Align Migrates 300+ Applications to Consolidate and Modernize
Oppenheimer Data Center
The Overview
Align was engaged by Oppenheimer & Co. (OPCO) to manage the relocation and migration of their data center located at 300 Madison in New York City. The data center was built in 2008 and contained outdated infrastructure and legacy hardware. Because OPCO did not have a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) illustrating the relationship of applications to its relevant infrastructure, they engaged Align as the program manager to conduct a diligent current state assessment and develop a migration plan.
Align was awarded the project because of the team’s extensive experience in all phases of the migration process. This deep understanding allowed them to provide end-to-end support throughout the entirety of the project’s duration.
Align's Phased Migration Approach
The Solution
The Align team developed and managed a full migration project that consisted of four phases that covered the entire lifecycle of the project.
The phases included:
- Proof of Concept: Create a small-scale version of the project to validate feasibility
- Current State Assessment: Complete discovery and inventory of existing infrastructure and applications in the current environment with all dependencies.
- Migration Planning: Create a schedule of move waves with runbooks, and determine which applications need to be bundled together, can move independently, concurrently or be retired.
- Migration Execution: Migrate the hardware and applications based on the runbooks created in migration planning. Manage timelines, hourly tasks, and resources. Provide final testing and documentation.
Align built confidence within the OPCO technology teams and application owners by completing the Proof of
Concept. In phase 1, Align analyzed 10 of the more complex applications and used our process, experience
and discovery tool to deliver insights into application dependencies and technology. This empowered OPCO
to recognize the significance of these application profiles for strategic migration planning and risk mitigation.
Phase 2, the Current State Assessment, Align discovered that there were a number of assets that needed to
be disposed of. The team used the “6 R’s”: Rehost, Replatform, Refactor, Repurchase, Retain, and Retire to
determine the disposition of each asset. Align also provided the OPCO team with a fully vetted profile for each business application which included the upstream and downstream connections.
In Phase 3, Align mapped out the migration program in detail including schedules and runbooks. The team
utilized the information discovered during the Current State Assessment to determine the optimal way to
bundle, move, or dispose of the technology assets inventoried.
Finally, the Align team assisted OPCO with managing and tracking their new build activities, as well as
understanding the process of cutting over connections from their 300 Madison facility to the new data center.
The Results
This was OPCO’s first full migration and the Align team managed the program from start to finish. With 
Align’s extensive migration experience, the team streamlined the discovery process and avoided having to complete a time-consuming manual inventory.
Align achieved a full migration for OPCO without any delays. The migration and rebuild activities enabled them to eliminate end-of life machines, operating systems, and do a technical refresh of the entire Infrastructure. Projects of this complexity often see the emergence of nuanced challenges; however, with Align’s impressive 37-years in the industry, we were able to solve these issues with ease.
The result—a seamless transition, right on schedule and budget, as Oppenheimer bid farewell to their 300 Madison facility and embraced a new one in Virginia.
As our client said, this wasn’t just a migration; it was orchestrated excellence.