Global Server Relocation Amid a Pandemic Lockdown

“Company A” (the acquirer) sought to hone its edge in the highly competitive realm of healthcare informatics, and so it purchased a portion of another enterprise (“Company B”) in order to own its prestigious R&D capabilities, among other things.

This capability was globally dispersed, spanning 39 countries in every global region. The purchase included 209 servers in 29 datacenters in Europe, North America, Latin America, Australia, Singapore, China, Japan, UK, UAE, and Israel.

Ensunet’s integration team was challenged to relocate Company B servers in 26 countries to Company A datacenters, including special R&D networks that required isolation within 12 months to support the terms of the purchase agreement. Additionally, all servers required migration to the acquiring company’s hosting and storage roadmap within 17 months of purchase.

Adding to the challenge: The facility-lockdown and travel constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck just as this project was getting underway.

Multiple strategies were devised, including transformation to new regional R&D computing centers which required design and build phases to support the schedule. And this followed an inventory-and-triage phase of reconciling Company B’s original assets, and establishing use-cases for each, based on Company A’s priorities.

In addition, special pandemic-related protocols were introduced. These included Skype and MS Teams calls rather than in-person meetings, as well as pre-configured physical firewalls which were shipped globally to “smart hands” (local tech talent) who were guided, often by video, to wire them properly on-site.

Despite the travel restrictions and site lock-downs, the schedules have been met. Indeed, in some cases, deadlines were beaten; Ensunet was able to close out one U.S. site seven months early, saving the customer approximately $130,000 a month.

Ensunet’s Project Manager on the initiative actually did more than that title implies, delving into the arcana of systems engineering and integration in order to meet this project’s rigorous deadlines.

Supporting the Ensunet Project Manager was a globally dispersed team. Ensunet worked with Company A’s network architect and three different regional security groups to develop the solution and maintain compliance.

Downstream of this leadership were “smart hands” all over the world: Ensunet directed the services of tech staffers in China, Japan, the UK, the UAE, Israel, Singapore, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and across Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Columbia.