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How do you successfully migrate a substantial database to new hardware and storage in a tight timeframe?

IT infrastructure transformation of this magnitude is a major undertaking for a large enterprise, and one that comes with substantial risks. In this blog post, I want to share the story of how IBM helped a major power company in India undertake such a transformative migration.

A new IT road map

NTPC Limited, India’s largest energy conglomerate, was founded in 1975 as the “National Thermal Power Corporation Limited” to accelerate power development in India. In 2016, the company contributed 24 percent of all India power generation and was ranked the 400th biggest company in the world in the Forbes Global 2000 list.

Over its 40-plus years of business, NTPC has amassed a substantial SAP database that is crucial to its business, but its existing hardware was getting obsolete. As the company grew, its storage had also become inadequate for the volume of data it has and was no longer supported. NTPC needed a hardware refresh for its primary data center and its disaster recovery environment, as well as a storage solution that could make room in its data center for continued growth. It was time to develop a new IT infrastructure road map.

To address these needs, NTPC knew it needed a hardware refresh. Its IT leaders were looking for better performance, as well as fewer physical servers, which would help the company save on power, space and cooling costs. But NTPC was also concerned about the risks of migrating to a new platform. It was essential to migrate the system to the new hardware in under 48 hours.

Expertise for enterprise infrastructure

IBM Systems Lab Services, an experienced group of technical consultants with proven expertise on IBM Power Systems, IBM Storage solutions and migration services, worked closely with NTPC’s IT team to understand its needs and develop a migration plan that would address all of the energy company’s goals. IBM Systems Lab Services provided a proof of concept for a migration plan that met and exceeded NTPC’s expectations. Lab Services was then engaged to facilitate the migration. In addition, we conducted two mock migrations before the final migration to ensure that the client’s timeline would be met and that downtime would be minimal.

As a result of IBM’s commitment to demonstrating the quality of its solution, NTPC chose to procure the new hardware from IBM.

Check out the video to hear the story from NTPC Limited’s general manager, Mr. S.V. Srinivas Rao:

Benefits of the transformation

NTPC’s entire migration was successfully completed in just 36 hours—12 hours ahead of the target. IBM Systems Lab Services mitigated risk of errors by automating the migration. NTPC is content with its new IBM Systems infrastructure. IBM Power Systems hardware has demonstrated clear performance improvements over its old system and, ultimately, provides a better experience to its customers.

Looking for help with your migration or hardware refresh?

If you’d like to consult with IBM Systems Lab Services on your next hardware refresh, consolidation, storage upgrade or data migration, please contact us today. Our consultants have the expertise to help leading organizations design, build and deliver IT infrastructure for the cognitive era.

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