Business end users are usually understanding of glitches when told in advance of a major data center change. But when they are kept in the dark, frustration results. That's the lesson that can be drawn from the recent experience of a major TV ratings organization, which had "several days" of delays for all its services resulting from a physical move of its mainframe system. A spokesperson said the company had "planned extensively for the transition and hired an 'industry-leading technology partner' that was paid a 'premium of $1 million over the standard fee to have them focus additional resources on this project to ensure a high quality and timely transition. We took these extra steps in order to avoid any impact on clients.' " However, one client suffering from the downtime claimed they were not notified in advance of the data center move. The lesson is that even in situations where a migration project or upgrade may appear to be seamless, it's best to keep business end users informed of what's going on.
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