During June and July, Cedel Bank performed several tasks in parallel. The IS staff upgraded the
desktop hardware, installed and commissioned all infrastructure hardware, tested the underlying NT
server and back office infrastructure, and created SMS packages. The IS staff also created
unattended installation scripts that let it install NT 4.0, NTFS, Exchange client, SMS client,
Office 95, IE 3.0, and a corporate screen saver with only two manual operations at each PC. At the
same time, the bank began to implement desktop design changes (e.g., shortcuts and directory
structures) and migrate old systems to new systems (e.g., MS Mail to Exchange).
NT 4.0 was still in beta at this point in the migration, and Cedel Bank decided to initially
stick with NT 3.51 because the release date for NT 4.0 was still unclear. The bank began testing the
alpha build of the Cedel Bank workstation to ensure that the infrastructure and fundamental elements
were in place and working. At this point, the bank also began to implement user training modules on
various components (NT overview, Exchange, Office 95, NT development, etc.) of the new environment.
In August, Cedel Bank began beta testing the new environment, using more than 60 users and
fixing problems to prepare for the next beta release. The beta testing focused on the products the
users would receive and how the users would receive the products.
A month after the beta testing began, Cedel Bank made a critical decision to replace its
existing NT 3.51 systems with NT 4.0. The bank allowed for a one-month delay so it could rework the
environment and deploy NT 4.0. IS staff members believed that NT 4.0's features had value and
realized that they could avoid a second full-force migration to NT 4.0 later if they switched now.
In October, the bank performed the second phase of beta testing to fix minor bugs in the system
and prepare for a live migration of the remaining systems. The live migration in Luxembourg took
five weekends to migrate about 150 users per weekend. In November, after successfully migrating the
local systems, the bank began migrating systems in other countries. For the final step, the IS staff
performed a year-end freeze and stopped making additional changes (other than urgent fixes or
customer requests) to systems in the new environment.
"By adopting an aggressive but achievable schedule and working as a team, we were able to
go from a blank page in March to successful migration in October," Cohen said. "Considering
the complexity of the migration, which involved approximately 800 users, 26 servers, and full
implementation of BackOffice, Office 95, realtime disk mirroring, and a warm standby facility, the
relatively short period in which we migrated to NT shows that we did many things right."
Lessons Learned
Cohen is pleased with the way the bank handled the migration to NT, but he admits that some
things went wrong. "We had our share of problems, such as getting MS Mail and Exchange to
coexist during the transition and getting desktop shortcuts to follow users when they used another
PC in the system," he said. "If we had to perform the migration all over again, we would
do some things differently, such as improving the way we approached user training. Our guiding
principles throughout the project were to adapt, improvise, and overcome." For Cohen's thoughts
on where the project succeeded and where it fell short, see the sidebar, "An Interview with Ian
Cohen," page 120.
Cohen realizes that undertaking a large-scale migration can't purely be an exercise in
technology. "To be successful, you need to navigate various planning, testing, technical, and
logistical challenges," he said. "You need to approach the migration much like a military
exercise and know what you want to achieve."
Cohen said that companies need to have a good grasp of their existing environment, including
hardware and especially software. Cedel Bank identified where it had installed applications and
hardware products, who was using these components, how critical the components were to the
enterprise, what language the applications were written in, and whether the components were
compatible with the new systems the bank was installing. During the migration, Cedel Bank used a
commercial product to audit its existing systems, but found that the software audited only major
products and none of the applications the bank had developed internally. To help fill the missing
holes, the IS staff had the beta users verify the results of the audit locally in their groups.
Cohen pointed out that you need to inform users that your efforts will focus on those products
and applications that you know exist, that your company requires, and that are legal. "Circulate
the inventory, and make sure that your users have the opportunity to inform you of products and
applications that you might be unaware of," Cohen said.
Cedel Bank also had to resist the temptation to manually install products and services,
especially for workstation users. "Although this approach can seem like the most expedient way
out, you otherwise run the risk of ending up with many different configurations and flavors of
installation, which can present real problems for future support and maintenance," Cohen said.
He suggested that companies use available tools such as CIXSTART and installation script generators
to make installations as automated, consistent, and repeatable as possible.
Cohen also suggested that companies perform some dry runs. Specifically, you'll want to know
how fast you can install one PC and whether you can install several machines at a time. You'll also
want to know of any staffing, network saturation, server responsiveness, and capacity bottlenecks
before you take the new environment online. "Keep in mind the best and worst case scenarios,
including any backout or contingency actions, and plan accordingly," Cohen said. "Cedel
Bank is evidence that you can deploy NT and BackOffice in a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost
if you take a practical and realistic approach to the project."
Cedel Bank let the new environment stabilize for the first few months of 1997 before performing
a full disaster test to simulate how the bank would recover the system in the face of a major
catastrophe such as a fire. The bank is still exploring ways to make the most of NT, IIS, IE,
server-side scripting, and ActiveX and Java applications, and looking to the next wave of BackOffice
products.
SOLUTION SUMMARY
Operating in a highly available, highly secure environment requires just as versatile an
operating system as possible. When Cedel Bank began to outgrow its existing client/ server network,
it created a detailed plan to redesign its IS environment around Windows NT and the Microsoft
BackOffice suite. The bank selected NT because the operating system provided a robust, secure, and
flexible environment that could grow to meet the bank's existing and future needs. The bank's design
addressed short-term business needs such as 24*7 availability, security of information and services,
deployment of technology, productivity and efficiency, and cost-effective services.
The bank went from the initial planning stages to implementation of the new NT environment
within eight months. In that time, the bank tackled such tasks as placing NT 4.0 on all PCs and
servers, creating a warm standby facility, migrating from MS Mail to Exchange, implementing dynamic
TCP/IP, migrating from Microsoft Office 4.2 to Office 95, implementing an intranet, and implementing
a new security model with roaming hardware profiles. Both Microsoft and internal staff have hailed
the project as a success.
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