Migration Projects

While it is nice to be back in some kind of harness after a few months 'enforced' holiday, I am not sure that a complete Data Centre Migration project was the best piece of work to get myself back into. :)

As usual  the company involved, being controlled from the States have taken on a large and complete Data Centre, Systems and 240 people office move, in a three month timescale, into a building that is still be being built.

Very interesting times though and it has been good relearning MS Project, Resource Management and all the various PRINCE 2 type documentation that goes with it.

I have now been at it for ten days solid and surprisingly it is more On Track than Off Track, although as always in these projects we are at the vagaries of the Telecoms provider, in this case BT, to ensure that timely delivery allows us to stage the testing and migration in advance of the personnel move.

All this whilst the organisation provides its 24/7 business service as usual.

Interesting Times

I have just returned from a visit to the Google Data Centre complex in Hamina, Finland. It is possibly the most secure installation I have ever (tried) to set foot in. There are so many layers of security involved it makes all the Data Centres that I have visited, worked in, or been associated with in the past an open shop.

The Hamina centre is the one that uses seawater cooling, dragged in from the Gulf of Finland to their proprietary cooling system. It is an interesting concept, bearing in mind that the salinity levels in that sea are remarkably low, the water being almost brackish, more than salty. I suggest that they get plenty of 'free cooling' too as the sea was completely frozen in during my trip with night-time temperatures of -28degC.

Still and all it was good to see what you can do with a couple of hundred million dollars.

I return to the UK to head up an interim Migration Team for a finance house but somehow I suspect that the facility will not be quite as 'cool'!