CloudNine, a cloud-based software provider based in Houston, Texas, recently sought the help of our team with its own network infrastructure. The automation company is well-known for its software and services, which are designed to simplify litigation discovery, investigations and audits. But its own infrastructure setup was far from ideal.
The problem: Outdated, inefficient equipment in the wrong location
CloudNine was in the not unusual position of working with infrastructure that just wasn’t where it should be.
The problem arose when the company inherited much of its North Carolina network infrastructure from another business it purchased. As a result, a significant proportion of its infrastructure was situated in a different state to most of its team.
The majority of the CloudNine team are based in Houston. Unfortunately, much of the company’s infrastructure was housed in North Carolina, where there were far fewer CloudNine employees to look after it. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that rack space was being used inefficiently, and much of the equipment was itself outdated.
TRG’s solution: Colo+ vs standard colo
To remedy the situation, we suggested consolidating the number of racks for CloudNine’s production data and servers. We also migrated the network equipment that had been hosted at a data center in Durham, North Carolina.
CloudNine’s network hardware consisted of 3 – 48U racks. With the help of our team, the company was able to shrink its critical hardware down to 1.5 racks.
Outdated equipment was removed, and before long we had fully migrated CloudNine’s network infrastructure from North Carolina to Houston. Our team also assisted CloudNine with packing and shipping the contents of its North Carolina storage unit.
Moving day: how it unfolded
Our team arrived at the company’s North Carolina data center on Friday morning. We spent five hours unracking all devices from the company’s 3x 48 U racks, before packing them securely in shipping boxes.
The job involved rolling the 48U racks themselves out of their data suite and onto the loading dock. In total, we had six pallets worth of equipment that needed to be moved, along with three server racks that required safe transportation to Houston.
The equipment arrived at our Houston data center at 8am on Sunday morning. As soon as the truck was in sight, our team was on standby ready to start unpacking. Before long we were racking the equipment in its new home.
As part of this move, our team performed what’s known as preconstruction in the cabinets. This involves placing individually labeled universal rails in position, ready for the devices that are to be racked there. Doing things this way means that we can significantly cut the time it takes to rack equipment, turning a job that would’ve taken hours into one that’s complete in minutes.
We also got ahead of the game by pre-cabling. This helped to speed things up even further – and reduced the amount of downtime required considerably.
The end result: a fast move that really delivered
In total, it took our team less than five hours to get the CloudNine rack fully cabled and powered on. The company’s network team were impressed at the speed at which we got the job done, and the final outcome proved a huge success for all involved.
Crucially, our team managed to complete every task assigned to them, and get the company’s rack fully online and ready to go before the inevitable spike of Monday morning network traffic.
CloudNine was able to consolidate all of its critical data assets from 3-48U racks to 1.25- 42U racks. The company also has an additional two racks, which are ready to be filled at the beginning of 2024. One rack is due to house equipment that is being moved from the company’s Houston office, while the other is ready to accommodate a blend of its Houston and Raleigh equipment.
We specialize in 12-hour migrations, exceptional rack management and a data center service that’s unrivaled. If you’d like to find out more about simplifying your network infrastructure with TRG, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
