| Room for growth at the Sanger Institute The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genomics centres. Its mission is to further the knowledge of genomes, particularly through large-scale sequencing and analysis. The institute is making a major contribution to the Human Genome Project by sequencing one billion base-pairs of the human genome, one-third of the total.
Although the Sanger Institute is not a commercial organisation, it is under considerable pressure to research and sequence genomes quickly so that the information is available for purposes such as fighting disease. In conjunction with the institute's continued expansion, this leads to a constant demand for more and better computers, which need more space to house them. Recently, it embarked on the construction of a brand-new data centre, which when completed in 2005 will be one of Europe's largest. In the meantime, the infrastructure had to be moved to a temporary location.
Minimising disruption
The relocation had to be completed without disruption to normal operations. To achieve this, the Sanger Institute put in place a duplicate infrastructure that ensured services would continue in the event of a problem. It also engaged HP Services to implement the move within a carefully planned window of downtime.
"As our existing supplier of hardware and associated support services, HP was already helping us adapt our infrastructure to support the growing number of projects. We invited HP to collaborate with us in planning and executing a successful relocation," said Phil Butcher, head of IT at the Sanger Institute.
Together, the two companies devised a low-cost, low-risk approach to the relocation. HP's business-critical team was involved in the project together with its on-site managed services team, which had extensive experience of the Sanger Institute infrastructure. At the outset, HP invested time in acquiring a full understanding of the requirements of the project and the risks involved. The services provided included business-critical environmental reviews (pre-implementation and post-implementation), insurance, transportation, and installation by a team of engineers. HP assumed responsibility for dealing with any equipment faults during the move and for ensuring that the systems were fully operational afterwards.
Successful outcome
The relocation, which involved moving 407 HP AlphaServer systems and 12 HP storage systems, was an outstanding success. No scheduled downtime window was exceeded. In fact, the total amount of downtime amounted to only one-third of the anticipated 48 hours.
"Although the time scale was exceptionally challenging, HP met all expectations and minimised downtime. Relocation can be very disruptive for an organisation, but the amount of planning and up-front analysis that Sanger and HP put into this project ensured that very little could go wrong," commented Butcher.
"HP's readiness to collaborate was a key factor in ensuring a successful outcome. There was a good level of communication throughout and a clear desire on HP's part to work as part of a team."
For more information on how working with HP can benefit you, please contact your local HP sales representative or reseller, or visit: http://www.hp.com/ .
Technical information in this document is subject to change without notice © Copyright Hewlett-Packard Company 2003. All rights reserved reproduction adaptation or translation without prior written permission is prohibited except as allowed under the copyright laws.
Customer at a glance
- Industry sector - Genomics
- Name - Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
- Headquarters - South Cambridge, UK
- Founded - 1993
- Telephone - +44 (0)1223 834244
- URL -Wellcome Trust Sangor Institute
Challenge
- Support growth by expanding the IT infrastructure.
- Move computer systems to a new location.
- Implement the relocation within a carefully planned window of downtime.
Solution
- Engage HP Services to execute the relocation project.
- Work in close partnership with HP to design a low-cost, low-risk approach to the relocation.
- Plan all aspects of the move carefully in advance.
Results
- A total of 407 HP AlphaServer systems (360 x DS10L, 3 x DS20, 4 x ES40's and 40 x ES45) and 12 HP storage systems, with all associated hardware, were successfully relocated.
- All aspects of the relocation were completed within the required time scales.
- Downtime amounted to only one-third of the anticipated 48 hours.
Why HP?
- Ability to work closely with the customer as a team
- Existing relationship as a hardware supplier
- Quality of support services provided - relationship and collaborative solution
Services highlights
- Implementation of relocation project by HP Services
- Business-critical environmental reviews
- Risk analysis
- Insurance
- Deinstallation
- Transportation
- Installation
- Acceptance testing
- 40 x HP AlphaServer ES45
- 4 x HP AlphaServer ES40
- 3 x HP AlphaServer DS20
- 360 x HP AlphaServer DS10L
- 12 x HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array
- Tru64 Unix
- Linux
- In-house applications
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