Egencia faced a significant challenge – the impending expiration of data centre leases housing critical back-office systems. As an eCommerce organisation, there was only a narrow window in the business calendar to exit the facility while protecting revenue and customer loyalty. 

A swift program execution was crucial. 

​

The Challenge:

The task was to relocate or re-platform legacy systems and networks to new data centres in Europe and North America before the year's end while maintaining availability and performance post-migration. The urgency was not only technical but a critical operation to protect key booking periods, ensuring business continuity without compromise. Failure to execute correctly would result in travel disruptions for thousands, leaving business travellers stranded at airports—a high-profile challenge to meet. 

 

Solution:

In true Karumba style, we partnered with Egencia to co-own the problem. We organised the internal teams, prioritised this work alongside their roadmap work, and orchestrated the design, testing, and UAT. Karumba also assisted with resource augmentation in technical and service management areas. A robust project management office (PMO) was established to ensure governance and transparency, reinforcing consistent reporting and governance throughout the entire process for the US-based executive team. 

​

Implementation:

The complexity of the systems' and networking configurations and the requirement to maintain low-latency connectivity meant running two environments parallel to each other was not an option. The migration could only be accomplished with a 'big-bang' approach and severe constraints on rollback—a high-risk strategy that necessitated very detailed planning and testing. Thousands of hours of testing were undertaken, with risk mitigation strategies put into play and agents on standby should problems arise. 

The migration commenced at 9 pm on a Friday evening, the week before the Christmas break. Migration cutover was completed early the following morning, and UAT testing was finished that weekend. No business transactions were lost during and after the migration, and the migration concluded without any unplanned business disruptions. 

​

After the migration, Karumba managed the tenders for equipment disposal. This meticulous process preceded the decommissioning and exit from the data centres, marking the end of a transformative journey. 

 

Outcome:

The data centres were closed before the lease termination. The back-office applications were migrated to the parent company’s data centres, benefiting from enhanced resilience and support coverage. System performance metrics were maintained or improved, with no bookings lost, no travellers stranded at airports or without hotel accommodations, and no client billing or receipts misplaced. A success by any measure. 

 

 

Youssef Lachgar, IT Innovation and Integration Service Manager - Egencia:

"I had the pleasure of working with Simon on a complex data centre move for the whole back-office platform of Egencia. Simon was outstanding in strategizing and setting milestones around this project." 

​

As you navigate your challenges and transformations, consider how Karumba's expertise and bespoke solutions can help you achieve your business objectives. Contact us to explore how our strategies can empower your organisation's success. 

​