Case Study - Cabling Services
In early 2005, Princeton Financial Systems, a leading provider of portfolio management and accounting solutions for global institutional investors, became concerned that future growth could be hindered by cabling problems at their European Operations Centre in Windsor. Of particular concern was the fact that they were running out of network capacity and were unable to enhance their IT infrastructure with new servers.
Princeton’s Computer Room contained racks with servers; and a communications rack with voice and data switches and patch panels. Because the Computer Room had been upgraded many times to keep up with the company’s previous growth, many of the cabinets had become disorganised; many of the components were unlabelled and the task of tracing patch cables had become extremely difficult.
Furthermore, some of the servers were housed on shelving and not connected to a UPS, and Princeton’s LAN network switches were already operating at full capacity - leaving no easy way to add further ports.
Alchemy’s approach was to totally strip the Computer Room and re-design the layout, installing new racks to replace the old shelving. All the existing cabling was re-routed under a false floor and additional cabling provided to allow for future expansion. Alchemy’s cabling experts then connected the racks to the main UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), ensuring that all equipment would remain operational in the event of a power failure.
Alchemy’s team also installed a new Cisco Blade Switch consisting of a master chassis, with dual redundant power supplies, and 48 port modules to allow for expansion. The cabling for both voice and data was then completely un-patched and re-patched to ensure ease of maintenance in the future.
Commencing on a Friday evening, all the work was conducted out of normal business hours and the new Computer Room, with a fully documented layout, was finished during the same weekend and without any interference to Princeton’s business.
Commenting on the project, David Gower, Princeton’s UK IT Manager, said: “As both vendor and contractor, Alchemy provided unparalleled service throughout the transformation of our Windsor Data Centre. Their expert advice and assistance took an out-dated and untidy Computer Room and forged it into a reliable and manageable Data Centre. Alchemy’s balance of professionalism and knowledge made every step simple. This was exactly the solution we were looking for.”
David added: “For the past 18 months we have used Alchemy Systems Group exclusively for all our hardware and software procurement, and we’ve never looked back.”
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