Komplete System Integrators

Case Study

Sallie Mae Data Center Redesign Project

Sallie Mae® is the nation's leading provider of education funding. The company primarily provides federal and private student loans, including consolidation loans, for undergraduate and graduate students and their parents. In addition, Sallie Mae offers comprehensive information and resources to assist students, parents and guidance professionals with the financial aid process. Sallie Mae currently owns or manages student loans for 9 million borrowers, and employs 10,000 individuals at offices nationwide.

In April of 2006 Cisco Systems Advanced Services completed a network design review for Sallie Mae with specific recommendations for improving network stability, redundancy, resiliency, and performance. Upon successful POC (proof of concept), Sallie Mae decided to implement many of these recommended architectural changes to vastly improve the Sallie Mae core networking environment at their Fishers, IN data centers. KOMPSYS was selected by Cisco to provide implementation project management and networking expertise to Sallie Mae.

The Sallie Mae Data Center Redesign Project was implemented in two phases to accommodate Sallie Mae’s business needs. The company receives and processes the vast majority of loan applications and underwriting during the summer months. It was determined therefore to execute Phase 1 during the Labor Day holiday weekend, and Phase 2 in the fall once business needs allowed.  

The main objectives of phase 1 were to implement the Core and Distribution layers as defined in the redesign of the Sallie Mae Data Center to reflect Cisco's recommended 3-level hierarchical design structure of Core, Distribution, and Access layers. Phase 1 implementation involved coordination of subcontractors and native technical personnel. Because the network was completely dark, a number of remote systems were employed to provide routine updates to key personnel and stakeholders. A remote helpdesk was created to manage service issues and assure that business processes and tracking were observed. At the Command Center, representatives from the Cabinet to front-line management had constant contact with KOMPSYS’ Project Management Professional to assure business continuity and up-to-date information. KOMPSYS extended their response to the critical nature of this phase by providing additional technical personnel over the number contracted. The exercise was successful and Data Center network operated with no faults throughout the peak business season.

Phase 2 entailed the connection of Access Layer to the Distribution Layer and was completed over the night of October 27th into 28th, 2007. During this phase, over 200 servers, and dozens of AS400, SAN, and mainframe systems were rehomed. While the number of components and their network niche were smaller in this phase, the network was once again dark. KOMPSYS executed the same complete level of preparation and execution for Phase 2. The Command Center, remote facilities, helpdesk and other disciplines were enacted for Phase 2. Once again the exercise was a success and all network functions were restored according to plan.