Representative Data Centre Projects
MD Financial Management Inc. (CMA companies)
This key Technology & Operations functional priority has the objectives of: (a) providing Canadian Physicians with a thoughtful, trustworthy online experience with an ‘Present & Ready for Use’ capability; (b) continue to supporting the CMA & its membership membership with uncompromised security & data integrity to our online portfolio; and (c) transform the IBS environment into an HA configuration with a 99.999% SLA. This will provide MDFMI clients, financial advisors and employees to use ‘online’, and core-mission critical applications at anytime, including trading, inquiry, account processing and statement/confirm/tax slips inquiry and processing.
ORION Cybernetics while providing counsel and direction to the MDFMI’s executive leadership team, also provisions resident program executive and client advocacy for a multi-disciplinary core advisory team. ORION's directs the organizational needs within and across the ‘vision-eering’, strategy development, assessment, discovery, and prepositioning the design, engineering and execution phases of this high availability (HA); active resiliency initiative.
MD Physician Services Inc. (CMA companies)
MDPSI engages a third party data centre co-location provider for the provisioning of facilities, hosting, network access, hosting services, and storage (collectively, "data centre facilities") in support of the Integrated Brokerage System (IBS) environment and application support. MDPSI has been advised that the colocation data centre is being decommissioned and that MDPS’ infrastructures and services need to migrate to a new data centre facility.
ORION Cybernetics provides MDPSI with requisite data centre executive consultancy and stewardship to the Technology Operations project management team. In guiding MDPSI’ multi-disciplinary IT team, ORION provides Client Advocacy support and penetrates within the co-location provider’s relocation-build-deployment team, to ensure the needs of MDPSI are communicated, represented and delivered.
Shared Services Canada - Vancouver Island
ORION Cybernetics provided executive and trusted advisor consultancy for a strategic report to capture high-level observations of the current state of Shared Services Canada (SSC) data centers on Vancouver Island and their suitability as candidates for consolidation.
The Roadmap documents the high-level current state, establishes key consolidation strategies and outline next steps for consolidation within the SSC data center (interim end state). The work effort was organized around three (3) main areas:
Phase 1 - Information Gathering:
Current State Discovery acquired information through document reviews, questionnaires, meetings, and physical review of systems of a predetermined subset of sites/locations to form an infrastructure baseline. The initial due diligence of relevant documents and subsequent questionnaires helped provide the assessment team a foundation for further due diligence during the site visit(s). This formed a baseline of comparison against known requirements resulting in a gap analysis and assessment recommendations.
Phase 2 - Information Analysis and Infrastructure Review:
The analysis presents a short statement of disparities between the current state baseline and Industry typical requirements. The baseline is also used to gauge the suitability of ‘consolidation candidates’ for migration or integration into the interim end state data centre.
Phase 3 - Information Reporting and Documentation:
Recommendations based upon the analysis provide:
- specific SSC infrastructure recommendations / suggested improvements required at the SSC data centre to accommodate for the consolidations;
- a recommended set of opportunities that can lead to a number of quick wins;
- listing of exposure(s) that require immediate attention; and
- a roadmap by which more complex planning and validation can occur/commence.
Bank of Canada
The Datacenter Migration project is a component of a larger initiative to enhance business continuity, and modernize the Bank’s datacenters, providing an active/active design that will enable improvements in the Bank’s business continuity capabilities and recovery time objectives for day-to-day and DR/COOP purposes. A prerequisite to the DCM, the Core Network Upgrade, as a component of the Infrastructure Upgrade and Evolution Program, seeks to enhance the Bank’s network, and enable future technologies such as voice over IP, wireless, unified communications and improved video capabilities such as tele-presence and video to the desktop.
ORION Cybernetics™ provides a Senior Data Centre Infrastructure Specialist and is a contributor and member of the Core Infrastructure team.
Environment Canada
The Data Center Service Optimization Program mandate is to evaluate Environment Canada's National Data Center (DC) service delivery including the physical environment and Data Center services to Environment Canada clients. The scope of this program includes a variety of projects, work packages and people focused initiates.
The objectives of the program are to:
1. Align with overall Government of Canada strategy and vision;
2. Define Long term Data Center vision;
3. Data Center services supported by a reduced number of locations;
4. Increase efficiencies and reduce total cost of ownership;
5. Maximize value to our clients and for Canadians; and
6. Define new roles and provide training for IT Infrastructure Staff to support data center longer term vision.
Environment Canada
Engaged to provided Data Centre Executive Consultancy - Trusted Advisor services to Environment Canada for the initial advance planning and consolidation strategy development for a National Capital Region data centre build and relocation. Additionally ORION Cybernetics also provided data centre relocation planning and deployment services. Data Centre provisioning and infrastructure design revolve around The Uptime Institute best practices and Tiering standards as defined by TIA-942.
Environment Canada
Entailed the undertaking of an on-site assessment that included review of the Environment Canada Vancouver Data Center as well as interviews with the IT Staff from both the IT operations and Client applications. The scope of assessment includes:
1. Examine capacity requirements based on existing and future anticipated requirements;
2. Review any existing engineering reports on physical power and cooling defining current and available capacity.
3. Examine current state of IM/IT infrastructure, with consideration for the Interactive Weather Station application deployment.
ORION provided findings and recommendations made to alleviate current Power and HVAC issues, as well as a greening/consolidation approach to better utilize existing infrastructure to reduce current space and load. In addition, the report includes a recommended approach to enable continuous monitoring of utilization of infrastructure (with complete statistical analysis) to provide trends and target potential future capacity issues before they occur.
SSi Micro Ltd.
SSi is the largest ISP in Northern Canada, serving more than 60 Northern communities within Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. They specialize in deploying turnkey networks to support the needs of communities that do not have access to terrestrial connectivity. I dentified lead consultant providing data centre design and infrastructure (architectural, electrical, mechanical and communication) recommendations for SSi's new data centre facility in Ottawa.
Fisheries and Oceans, Canada
Fisheries and Oceans, Canada (DFO) implemented a new IM/IT service delivery model which gave rise to the IT Sustainability Project (ISP). The ISP delivers modernized and revitalized IM/IT services. This national DFO project will establish enterprise-wide comprehensive and consistent management model for IM/IT in the department, and a consolidated, rationalized and sustainable infrastructure designed to support the business outcomes of the Department.ORION is accountable to plan and lead a CGI Facilities Infrastructure team to evaluate and counsel DFO on recommendations for Data Centre facilities consolidation nationally.
Nortel Networks
Combined technology labs encompass over 60,000 sq.ft. Additionally ORION Cybernetics is a key infrastructure designer and logistical contributor for Nortel’s Global Internet Data Centre deployment and technology centres dispersed internationally. These include on-site logistics and information management in Canada, Germany, Romania and the United States of America.
Stentor Canadian Network Management
Consulting and project prime for the logistical management of SCNM's migration to a new 185,000 sq.ft. corporate head office in Ottawa. Includes the development, management, delivery and documentation of their PBX, structured cabling, internetworking, Data Centre migration, consolidated labs and end user services deployment (1,000 staff). Change is constant within SCNM as a result of the collapse of Stentor Resource Centre Inc. (SRCI), the repatriation of employees to member companies, substantial organizational restructuring and carrier labour disputes/strike. Our ability to work through these difficulties without detriment to the program is demonstrated within ORION's appointment as SCNM Emergency Work Assignment project managers through the May-99 Bell Canada labour strike.
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
To support MetLife's Canadian lines of business and end-users, ORION contributes as IT prime to the Real Estate, Facilities, Architectural, Construction and IT teams. This initiative is focused to the design, build and commissioning of a consolidated 7,554 square foot Data Center to facilitate MetLife's existing and emerging technologies and applications through the year 2002. The MetLife Canadian Head Office Domain Communications Room (DCR) is a consolidated centre for technology and operational services. The services distributed and supported from this centre house structured cable distribution; switching equipment; transmission equipment; inter-networking; security-systems hardware; distributed computing; mainframe computing; tape services; print services; the operations action centre, power systems distribution; network-systems monitoring and related infrastructure (i.e. UPS/Battery - Generator).