2 | NOVEMBER 2011 |
THINK IT . UITS NEWSLETTER
The goal of the project was to con-
solidate and relocate all IT infra-
structures to the newly built state-
of-the-art data center on the new
campus with minimum service in-
terruption and zero IT functionality
and data loss. This was a major
undertaking that spanned every
aspect of IT and business.
During the migration, it was very
important to understand and man-
age the interrelationships between
the IT infrastructure and the uni-
versity business that it supports, to
minimize the impact to the Univer-
sity business.
It took our team months of plan-
ning and preparation. A compre-
hensive review of the Islamic Insti-
tute data center, including a com-
prehensive inventory of software,
hardware, servers, storage and
network equipment was undertak-
en. We defined what equipment
and data will be moved, where it
will be moved, how it will be
moved, when it will be moved, and
approximately how long the move
will take.
We analyzed the information that
we collected to prioritize Universi-
ty services, establish downtime if
necessary and determine the hard-
ware, application, and technology
requirements for a non-disruptive
move. We used a combination of
checklists and what-if analysis to
identify the threats and risks and
prepare contingency plans to miti-
gate possible problems.
As of September 1st, 2011 all cen-
tral computing systems and large
file systems on the Islamic Institute
campus have been relocated to the
new data center on the new cam-
pus with zero IT functions data loss
and are all running smoothly. This
move was the largest data center
relocation in UAEU history and the
seamless transition of resources in
less than 4 weekends is a testa-
ment to UAEU’s strength in infor-
mation technology. The relocation
was a huge success as all systems
were available and functioning
when the new academic classes
started.
The new facility has been built on
today’s technology and provides
high speed network connectivity of
10g. It also provides a secure, pro-
fessionally managed data center to
meet the growing information
technology needs of academic and
administrative units and it houses
enterprise-wide academic and ad-
ministrative services critical to stu-
dents, faculty, and staff
.
Building on this and previous ex-
perience,
UITS will continuously
work to introduce and enhance our
IT services to the next level.
“Data Center move was the largest data center relocation in UAEU history�?
Author: Mahdi Ismail & Hussein Jaradat
UITS News