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Ben Berry, ODOT CIO, Outside State Data Center
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Remember the e-mails and notices we received in May and June about waves of migration: computers, software, hardware, servers, mainframes and more? It’s all done, by the way, and there’s nothing to report.
And ODOT CIO Ben Berry says that’s a good thing.
"If people don’t know it happened," he said, "that’s the best news in the world." After all, the goal of moving all of ODOT’s information systems network and computing infrastructure to the new State Data Center was transparency: if it went like it was supposed to, no one would even know it.
Planning, people smooth the path
There were very few ‘hiccups" along the way, Berry said, and that is a real tribute to the staff involved — ODOT’s Information Systems staff as well as those from other agencies. One of the key reasons it went so smoothly is that these very same people created the implementation plan for consolidating the information technology systems of the state’s three major agencies (ODOT, DHS and DAS). With that kind of firsthand knowledge guiding the transition from individual agency systems to one giant system at SDC, it’s no wonder it was so successful.
"There was a lot of hard work involved," said Berry. "All of our IS technology staff worked late into the evenings and early in the mornings for about a month and a half to make this migration work. It’s also important to note all the planning that was required — hard work that’s been going on since the fourth quarter of 2004."
This year, between March 20 and June 28, IS staff implemented 17 sets of server waves and two mainframe waves — all with little-to-no disruption to users. The server wave teams moved 224 servers and 38 other devices. The mainframe waves saw the transfer of ODOT’s mainframe processing to the shared DAS and DHS z/990 mainframe, followed by the physical move of ODOT’s z/890 mainframe to the SDC, followed lastly by the transfer of the processing load back to ODOT’s re-located machine. Prior to the mainframe image move, all tape, disk, network and print for the mainframe were relocated — successfully.
ODOT the first of 'big three'
There were a couple of unplanned situations, such as ODOT becoming the first of the big three agencies to go live on its mainframe in the SDC — instead of the third. Same with finishing all ODOT’s server moves first. Still, Berry said, his staff was ready.
"We knew we had everything working, the connectivity set up, all the processes in place to make the move. We just thought our sister agencies DAS and DHS would be ahead of us, but they weren’t. It didn’t matter because we stayed right on the original moving schedule our customers depended on."
Now that all the physical elements from ODOT’s Information Systems area are in place at the SDC, a 90-day transition period will focus on the processes and service level agreements that will be required moving forward.
In the meantime, the first big round of hiring for SDC is complete. Overall, 33 ODOT positions were earmarked for the consolidation, of which 6 were vacant. Some 27 ODOT staff have been considered ‘at risk’ during the state IS consolidation efforts, and 13 of those employees are now working for the SDC with an additional four employees at the State Print Plant. Because one of the biggest reasons for creating the SDC has been to generate cost-savings for the state — in part by reducing duplication in staffing — ODOT still has several IS employees that haven’t "landed." However, there will be another round of hiring at SDC and there may be some internal transfers to other IS jobs. Berry remains firm in his belief that anyone who wants a job will be able to find a job.
Incredible people pull it off
And part of his conviction comes from having observed an incredible group of people make something incredible happen over the last few months. Mark Reyer, SDC manager, has been in charge of many large technology migration projects, and he was impressed with the state’s technical staff, according to Berry.
"Mark said our CNIC IT workforce on this project is the best he’s ever seen," Berry said. "To have a project of this magnitude, with 1,500 servers, two mainframes and a tremendous amount of data migration, move this smoothly required working together and doing whatever it took to get it done."
Even if no one noticed!
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