The Varied Roles of the WAKE Technology Consultant

Some skills are learned from books while others are learned only through years of on-the-job experience. Fortunatefor the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia(CHOP), the professionals at WAKE Technologies Services are well equipped with both skill sets. It was the application of these skills that enabled WAKE to successfully perform a number of key roles during a recent IT engagement at CHOP. This particular project involved the deployment and implementation of a new storage architecture.

Setting the Stage

In 2004, CHOP initiated a project to develop an RFP to overhaul the hospital’s IT storage system. The project had hit a number of bumps and roadblocks along the way. Personalprejudices of some of the contributors, differing agendas, subjective evaluations of vendors, and plain old discord amongcoworkers prevented the IT team from defining clear requirements and objectively appraising and identifying potential vendors. The lead storage employee and the IT director couldn’t even agree on which version of the RFP they should submit.

One member of the team wanted to make certain that IBM wouldn’t prevail,so he inserted into the RFP a requirement tosupport a legacy OS, knowingIBM could not satisfy the requirement. As it turned out, the OS, developed by Digital Equipment Corporationback in 1979wasn’t supported by any of the vendors.

The vendors too were purportedly guilty of some misconduct. Innuendos of kick-backs and alleged attempts to circumvent the normal “chain of command” by seeking audiences with the CIO and even the Board of Directors contributed further to the chaos. Clearly, the project was hopelessly stalled.

The Role of Mediator

As CHOP’s IT teamentered the eighth month of grappling with the development of the RFP, WAKE’s Gene Kern was retained by the VP of IT to conduct an independent evaluation of the data center. Gene quickly discovered problems with the hospital’s storage configuration and the required storage maintenance. He also identified numerous points of failure within the system. Fortuitously, the hospital was already in the process of a system upgrade. So,Gene was asked to intervene, conduct a thorough review of the in-progress RFP project and ultimately mediate a resolution to the existing stalemate caused by an overall lack of cooperation and consensus within the team.

The Role of Project Manager

WAKE stepped up immediately to the task of completely managing the entire RFP process. Step one involved the identification of all requirements necessary for a successful implementation. Next, WAKE followed their proven methodology for completing an IT engagement, from RFP through final deployment. Specific tasks ranged from the development of a convincing business case, managing all vendor communications and negotiations, client conferences to evaluate and score bid responses, assessment of final bids, contract award and ultimately overseeing the implementation.

WAKE also planned four separate consolidations which the client implemented:

  • Server hardware from some existing boxes to the new IBM P-Series (AIX) and Blades (Windows);
  • Storage from local disks, EMC and SAN, and old IBM storage to the new IBM supplied SAN;
  • Multiple versions of earlier Windows releases to the latest Windows release, plusoutdated AIX to the most current AIX version; and
  • Existing Windows-based servers to VMware.

The Role of Guardian

The prevention of calamities is a far better strategy than correcting them after they occur. WAKE added further value to the project by doing just that - watching over all aspects and intervening when their experience and knowledge dictated a different course of action. Much like a guardian angel - to stretch a metaphor.

Some examples:

  • Had CHOP selected either one of the two vendors left after the slight-of-hand elimination of IBM, WAKE knew that they would have found themselves faced with a costly, time-consuming upgrade that no doubt would require downtime, within six-months following the initial implementation. Conversely, WAKE was aware of IBM’s recent release of their new DS series. So their next upgrade was well in the future.
  • One of the more important requirements of the new system was 7x24x365 uptime for the storage side. Due to the virtualization solution presented by IBM, they alone had the only storage recommendation that would allow maintenance without downtime. Virtualization would allow for quick and easy provisioning of storage. It becomes a simple matter to move data from the portion of the system requiring maintenance. WAKE has plenty of experience implementing virtual environments and they are well aware of he enhanced availability that results.
  • Had CHOP gone with the SAN solution initially proposed, there would have been no fail-over capability, since the vendor’s system did not support clustering; and, the database they required their clients to use – Microsoft SQL Server – does not cluster reliably. WAKE had wisely made a clustered environment a requirement to further minimize downtime.

The Role ofJudge and Jury

WAKE consultants’ industry knowledge, experience, and expertise made them the best qualified to select and recommend the most competent, capable and reliable vendor to implement CHOP’s storage system.

The analysis, elimination of unqualified vendors, and ultimate selection of the winning bid required first-hand knowledge of Best Available Technology, vendor insight from previously established relationships, and confidence in conviction that only comes from a long track record of successful IT engagements. Key conclusions that led to the selection:

  • To maximize storage availability, WAKE determined that virtualization of the storage system would be required. But, at the time, EMC and HP had no virtualization solution of their own.
  • Conversely, IBM had their own field-proven, time-tested virtualization solution.
  • IBM’s SAN Volume Controller (SVC) allowed for the combination of storage capacity from multiple vendors into a single reservoir of capacity that can be managed from a central point.
  • When WAKE finally selected IBM, the vendor immediately put a whole team of people on the project. With 44 terabytes of useable storage, it would be the biggest sale IBM had in storage on the east coast that year (2004), so there was strong motivation to make it a highly successful engagement.

The Role of Negotiator

Prior to WAKE’s involvement, the lowest preliminary bid had been $2.8 million. The actual purchase price of the final system that was recommended by WAKE came in at half that cost - $1.4 million. Not a lot for 44 terabytes of storage capacity. And, to further sweeten the deal, WAKE negotiated a full year of free maintenance worth up to $80,000. Apparently WAKE not only calculates the project’s ROI, they contribute to as well.

The Role of Champion

WAKE’s skill, knowledge and experience resulted in plenty of other tangible benefits for CHOP:

  • Their project management skills and proven Methodology in RFP Development got the project out of neutral and into high gear all the way to completion.
  • WAKE provided cost justification of the system through calculations of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and ROI – mandatory for buy-in by all stakeholders.
  • The injection of a purely objective approach to the evaluation of the RFP was instrumental in bringing back into the process the vendor who ultimately submitted the winning bid.
  • WAKE’s well-established relationships with the vendors provided access to their developers and architects, not just the vendors’ sales people. WAKE also arranged for face-to-face discussions between the client’s team and the vendors’ VPs.
  • In the beginning, the project had not been elevated above the director level within the organization. WAKE managed to raise the visibility of the project to the senior executive level.

Whatever It Takes

It’s more the rule than the exception that WAKE will bring far more to their clients’ projects than just IT consulting. Like the CHOP case, they are often brought in to either get a project back on trackor better focused on the real objectives. And, these scenarios require WAKE to draw from their broad portfolio of talents and experiences beyond technical expertise. Relationship building, tough negotiating abilities, proficient troubleshooting, excellent communication skills – WAKE takes on many roles with a sole purpose in mind – complete the job on time, on budget, while exceedingall client expectations.