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INDUSTRY: Transportation sector
OBJECTIVE: ScotRail required a fit-for-purpose data centre that would allow the company to manage demand and location more effectively.
IT MATTERS: A new virtualised platform that allowed for the migration of existing critical IT services. The solution comprised of HPE Synergy Blades Composable Infrastructure, HPE Nimble HF-40 Arrays and Windows Server Infrastructure. A Hyper-V server virtualisation platform.
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APPROACH: The company implemented a virtualisation platform that could be deployed into a new purpose-built data centre, and a replica platform that could provide consistent service on demand.
BUSINESS MATTERS: A purpose-built data center in Glasgow that provided immediate service delivery. Consistent service delivery that mitigated the risk of downtime or IT service outages. Overcoming pandemic-related challenges in delivery with regard to the longevity and success of the business.
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“Our primary data centre was located in our head office in Glasgow city centre and the office building required extensive power upgrades, which would have had a significant impact on the company—we had numerous critical IT services hosted in this data centre at the time and we needed to future-proof our critical infrastructure” says Mark Hughes, Technical Project Manager at ScotRail.
ScotRail decided to relocate its critical IT services from its on-premises data centre to a third-party-hosted data centre located nearby. This required the procurement of new IT hardware infrastructure, a suitable migration platform, and the development of a new data replication infrastructure at an existing business continuity facility.
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We needed a solution that would allow us to shift our data-centre reliance from head office, while investing into a more agile, scalable and accessible infrastructure,” says Hughes. “In collaboration with DTP, we designed a new virtualisation platform that we could deploy into a new purpose-built data centre in Glasgow, while taking the opportunity to build a replica solution at our business-continuity centre located several miles outside of the city.”
With extensive experience and access to relevant expertise, services and hardware, DTP was the perfect partner for the company. DTP had already established a relationship with ScotRail, having provided a variety of adhoc professional services, and these had met the very high standards of the organisation.
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FUTURE-PROOFING THE DATA CENTRE AND CRITICAL IT CAPABILITIES
ScotRail procured an HPE Synergy 12000 frame populated with five SY480 Blade Servers and a Nimble HF-40 array for the new data centre and the existing business continuity facility. These new Hyper-V virtualisation platforms were selected to provide the infrastructure that ScotRail required to migrate key IT services out of the city centre ahead of the planned power upgrades and outages.
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“We procured professional services from DTP to help us get the equipment commissioned,” says Hughes. “The company provided us with a technology consultant who helped us to do this and he was incredibly knowledgeable, ensuring that the equipment arrived in the time-frame we needed and that it was installed to our exacting requirements.”
DTP installed and built the two new virtualisation platforms and configured all aspects of the new hardware. The company also assisted with the build out of the Windows Server blades and the Hyper-V cluster to ensure that migration and management were of an exceptional standard.
AN AGILE AND SCALABLE RESULT
The solution has now provided ScotRail with the infrastructure the organisation needed to effectively migrate its critical IT services out of its existing primary data centre. It ensured that there was no impact to the business during the planned power works and that they had the flexibility they needed to leave their city centre premises should they require to do so.
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