PTS and Zurich Insurance undertook an award-winning data centre migration that formed part of its digital transformation programme.
Location: Hong Kong, Asia Pacific
Sector: Banking & Finance
Completion Date: 2017
The Summary
The multinational insurance company sought to relocate its regional data centre to a colocation facility as the lease of its Hong Kong office floor was due to expire. Zurich insurance seized the opportunity to review the IT estate, refresh technology, and implement a standardised platform covering both the Primary and Secondary Data Centres. With extensive local knowledge, PTS was engaged to assist with the selection of a suitable facility and the subsequent migration that followed.
Working closely with the Zurich insurance Technology Team, PTS Identifies the IT Infrastructure, Applications, and Services to develop a Data Centre design that would reduce the current footprint by 50%. Once a migration strategy for each service was agreed upon, the team developed a detailed plan to move services to the new facility.
Within a tight timeframe of 15 weeks, PTS successfully managed the migration of 3,500 servers to the new Data Centre facility, completing a near-perfect programme which resulted in zero downtime for the business. As a result, the project was announced as the winner of the DCD The Asia Pacific Cloud Journey of the Year Award at the Data Centre Week Awards.
Introduction
With the assistance of PTS, Zurich Insurance undertook a Digital Transformation and Transition of its existing Regional Data Centre and IT services, located within its Head Office in Hong Kong to a new hosted colocation facility.
Zurich Insurance is a leading multi-line global insurer with about 55,000 employees selling insurance products and services into more than 170 countries. Zurich Group is headquartered in Zurich Switzerland where it was founded in 1872. Zurich Insurance’s presence in Hong Kong dates back to 1961 providing General Insurance and Global Life products. Zurich Insurance offices in Asia Pacific are located in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.
“Great to work with such professionals from Zurich and PTS, the achievements outweighed all expectations. APAC IT Services Teams (Infrastructure; Application and Security) worked tirelessly for 15 weeks to ensure our Businesses were not impacted by this major project. Amazing achievement!”
The Challenge
The current Hong Kong Data Centre, supporting the region’s Primary IT Services, was colocated in the Zurich Insurance Headquarters Office. With the lease on the office floor coming up for renewal, the management had decided to exit the office floor, necessitating the move of the Data Centre.
With most of the IT Infrastructure due for a Technology refresh, there was also an opportunity to review the IT estate and look for a standardised platform covering both the Primary and Secondary (acting as the Disaster Recovery service) Data Centres.
The Solution
PTS was engaged to assess the current market to identify suitable Data Centre Providers who can provide robust facilities for Zurich Insurance to host its IT Infrastructure platforms. PTS identified five suitable suppliers and undertook a procurement exercise against a requirements document. PTS assisted in the negotiation of commercial and contract (with a specialist external IT lawyer). PTS worked with the Zurich Insurance Technology team to identify IT infrastructure, Applications and Services, which enabled PTS to develop a Data Centre design reducing the current footprint by 50%. Working with the Technology Team a Migration Strategy was agreed for each service and a set of detailed Transition Runbooks was developed that identified the tasks required to move services from the current Data Centre to the new.
PTS project managed the Data Centre and IT fit out process aligning activities against the Programme to maintain services on schedule. With a tight 15 week window identified for the Migration of over 3,500 servers, a series of Maintenance Windows was utilised to migrate services across the Data Centres to the new.
The final successful migration event completing a near-perfect Programme – delivering on time, to budget and zero downtime to the business.
The Benefits
PTS’ unrivalled expertise in the delivery of complex projects, global Data Centre and IT infrastructure expertise, enabled Zurich Insurance to benefit from PTS’ knowledge and experience in avoiding the common pitfalls in such projects resulting in zero impact to the business operations during the project.
Through the development of a ‘Live/Live’ Data Centre and IT services model Zurich Insurance now has a sound platform in which to grow their business removing many of the risks associated with recovery from IT Incidents.
The Zurich Insurance Technology team developed as individuals and as a team, working collaboratively together and aligning with other groups within the business which was successfully taken forwards into subsequent projects.
“It is one of the most successful projects that I have worked with. I am impressed that the PTS PMO and project team were working very proactively in identifying and resolving risks and issues. It is one of the successful factors for sure.”
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