation of more than 125 billion digital pages of the world's scholarship, delivering it to the desktops of serious researchers in multiple fields, from the arts, literature, and social sciences to hard sciences, technology, and medicine. In response to a divestment plan, they needed to develop a new approach to data center services, including an exit of their current data center, on a defined time table. To optimize user satisfaction and business efficiency, the client wanted to analyze all appropriate alternatives and desired an experienced, independent third party to lead this process.
Approach
The W Group was engaged to identify and examine alternatives and develop a comprehensive five-year cost model for each in order to evaluate all potential solutions for providing critical data center services.
The W Group team worked onsite with the client to develop a detailed model of all current costs and availability service levels.
Using our data center strategy assessment process, The W Group scoped and developed detailed five-year operations estimates for eight options including a new build, retrofitting an existing site, collocation (local and remote), and managed (remote) services approaches, and compared them to the existing operating costs.
The W Group also worked closely with the client to divide their environments into two tiers of availability for the production and the development systems. This allowed each alternative to have costs estimated separately for each tier to optimize the final configuration.
After several iterations of analysis and extensive work with engineers, realtors, collocation providers, and managed services providers, the client selected the split approach of putting their production and critical back-office systems into a premier collocation provider’s world-class data center, while locating development and non-critical back-office functions within their headquarters.
After the split approach was selected, The W Group managed the selection of collocation providers and supported the client in contracting and negotiations.
Results
As the client is an online search provider and certified content provider, the majority of their revenue flows through the data center. Availability and response times are crucial.
The assistance of The W Group allowed the client to improve the availability of their critical production systems by moving them to a world-class collocation facility.
In addition, the client was able to meet corporate financial goals and provide an appropriate disaster recovery environment by building a data center scaled to the requirements of their non-production systems.
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