Global Services    Solutions    Products    News & Press    About Us    Careers    Partners    

Search 

   You are here: About Us Success Stories

T-Systems - data relocation via network and double soil
  
 

T-Systems is one the leading providers of information and communication technology (ICT) services in Europe. In addition to more than 1.500 large enterprise clients, its parent company, Deutsche Telekom AG, ranks among T-Systems' clientele. The spectrum of their services offerings incorporates from the integration of new ICT solutions in existing customer systems to the installation and operation of work stations, data centres and networks, including the telecommunications business with international carriers. T-Systems has offices in more than 20 countries and has approximately 42,000 employees worldwide.

"We were quickly convinced of COMPAREX’s special solution for our large data relocation. Usually the relocation of data centres are accompanied by huge costs and complex logistics to protect the transferred data. Off-line times during productive hours are often necessary. COMPAREX`s proposed plan for our relocation was ideal for us, bearing in mind the large volume of data we had to transfer and the little time we had to implement the project."
ULRICH BREHM, OVERALL PROJECT LEADER OF T-SYSTEMS

By relocating the complete data centre from Bamberg to Magdeburg, T-Systems implemented an important part of Deutsche Telekom’s large cost saving project. In this project twelve mainframe locations of T-Systems had to be consolidated into five. An important component of the project was the relocation of all data stored on disks. Altogether, more than 100 Terrabyte of data had to be transferred over large distances without interruption of the enterprise-wide on-line operations.

Data relocation at the push of a button

COMPAREX, together with its partner CNT, designed a fast and secure relocation solution for transferring large amounts of data over a network. A significant feature of this solution was that the volume of data that had to be moved, would be mirrored asynchronously and in parallel to the on-line operations. During the gradual data transfers over broadband network connections, the on-line operations were kept running uninterrupted. The security risk normally encountered during the physical transport of discs in a traditional physical relocation was also avoided. Switching the disk data to the new location happened in a few minutes, as it were, by the push of a button.

The COMPAREX solution

Two of the planned relocation projects have already been completed and withstood all the necessary tests. Over 40 Terrabyte of business-critical data of Deutsche Telekom was safely and securely relocated via the network to their new locations at Magdeburg and Goeppingen, with no interruption to any of the users.

Preparation for the project implementation was extensive and took several months. Net capacity, minutes converters as well as the infrastructure for the control and monitoring of the transfer had to be calculated and specified.

The entire solution for the data relocation was tested by the project team of COMPAREX Global Services as well as by T-Systems prior to live implementation. It was the reliability of the COMPAREX solution that convinced Ulrich Brehm. Even a partial line loss during the test operation had no impact on the total implementation plan. Due to the components selected and the dimensioning of the caches of the disk control units, data transmission continued uninterrupted. Long before the relocation weekend and mainly due to the extensive preparations of the entire project team, our project steering committee was satisfied that everything would run smoothly during implementation.

Data relocation in operation

The two recent data relocations were implemented, to a large degree, by using the same method. The application data was mirrored before the relocation of the live data took place. Several ATM-lines, producing a transfer capacity of up to 155 Mb/s each, served as connection lines. Data translators of COMPAREX`s business partner CNT were used to implement binding to the network. Momentarily before the original location operations were disconnected, the final modifications of the data were synchronised via the network. After the logical network-swivel and tests had been made, in less than 24 hours all applications at the new location could again be released for normal production. During the entire relocation process, restarting at the original place would have been possible in any emergency.

“Data relocations of this kind and size require an enormous team achievement (effort). Different teams of T-Systems departments, different manufacturers as well as COMPAREX’s Global Services co-operated outstandingly. We are planning further relocations in accordance with this successful solution", confirms Manfred Teumer, responsible director of the system line Mainframe within T-Systems.

COMPAREX offers this proven solution in the form of a complete package for the relocation of large amounts of data, for example with coupling from computing centres for the purpose of disaster control or with enterprise fusions, in the binding of data centres to IT-outsourcers or during transmission of large data volumes from the place of development to the production location.