NAB Implements New Data Centre Management System

In 2006, National Australia Bank sought to improve the facility management of its huge data centre in Victoria. Ken Jarrott, Lead Data Centre Facilities Analyst, knew that productivity in management, floor space, rack space and power could all be improved.

Ken called on FM Innovations (FMI) to diagnose the needs of NAB’s data centre and determine a way of achieving the improvements he wanted.

FMI acted as a conduit between the different stakeholders within NAB and helped identify all the different agendas and requirements within the company.

This inclusion and diagnosis was critical, since without it the work that followed could have been wasted or produced an outcome that simply didn’t work.

The next step was to interpret these objectives into tangible evidence that NAB would be able to experience as evidence of the objectives met, and these in turn allowed us to generate specifications that turned the design into reality.

FM Innovations made the implementation of the new system as unintrusive as possible. We took NAB’s Visio floor plans and converted them into versions suitable for the new Aperture-based components of the DCMS system.

The data behind the floor plans was collected through an in depth audit process.  NAB didn’t have to input this, either. We had it collected on their behalf.

During the migration, there were a couple of instances where NAB had questions and small obstacles. We were able to turn around a fast response and keep the migration seamless.  The results have made NAB very happy.

One of the most significant outcomes of the new system is that it allows us to bring together all aspects of the management of NAB’s Computer Rooms into one system.

Previously, NAB were using Visio for the floor plans and MSAccess for the data with no direct correlation between the two.

But because the system is now centralised, there is ‘one truth’ so to speak, all information can be entered and viewed in real time, and reports are made much more powerful

NAB can now produce accurate inventory reports, trending reports and more that previously were simply not possible.

They’ve even taken the system a step further now and are using Aperture to effectively plan out the Data Centers and remotely manage their interstate Computer Rooms.

“FM Innovations helped us take our Data Centre to a whole new level in terms of its management and productivity. They invested time in understanding what we had and what we needed and they didn’t merely deliver an off-the-shelf solution. They designed something that fitted us, perfectly, and then made sure the migration to the new system was painless. We now enjoy productivity gains and reports we’ve simply not been able to generate in the past. Our objectives were understood and they have been achieved.”

Ken Jarrott
Leading Data Centre Facilities Analyst
Facilities Management | Service Management | Technology Operations
NAB

How Fm Innovations Helped

New reports being produced that were not previously possible

Databases centralised into 'one truth'

Plans are more accurate and accessible

Workflow improved

Data collections and quality improved