Project Planned & Managed by Datalink’s Advanced Services Team with No Disruption to End Users
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 7, 2014-- Datalink (Nasdaq: DTLK), a leading provider of data center infrastructure and services, today announced the successful completion of a data center relocation project for Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, a nationalfull-service law firm with approximately 500attorneys acrosstheU.S. and in Shanghai. The migration from the firm’s largest office in a Seattlehigh-rise to a nearby colocation facility was planned and orchestrated by Datalink’s Advanced Services team after extensive planning, culminating in a Friday night/Saturday morning move that was completed in 12 hours with no perceptible service interruption to DWT’s attorneys or staff.
The project involved relocating all of DWT’s servers and devices, along with email, document management and litigation support systems, SharePoint collaboration and extranet portals, and other firm-wide applications supporting more than 1,500 users. Datalink provided project management services including inventory and analysis of DWT’s data center environment; development of a strategy document identifying migration needs, multiple downtime options and associated costs; design and implementation planning ranging from timelines and contingencies to application mapping; and a 15-person day-of-move team to augment DWT’s in-house resources.
These services relieved Davis Wright’s IT team of 90% of the planning and project management workload directly related to relocating the data center. In addition, Datalink furnished consulting assistance for virtualization and other IT projects that had to be completed before the move, including finalizing an email failover system that was used to avoid an email outage while equipment was disassembled, moved 15 miles, reassembled and validated at the new site.
DWT selected Datalink to manage the project because of its data center relocation experience and its familiarity with DWT’s data center environment, stemming from a seven-year relationship that has spanned design, sourcing, deployment and support of infrastructure such as the law firm’s NetApp storage area network. Datalink has also completed other engagements for the firm, including a business continuity/disaster recovery planning and implementation project.
“Our old data center was on the 19th floor of a high rise in an earthquake zone with less than an hour of battery backup. We knew we had to relocate, but we had to do it sooner than planned to avoid a three-day power outage related to our building’s power grid upgrade. We partnered with Datalink to make the transition on schedule with minimum risk,” said Matt Beland, Director, Information Technology at Davis Wright. “It went so smoothly that I received 87 congratulatory emails and phone calls, with only one complaint that turned out to be invalid. In my two decades in the industry, that is unprecedented.”
“This project illustrates the ability of our Advanced Services team to handle critical assignments for which internal IT staffs may not have either the manpower or the expertise – whether it’s a data center relocation, application and system migration, cloud service or disaster recovery planning, or any number of other strategic initiatives,” said Shawn O’Grady, Chief Operating Officer at Datalink. “It also demonstrates the value of working with a full-service provider. Sourcing strategy, architecture design, deployment, and both technical and managed services support from a single partner ensures a holistic view of all systems that is essential for optimizing data centers to meet today’s complex requirements.”
More information about Datalink’s data center relocation methodology can be found here.
About Datalink
A complete data center solutions and services provider for Fortune 500 and mid-tier enterprises, Datalink transforms data centers so they become more efficient, manageable and responsive to changing business needs. Datalink helps leverage and protect storage, server, and network investments with a focus on long-term value, offering a full lifecycle of services, from consulting and design to implementation, management and support. Datalink solutions span virtualization and consolidation, data storage and protection, advanced network infrastructures, business continuity, and cloud enablement. Each delivers measurable performance gains and maximizes the business value of IT. For more information, call 800.448.6314, visit www.datalink.com or follow Datalink on Twitter, Blog, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
About Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Davis Wright Tremaine is a national law firm with approximately 500 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. For more information, visit www.dwt.com
Source: Datalink
S&S Public Relations, Inc.
Mallory Snitker, 847-415-9300
msnitker@sspr.com