How a Title and Settlement Company Cut IT Costs with Server Migration

Datacenter migration follows acquirement by a prominent real estate firm

Company Profile:

Founded in 2012, the client is a national title and settlement company in the commercial and residential markets. Their mission is to provide comprehensive solutions for their clients’ title and settlement needs by leveraging their affiliation with a major national title insurance underwriter. The client prides itself as an industry leader through its emphasis on service, quality, and integrity.

Business Challenge:

The client was acquired by the largest real estate firm and title agency in the United States. The client headquarters was located in Houston, TX, but the parent company is located in Orange County, CA. Following the purchase, the client decided to move the headquarters Orange County, Calif., where the company principals primarily worked. This move was performed leaving behind a smaller office in Houston and the servers in the data center. All other remote offices stayed in place.

Technology Challenge:

The client's information technology (IT) infrastructure and all data were stored in a secure Houston-based Verizon data center. However, the new parent company is located in Orange County, Calif.

The distance between the data center and the new headquarters presented IT challenges:

• The non-standard connectivity lines from the remote office to the servers were a costly expense.
• The current data center monthly servicing cost was $18,000 for optimal performance. In other regions, the costs for the same services were much lower.
• If hardware needed to be added or replaced, such as a new server or hard drive, either a technician listed on the data center access list had to be flown out or untrained staff had to assist.
• In the event of an emergency, the entire company operation was a four-hour flight away, which would likely result in extended periods of downtime.

Solution:

SwiftTech Solutions took over IT management and day-to-day operations. The new principals set goals for their IT operations; they wanted to cut costs, improve service greatly, consolidate resources, and ensure they were secure and compliant with regulations governing their industry.

SwiftTech recommended an 18-month server migration plan that concluded with moving the data center equipment from Houston to Orange County. SwiftTech estimated that redesign, migration, and consolidation of the client’s data center infrastructure would allow the company to save $348,000 annually.

The client CEO said, “We have a unique opportunity here to make $30 million a year within the first 18 months, but revamping our IT is critical to making this a success.”

The SwiftTech team developed an extensive project plan for moving and migrating the servers:

• SwiftTech put together a project team of five technicians with the appropriate skillsets for the technology used by the client.
• The project team designed a plan to fit the requirements and submitted it to the client.
• SwiftTech reviewed the plan with the project team and discussed all possible scenarios.
• The client and SwiftTech Solutions agreed to shut down the network in Houston on a Friday at 5 p.m. (CST) and restart operations at 10 p.m. (PST) Sunday.
• The project team sent one engineer, one project manager and one specialist to Houston, while the other two team members remained at the Orange County site.
• The systems were taken offline on Friday at 5 p.m. (CST) as planned.
• The designated Houston team members recorded inventory and designed diagrams.
• Two of the Houston team members began disassembling and packaging the equipment.
• The remaining Houston team member worked with the Orange County team to get the systems operating again and update all publicly held records.
• The systems were online again by 10 p.m. (CST) Friday.
• The Orange County team connected the new offices and VPN users to the new locations and then tested the systems thoroughly.
• The engineer flew back to assist the team members located in Orange County.
• The specialist and project manager transported $500,000 worth of equipment from Houston to Orange County by road.
• Once the specialist and project manager arrived in Orange County at 11 a.m. (PST) Sunday, the entire team unloaded the equipment from the truck.
• The team placed the equipment onto existing racks and then restored additional non-critical archive systems.
• The following Monday at 5 a.m. (PST), the client’s staff went online and started their work tasks as usual.

Results:

Using cutting edge technology, time-proven best practices, and the experience of expert IT professionals, the data center move was a complete success:

• SwiftTech created a cost-effective facility by consolidating and redesigning the network, which eliminated additional cost points.
• The cost of the move paid for itself in savings in under a month.
• Datacenter expenses were cut by $31,000 per month.
• Locations and remote users were connected to the new data center quickly and effectively.
• Data was not lost from any system during the move.
• The existing backup plan was maintained at the new data center location.
• Compliance standards were upheld at the new data center location.
• The on-time move of the equipment allowed the client to terminate their contract with the Houston data center.
• Client staff experienced little to no downtime disruption to their normal work procedures.
• Client staff experienced increased overall speed with their IT systems.