A bank’s data centre strategy

A major Australian bank required a strategy for its data centre facilities, including a financial model and implementation roadmap to support the business through to 2025.

The organisation had been working on a strategy for 2 years, with multiple steering-group forums and many changes in direction and stakeholders. Then, as the result of a company acquisition, additional facilities were added to the data centre portfolio, further complicating matters.

Following an initial engagement to provide analysis and review of the strategy, Frame was engaged for a broader, more detailed review of the current state of the data centres.

The bank wanted to ensure its current strategy aligned to business objectives and wanted to validate that the strategy was the best one for them. The strategy also had to address achievable targets on energy efficiency and green credentials — a core value for the bank.

Frame reviewed and revised the strategy within 8 weeks.This comprised feasibility studies of the six major sites and a summary report of options and recommendations, including a detailed risk assessment and financial model for each of the options.

At a low level, Frame met the primary technical challenge of costing and recommending options for dealing with ageing, obsolete and unsupported equipment and infrastructure, eliminating many single points of failure. We also addressed consolidation and virtualisation, regulatory compliance and property considerations.

The strategy comprised:

• the high-level program of works and estimated cost to achieve TIA-942 Tier III requirements
• the high-level program of works and estimated cost to progressively upgrade the power and cooling capacity against forecast requirements
• achievable targets on energy efficiency and green credentials
• budget, timeframe, resources and plan to execute Frame’s recommendations
• funding model options that could be realistically considered within a difficult financial environment.

Along with an implementation roadmap and recommended funding model, the strategy ensured the data centre infrastructure would be able to meet the business imperatives of the merged organisation until 2025.

Our recommendations were adopted as the basis of detailed financial models and a business case to the board. Frame contributed to the business case with options for energy-related cost savings and means of achieving energy sustainability (green IT).

Frame was uniquely positioned to provide the required solution, having extensive success and experience delivering similar strategies for major corporates.

The project was led by one of our senior data centre consultants. Other internal consultants provided specialist advice when required, drawing on local and global experience and knowledge.

We used a structured and disciplined process to gather, analyse and interpret all of the critical inputs, and we provided summary reports throughout the engagement.

Advice was given and the strategy developed in accordance with:

• IA-942 standards for data centre locations, their availability and resiliency
• the guidelines for risk management and business continuity from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Critical Infrastructure Protection Modelling and Analysis Program
• tax implications for data centre energy efficiency
• commercial considerations for property rationalisation and leasing optimisation.

Consultation with utility suppliers assisted with planning for property upgrade works.

At a technical level, the project included detailed analysis of floor-space utilisation, power loads, UPS loads, space-cooling density, floor loadings across 15 computer halls, and high-cost items — like diesel generators and mains substations — that required extensive maintenance or replacement.