HOUSTON, TEXAS [Jun 2022] Harris County Universal Services is in the process of modernizing the computer networks in two enterprise data center facilities. Upon completion of this project, the network will treat both facilities as a single logical data center, reducing the barriers to constructing disaster recovery services for enterprise applications.

HCUS Network Architect Andrew Keene is leading the way in this complete team effort to improve availability, enhance security, increase capacity and elevate flexibility.

“The new equipment will allow us to operate as one,” said Keene. “Teams will be able to use resources at both data centers simultaneously.” 

The Network Engineering and Field Services teams are nearing completion of a phase to migrate the data center to a temporary core switch after COVID-19 supply chain delays caused the new permanent infrastructure to arrive later than expected. The teams adapted to this new schedule with this added step to avoid the looming end-of-support date for key equipment. With this part of the project nearly complete, HCUS is re-tooling to focus again on the new equipment.

“The HCUS Infrastructure teams are wrangling this very expensive and highly complex project by breaking it down into baby steps,” said Deputy IT Infrastructure Director Mike Smith. “It requires more work in the end, but will greatly reduce the risk to system availability and the business of the County. Decomposition in this manner combined with extensive communication, unprecedented support from all areas of HCUS, and exceptional partnership with our customer agencies allowed the team to complete 20-plus after-hour network changes with hardly any downtime, planned or unplanned. We are lucky to have Andrew, this team and these partners.”

“It has been a team effort,” said Keene. “Many late nights, but we are making good progress.”

The project scheduled to complete by 2025.