We don't move mountains – We move you to The Mountain

Introduction

DTS is pleased to offer a full range of services to facilitate your move to The Mountain. The process of moving an existing data center or adding a disaster recovery hot site represents a major undertaking for any company. DTS has the skills, experience, and processes to ensure the success of your project.

We view each engagement as a project, and as such we have organized our service offerings around each of the phases that each project must go through. While DTS can provide a complete end to end turnkey solution, we can also provide any of the services below individually.

Discovery

This is the most critical and most over-looked phase. The information gathered and collated during the discovery phase is used by subsequent phases. During discovery all of the project's required outcomes are defined and the project size and scope are established.

Business Needs Assessment

Every business and organization is unique and has specific needs. As a part of our needs assessment survey, our management team will interface with the key stakeholders within your organization and establish the required outcomes for the project. It will be determined what your prime motive is - security, high-availability, performance or a combination - so that a custom solution can be crafted to suit your overall business plan.

Equipment Inventory

Our technicians will visit your sites and perform a detailed review of the equipment you plan to migrate to The Mountain. Physical details to be recorded include rack space needed, power requirements, network connectivity, and management options. Software details can include operating system version,OS service pack level, application software version and application patch level.

A detailed equipment inventory will be used to properly size the physical space needed, the electrical power required and the cooling capacity necessary and is essential to the successful implementation of a data center project.

Network Analysis

Working in concert with your IT staff, our technicians can evaluate the amount of bandwidth your systems use and the type and distribution of traffic. These findings can in turn be used for the proper sizing of the connections between your company and The Mountain.

Design

After the project scope and required outcomes have been defined by the Discovery Phase, our combined team of DTS and your staff will begin the process of designing a unique solution that meets the requirements established.

Data Center Design

From a single rack unit up to a dedicated vault of many thousand square feet, DTS will design a solution that perfectly fits your needs. The core areas to be addressed by our design include:

• Power – amount, cabling management, redundancy, and control
• Equipment Layout – space, security, accessibility, cooling
• Communication – bandwidth, cabling management, security, redundancy
• Management – naming/numbering/labeling conventions, in-band, out-of-band, remote access
• The documents and drawings developed will serve as a blueprint for the subsequent phases.

Equipment Specification

In the likely event that your company does not presently own all of the required equipment necessary for the build out of your data center DTS can work with your staff to develop a specification for the required equipment. DTS will ensure that all specified equipment meets or exceeds the minimum standards established by The Mountain.

Project Budget

DTS will solicit written estimates from trusted vendors and will make recommendation as to contingency amounts so that a project budget can be established.

Planning

The Discovery and Design Phases establish where you are and where you want to go. The Planning Phase creates a clear plan of how to get there and defines milestones so that forward progress can be evaluated.

Project Schedule Development

Our management team will gather important inputs such as construction lead times, supplier lead times, estimated times on-task, holidays, required cut-over dates and many others to develop a project schedule that fits the stated needs. Milestones and critical paths will be established and clear benchmarks set.

Responsibilities Meeting

DTS will facilitate a meeting where by all project stakeholders receive a clear definition of the responsibilities that each bears and the time constraints thereof. Final adjustment and approval of the project scope, data center design, budget and schedule will occur at this meeting

Implementation

With the Scope, Design, Budget and Schedule approved the real work of the project begins.

Kickoff Meeting

The Kickoff meeting allows the project management team to provide the marching orders for each of the stakeholders and resources. The final project schedule and design plan and any required reporting materials are presented. A clear line and method of communication is established between those involved with the project.

Logistics

In partnership with The Mountain's logistics partner - Rinehart Trucking – DTS can supervise the crating, loading, and delivery of your critical data center equipment.

Procurement

Via our extensive list of trusted suppliers, DTS can procure the equipment needed to build out your data center at very competitive prices. Additionally, we maintain an extensive inventory of mounting hardware, cabling and other small parts that are often times required.

Receiving

Regardless of whether you procure your equipment from DTS or via other sources, we can receive your equipment, inventory and inspect it – all within The Mountain Complex. You will receive an e-mail notification of all shipments received. Your equipment will be checked out of our inventory prior to being installed and an updated inventory report can be provided at any time.

Staging

After arriving on site, our staff can un-crate and un -box your equipment and either dispose or retain the packing materials based upon your preference. Your equipment will then be assembled, labeled and readied for installation.

Installation

DTS maintains a staff with a myriad of construction, installation, datacom and IT skills. We can offer a complete turnkey installation of all of your equipment. Our technicians and Systems Engineers can configure your equipment to function in The Mountain and test for proper operation.

Our techs and SE's hold certifications from a number of manufacturers and organizations. Additionally we have access to staff with nearly any qualification or certification on a subcontract basis.

Having worked in data centers for many years, we intimately understand the need for 3 key elements of a proper installation – labeling, cable management and documentation. To this end we have developed and adopted a number of strategies. Our installations are clean, flexible, scalable and allow for simplified management.

Fabrication

Having a welding and machine shop allows DTS to fabricate the transition and joining hardware that is often times required for a complete installation. We can also fabricate partitions, security gates, and custom cable management systems. We pride ourselves on the quality of our workmanship. DTS proudly serves as the steel fabricator of choice for The Mountain Complex.

Support

Our commitment to your project does not end with Implementation. We offer a range of services designed to ensure your data center's on-going stability, availability and performance.

Monitoring

A comprehensive open-source monitoring suite allows DTS to proactively monitor the status of your data center. A myriad of events, services, environmental conditions, and performance criteria can be monitored and logged. Further, thresholds can be set and automatic alarms sent if monitored parameters fall outside established normal ranges. DTS can also monitor tape backup and other archival processes for successful completion.

Maintenance

Proper maintenance is essential to long term security, availability, stability and performance. DTS's qualified staff can perform maintenance tasks such as:

• Operating system updates
• Firmware updates
• Application updates
• Hardware upgrade / installation
• Configuration changes
• Hardware warranty

“Remote Screwdriver”

Even with the best remote management strategies, there is no replacement for on site staff. DTS can provide an on site set of hands to assist your IT staff in troubleshooting problems. Our highly trained staff are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our close proximity to The Mountain Complex (less than a mile) almost certainly insures that before your staff could be on the road or in the air, we can be on site.

Conclusion

If you are like most companies, your IT staff is already overwhelmed and understaffed. A data center project represents a huge undertaking, and requires a large resource commitment for timely completion. Beyond that, if your center of operations is located any significant distance away from The Mountain Complex, travel time becomes a major factor. DTS can work in concert with your in-house staff to facilitate your needs, whether you are migrating your existing data center or establishing a disaster recovery hot site.

Contact DTS today and lets create a plan to move your business's critcial data assets to The Mountain.