Secure I.T completes DC migration for Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

The successful project was planned during lockdown restrictions over a series of Microsoft Teams meetings

UK data centre design and build company Secure I.T. Environments has completed a data centre migration for Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT).

Secure I.T., which specialises in modular, containerised and micro data centres, moved EPUT equipment and assets between sites 80 miles apart over the course of a weekend.

The company shifted several cabinets and SAN equipment from Clapham in Bedfordshire to a new site prepared by the EPUT I.T. teams in Colchester, in a project planned entirely on Microsoft Teams to comply with UK national lockdown restrictions.

Equipment was labelled, removed, transported, cleaned and reconnected at the new site ready for the EPUT IT projects team to test and launch on the Monday after the migration.

”Our migration went smoothly and we went live in the new location as planned on the Monday morning,” said Janette Leonard, Director of IT at EPUT.

“Thanks to the careful planning of Trust IT projects and estates teams, working in close partnership with Secure I.T. Environments, we were able to plan for the challenges of working on a tight timeline, while maintaining a COVID-safe working environment.”

Secure I.T helped maintain connectivity for key services through the original Bedfordshire data centre during the migration, including network services configuration to provide local fibre connectivity, WAB connectivity to the Trust Media Business EtherVPN network and WAN services via N3/HSCN.

A remote-access VPN service was included in the migration, as well as a point-to-point connection between the new data centre in Colchester and the trust’s primary data centre in Grays, Thurrock to maintain consistent data replication services post-migration.

“This was an interesting project for us, assisting with the planning of this migration process,” said Jo-Anne Garvie, Commercial Director at Secure I.T. Environments.

“Thanks go to the project team at EPUT, who played a key role in enabling an extremely well-organised transition with no delays or connectivity issues. An extremely professionally executed project by all involved including our supporting partners.”