Datalink Plans & Executes Data Center Relocation for Trek Bicycle Corporation

Project Increases Security, High Availability & Data Delivery Speeds for Retailers in 90 Countries

MINNEAPOLIS--()--Datalink (NASDAQ: DTLK), a leading provider of data center infrastructure and services, today announced the successful completion of a data center relocation project for Trek Bicycle Corporation, a global bicycle and cycling product manufacturer with direct sales in 25 countries and distribution in more than 90 countries. Separate pre-production and production migrations from Trek’s headquarters in Waterloo, WI, to a Tier 3 colocation facility 30 miles away were planned and orchestrated by Datalink’s Advanced Services team and Trek IT on tight weekend schedules, enabling Trek to increase security, improve disaster recovery abilities, and accelerate delivery of corporate applications.

“This project had no room for failure. An unexpected outage would have cost the company millions of dollars in revenue per day. We engaged Datalink because they have a dedicated data center relocation practice with established procedures and experienced personnel that we knew would minimize our risk,” said Bryan Turner, IT Senior Global Director, Trek Bicycle Corporation. “Their methodology, tools, vendor recertification abilities, partnerships with moving companies, and expertise in coordinating all the moving parts ensured that we were back up and running according to plan, even though we were managing outages for retailers and internal business users in seven different time zones.”

Application Mapping, Bandwidth Improvement & More

Data center relocation is a cornerstone of Datalink’s Advanced Services portfolio, which also includes application and system migration, cloud strategy and execution, disaster recovery planning, and related data center transformation, cloud services and IT resiliency offerings. These services complement the company’s full suite of data center-related technology solutions and services, enabling Datalink to assist customers at every stage of the IT lifecycle.

The Trek project involved relocating more than 300 virtual machines and 150 applications ranging from a proprietary business-to-business system utilized by over 8,000 Trek dealers/distributors globally to email, ERP, demand planning, engineering, product lifecycle management and business intelligence applications. Goals included updating and strengthening Trek’s data center infrastructure, freeing in-house data center space and power needs for use by the company’s expanding manufacturing operations, and solving bandwidth problems created by Trek’s headquarters location in a town of 3,300 with limited service.

Trek’s test and development infrastructure was moved first, followed by production servers and applications two months later. Both moves began on a Friday after close of business, with systems brought back online Saturday for testing and returned to full operation on Sunday or Monday depending on time zone.

Key to the project’s success was Datalink’s methodology for inventorying all applications to identify technology dependencies and create move sequences to ensure that servers would be moved and reinstalled in the optimal order, reducing the risk of errors or other complications.

Datalink also collaborated with Trek IT throughout the 6 month project to build the overall migration, co-managed vendors, supplied a 25-person day-of-move team to augment Trek’s in-house IT resources, and co-coordinated all personnel, site preparation, transportation and cargo handling logistics. This allowed Trek IT to focus on floor space design and changing the IP addresses of all servers to reduce project risk on day of move and to increase security layers.

Safer, Faster & DR-Ready

Trek’s new SSAE 16-audited and ISO 27001-certified colocation facility in Madison, WI, provides increased physical security including retina eye scans for entry; redundant communication, power and cooling; improved connectivity that expedites data delivery to end users as far away as Brazil, Europe, China, Japan, Korea and Australia; and a location that is less vulnerable to tornadoes and flooding than the company’s headquarters.

Additional high availability, disaster recovery and business continuity protections are provided because pre-production and production systems are located in different rooms separated by thick concrete walls, inhibiting the spread of fire from one room to another.

“Moving a data center requires a different set of skills and tools than other IT projects, not to mention hundreds of hours of planning and project management as well as precision timing. Without a partner with specific experience and proven methodologies, the risk of missed deadlines, broken equipment and unplanned downtime increases exponentially,” said Steve Zipperman, VP Advanced Services, Datalink. “This successful engagement with Trek is a direct result of the processes and expertise we have built to provide incident-free moves that get our customers’ new data centers up and running even with the tightest cutover timelines.”

More information about Datalink’s data center relocation methodology can be found at http://www.datalink.com/successful-DCR

About Datalink
Datalink is a complete IT services provider that helps companies transform their technology, operations, and service delivery in order to rise and meet business challenges. Combining extensive experience, a full lifecycle of services, and a comprehensive approach to producing IT innovations that empower positive business outcomes, Datalink delivers success across cloud, IT transformation, next generation technology, and security. For more information, call 800.448.6314 or visit www.datalink.com.

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Contacts

Press Contact for Datalink
Jim Capalbo, 847-904-2189
jim@jillschmidtpr.com

Release Summary

Datalink Plans & Executes Data Center Relocation for Trek Bicycle Corporation

Contacts

Press Contact for Datalink
Jim Capalbo, 847-904-2189
jim@jillschmidtpr.com