200 new servers supporting a new business initiative must be ordered, shipped to, and commissioned in three different facilities around the world – India, China, and the U.S.
You have 10 days to go live.
Phase One. The plan is to use the company’s quiet period (holidays) to plan, install, and commission the new servers. You log into iTRACS and tap into one of its most robust features – Intelligent Commissioning. You begin building an “instance” of the new server configuration which you will use to commission all 200 servers. Each facility will have its own commissioning plan automatically created by iTRACS based on the number of servers to be installed, available space, and connectivity requirements associated with network and power.
Rather than having your various teams spend hours walking the floors of your three data centers looking for space, you let iTRACS software do it for you. Quickly, you have a screen up with all of the possible locations where the new servers could go. iTRACS filters the racks by space, power, and network capacity, displaying a colored-coded map of suggested destinations – all automatically. No more site tours, no more guesswork. Just comprehensive answers from iTRACS about which racks in which data centers:
- have available space
- are unreserved
- have available kWs
- have connections to redundant PDUs
- have available network ports to match the application network profile
- have access to secondary power sources
Once the destination(s) have been chosen, iTRACS automatically replicates the planning for each server and organizes the complete deployment. The software then creates a complete work schedule detailing exactly where and how the 200 servers should go in – with specific instructions for each of the three data centers – all in a single push of a button.
You go grab lunch. By the time you return to your desk, the system tells you the planning for all three data centers has been completed.
Phase Two. Because iTRACS gives you visibility into your data center supply chain – from planning to inventory – you have all of the information you need to put the entire plan in motion. You review the 200-server work schedule, tweak it as needed, and then create a report that assigns shipments, creates inventory controls, and delineates specific work orders for each facility. You review this with your boss and then release it to the teams in each facility.
Your boss approves. You order the 200 servers and have them distributed to the three facilities with a clear plan of attack.
Phase Three. The servers arrive in the three locations and your team begins racking them. Fortunately, they have precise directions from the iTRACS-generated work orders about what do to with each server. Each work order includes explicit instructions for both power and network connectivity. For power, the work orders graphically explain which power strip outlets to plug the left and right power supplies into, and which slots on the PDU to place the breaker to maintain phase balance. For network, they detail the entire patching scheme for each port on each server.
Fully informed and empowered, your teams get to work. No more sticky notes posted on rails or over open ports. No more handwritten instructions taped to cabinet doors. No more incomplete documentation. It’s all right there on the work orders for all 200 servers.
Go Live. The deployment in each facility goes smoothly and efficiently. The servers are commissioned and all work actions are closed out. Your new business application goes live right on schedule.
