Next Generation Network initiative to improve IT services for customers, departments

In 2014, the Next Generation Network project was underway to migrate current server data connections in the VUH and Hill data centers to Cisco's next-generation data center platform. Migrating to the new switching platform enabled Vanderbilt to provide industry-leading IT services and was accomplished in a timely manner. In many cases, the project had no service impact; in all cases details of the change were communicated extensively with each server owner. From the get-go, VUIT Network Services understood the complexity inherent to such migrations from a server-centric vantage point, and worked with staff members to alleviate concerns.

In July 2014, the Hill & VUH Data Center Life Cycle project was announced to improve IT services for Vanderbilt's customers and departments by providing increased data center performance, resiliency and high availability.

As of March 2015, Data Center Services and Network Operations had begun migrating the Vanderbilt University Hospital (VUH) Data Center to the Cisco Nexus platform with plans to migrate the Hill Center Data Center in July. All device migrations were managed by Change Management with Pegasus, and many of these migrations did not require service impacts. By March, the teams had sent more than 300 emails for customer coordination, had removed 32 devices, and had migrated more than 225 devices, with an incident rate of only 1.7 percent. The VUH migration project was customer and device dependent, meaning that participation across all teams was essential to meet the target deadline of July.

The Hill Center and VUH data centers’ lifecycle project will improve IT services for Vanderbilt's customers and departments by providing increased data center performance, resiliency, and high availability. Long-term cost reduction is also anticipated as servers are configured for 10GB Ethernet by reducing cabling, complexity, and management overhead.