Phase I – Planning
Working internally as a team and in cooperation with data center representatives to determine the high level operational, performance, and service requirements. Additionally, includes inventorying system assets, milestone scheduling and cost benefit analysis on whether to buy or lease hardware from the data center provider (GFE vs. CFE). The products of this phase are the principle determinant of the success of the subsequent phases, as the high level requirements provide the basis for Engineering activities, and ultimately the overall success of the deployed system.
ArdentMC has recognized that in the planning phase there is often a lack of capable engineering resources available to help evaluate the current system and identify key requirements of the future state system. By not having a dedicated pre-acquisition engineering resource available for guidance, customers can often fail to capitalize on the opportunity to mitigate current system flaws and may be left with questions as to the equipment and services they need to acquire. In order to mitigate this challenge, ArdentMC provides a senior engineering resource to evaluate the current systems design and performance and guide the development of requirements for the migrated system instance.
Phase II – Acquisition
Developing the requisite acquisition documentation and cross checking data center provider quotes against cost estimates derived during the planning phase.
In our experience, the acquisition phase contains unexpected challenges that can often lead to significant schedule delay. Resource constraints, incorrect vendor quotes and unclear contractor business process can combine to generate delays in the execution of the project, which are often compounded by budget cycles and other elements beyond the control of the parties involved. ArdentMC works hand in hand with the customer and data center provider contract officials to ensure requirements are properly conveyed and converted into accurate quotes.
Phase III – Engineering
Evaluating current system capabilities against requirements and working with system owners and data center provider engineering staff to design solutions that are secure, scalable, redundant and cost effective.
Challenges within this particular phase include diminished team traction and focus due to resource constraints. In order to mitigate this risk, ArdentMC resources provide additional coordination in the form of daily meetings that included capture of individually-owned action items and associated delivery schedules. By increasing the focus on execution, ArdentMC is able to drive accountability and ensure on schedule delivery of critical engineering deliverables.
Phase IV – Implementation
Providing objective guidance to the system owner and project oversight between organizations involved in order to ensure rapid identification of risks/ issues and coordination or issue resolution between stakeholders.
Our experience has shown that prior to production cutover, complete system and end user testing is often times a step that is not executed with complete attention to detail. ArdentMC mitigates this risk by applying its DCM2 pre-launch best practices in order to ensure the system meets and exceeds the criteria for launch set during the planning phase.
