Flagship Helps Datacenter Move From IBM Raleigh, NC to IBM Power VS in Washington DC

The Client
A leading online retailer for licensed sports merchandise offers customers the largest assortment of fan gear, sports collectibles, and memorabilia for major professional sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, MLS, PGA), major media brands (NBC Sports, CBS Sports, FOX Sports), and more than 200 collegiate and professional team properties across the globe.

The Challenge
As one of IBM and Flagship Solutions Group’s premier customers, when IBM elected to close its datacenter in Raleigh, North Carolina, the retailer needed to move its total environment to the new IBM Power VS datacenter in Washington, DC. But what seemed to be a straightforward transition turned into a significant technical challenge from an AIX perspective. It turned out the entire infrastructure had to be built from the ground up and that significant user files had to be moved by hand.

The Solution
FSG determined that the Informix environment should be changed from raw files to cook files to streamline the solution for better efficiency. Once we had a plan to implement this solution in the IBM Power VS datacenter, we needed to navigate unforeseen situations developing inside of IBM. These included several personnel changes involving multiple project managers and communication breakdowns between the Washington, DC and Raleigh datacenters. FSG met these challenges by providing AIX expert technical resources to architect and manage this very complex environment.

The Results
Since the move was initiated by IBM due to the closure of their Raleigh datacenter, they completely funded move to Washington, DC. FSG and IBM upper management worked closely together to ensure progress was never inhibited during the transitional process. The customer’s Informix and AIX environments for both Development and Production were successfully completed with the promise that the online retailer would enjoy the same or better service than they were enjoying in Raleigh. Upon completion, the client said, “The tenacity in working through challenges, as well as the continued focus on getting this over the finish line has been outstanding. We greatly appreciate the hard work and dedication FSG put into making our migration successful.”

To learn more about Flagship and our skills working with IBM, please email us at: info@flagshipsg.com or call us at: 561-208-3941.