Best Buy Co., Inc. | Data Center
New Data Center Supports Continued Growth
When Richard Schulze founded Best Buy in 1966 as a one-location audio components retailer, he likely didn't envision the need to move into a 1.5 million-square-foot corporate campus. Yet by early 2003, Best Buy had grown to $24 billion in estimated annual revenues and needed to consolidate 17 different office locations.
"N'compass served not just as a consultant, but a project manager for this project. They continually kept IT informed as to what was happening - even with facilities and construction - ultimately helping to keep the whole project on track."
MIKE ERNST DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, BEST BUY
In addition to the efficiencies that would be gained by having all corporate employees at one location, the company recognized that a corporate campus also would encourage interaction and cooperation at every level. Plus, the new campus would support the company's ambition to open 60 new stores a year while maintaining the long-term goal of increasing market share.
NEED FOR MORE CAPACITY
At the same time Best Buy was developing the new corporate campus, their existing data center was running out of capacity. The company identified a need for assistance and engaged Minneapolis technology consulting firm N'compass. In addition to providing data center assessment and planning services, N'compass developed a data center criticality rating, performed a site evaluation and site selection, and developed an overall technology budget. N'compass worked to define construction requirements, including space planning and power requirements, and coordinated the construction of the new data center.
"We coordinated IT and construction design team members, sharing best practices and hardware trends to determine the best solutions for both departments," explains Keith Meierhofer, N'compass Project Manager. "We also managed construction changes and issue resolution, allowing IT and facilities teams to stay focused on the business at hand."
PLANNING PAYS OFF
Once the data center space was built out, careful planning and coordination of relocation efforts minimized the downtime of critical equipment. And as a result of a thorough business goals assessment, N'compass approached the construction implementation in phases, a process that contributed to the project finishing on time and under budget.
Best Buy's new data center is a 30,000 square-foot building (with 15,000 square feet of raised floor) and supports approximately 350 server cabinets. Planned with redundant carrier entrances and redundant network infrastructures, the data center is now connected to the corporate campus via an 18-mile long private fiber ring. The initial phase of the data center facilitated a Level 2 criticality rating, with the final build-out accommodating a Level 3.5 criticality rating.
According to Mike Ernst, Director of Operations, N'compass played a critical role in the overall success of the project. "They served not just as a consultant, but a project manager for this project. They continually kept IS informed as to what was happening-even with facilities and construction-ultimately helping to keep the whole project on track."
