| | February 20158CIOReviewopinionin myL ike many industries today, the Banking and Financial sector is constantly re-evaluating its internal positioning, looking for savings and efficiencies for the business. As it is with most technology based Finance companies, the IT organization is frequently approached with cost saving inquiries. It was with this in mind that I was approached in 2013 with the question "What would it take to move our data center?" Fortunately we had reviewed this exact question earlier that year, evaluating our geographic positioning as a national presence. I had a good understanding of the question, but my reply was "Let me get back to you".As anyone who has performed this feat will tell you, it's not for the faint of heart. The complexities of inter-application dependencies, external interconnects and legacy requirements can undermine even the best laid plans. In the Financial sector, additional requirements around the principles of a Risk based approach, Zero Impact to the business drive the need for an even more rigorous approach, and manage financial risk.In developing our answer to the question, we considered the following 5 factors:· Risk· Cost· Oversight· Resources· TimelineOur next questions were, even if we can move the data center, should we? What were the Business drivers for taking on such a potentially risky endeavor? What options did we have in performing the move? With Zero Outage as a necessity, performing "a forklift" relocation was out of the question. This made replicating the facility a more acceptable option, but at what cost. As most who have performed this task will tell you, to drive down risk, you increase cost. Another factor necessary in perform-ing this task successfully was proper oversight of the entire project. While a portioning of responsibilities and duties is expected, someone needs to drive the big picture to identifyand prevent gap failures. The tendency for most tech-nology projects is to categorize SAN, Server, Network and other silos. Without proper oversight, the gaps where these categories meet are potential pitfalls for any endeavor of this nature.Gathering and directing all the necessary technology owners for a strategic planning session allowed for a unified effort in reviewing and sorting of issues and efforts. Centralized oversight allowed for us to embrace disruption without loss of control. How to Survive a Data Center MoveBy Joe Sarci, SVP & CTO, EverBankJoe Sarci
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