Las Vegas Review-Journal

IBM Global Technology Services
The Las Vegas Review-Journal comes
up aces when it engages IBM to
design and build a new data center.
al publications. The Review-Journal
had already expanded its IT infrastructure over the last decade to support its
move to a completely electronic publishing environment. With the sudden
addition of the Stephens Media’s IT
equipment, the Review-Journal found
its small data center facility strained to
capacity.
OVERVIEW
■ Challenge
Help ensure continuous operations
for Nevada’s largest daily newspaper
■ Solution
A redundant, state-of-the-art data
center with resilient power and cooling infrastructures
■ Key Benefits
– Provided additional scalability
and availability
– Enhanced opportunities for
business growth
– Encouraged a wider embrace
of technology enterprise wide
A century of uninterrupted coverage
Founded in 1905, the Las Vegas
Review-Journal (www.reviewjournal.
com) has yet to miss a single day of
publication. Over the past century, it
has witnessed the city’s transformation
from a small frontier town to a worldfamous destination spot for gaming
and entertainment. Today, the Review-Journal is Nevada’s largest daily
newspaper, with a circulation of more
than 160,000 on weekdays and a Sunday circulation of more than 224,000.
The newspaper has also developed a
highly successful Web site, which attracts more than 12 million page views
each month.
Reaching capacity
In 1993, the Review-Journal was
purchased by Stephens Media, a
diversified media publisher with more
than 30 newspapers in eight states.
As the home of the company’s flagship
publication, the Review-Journal offices
became Stephens Media’s corporate
headquarters in 2000, taking on production responsibilities for 13 addition-
The facility’s space limitations were
compounded by serious operational
issues. The data center relied on an
aging power infrastructure that posed
a critical risk—a power failure could
prevent the paper from publishing a
daily edition for the first time in 100
years. The data center also lacked an
adequate cooling system, requiring
staff to manually monitor and correct
temperature changes.
In addition to its critical operational
requirements, the Review-Journal
needed reliable IT support from its
data center to stay competitive in the
increasingly digital news industry.
With the emergence and success of
alternative forms of media, the ReviewJournal needed to transform itself
from a traditional newspaper into a
content organization offering its clients
a choice of news delivery models—including an electronic version of the
paper—and a robust online environment with configurable subscription
capabilities.
Finding a reliable partner
The Review-Journal turned to IBM for
help in developing a set of requirements for a new data center, emphasizing the importance of resilient
power, a sufficient cooling system
and the elimination of single points
of failure. The Review-Journal also
wanted the new design to include
a network operations center (NOC),
print operations center and a security-rich storage room. Steven Olson,
“We need to make
sure that we’re able to
adequately protect our
digital assets and that
we’re prepared for the
next hundred years.”
— Chris Fredrickson, information technology
director, Stephens Media
infrastructure manager for the ReviewJournal, comments, “IBM came in and
we brainstormed. We told them what
we needed and IBM created drawings
for us to demonstrate that they understood what we were looking for. It was
an easy, informal process.”
After gathering the necessary information, IBM created a formal statement
of requirements, including a design
for the new data center based on the
Review-Journal’s specifications, and
presented recommendations for the
location of a new facility. Olson notes,
“IBM completed the statement of requirements within a month. Everything
moved very smoothly and quickly, with
little stress on my part.”
The Review-Journal used the statement of requirements to create a request for proposal (RFP) for the design
and build phases of the project, which
was submitted to multiple vendors.
Based on IBM’s response to the RFP,
which included a superior design and
build plan and highly competitive pricing, the newspaper engaged IBM for
the implementation process.
A quantum leap
IBM’s build plans included replacing
the newspaper’s single component
power structure with a new electrical infrastructure, including dual
uninterruptible power supplies (UPS),
automatic transfer switches (ATS) and
electrical panels housed in separate
UPS rooms. The infrastructure supplies power to dual power distribution
units (PDU), ensuring that each server
cabinet in the data center receives
power from two separate sources.
The entire system is backed up by a
standby emergency generator.
To offset rising temperatures in the
summer months, IBM replaced the
Review-Journal’s outdated air-conditioning equipment with a robust
cooling system. In addition to redundant components and high-ambient
condenser units, the new system
offers high-end controls, enabling staff
to reduce energy consumption in the
cooler months.
The new systems provide highly
reliable power and cooling sources,
and they help enable IT personnel to
perform maintenance activities during
regular business hours without scheduling outages.
IBM constructed a new NOC for the
data center with a robust monitoring
system to help simplify and streamline
the Review-Journal’s administrative IT
tasks. With a quick glance at large,
flat-panel screens mounted in the
NOC, IT staff can view and monitor all
critical data center systems. Instead
of making rough approximations, the
Review-Journal can now proactively
manage the amount of power used by
each IT component down to the circuit
level.
The new monitoring system tracks
performance elements—including room temperature and humidity—sending alerts to IT personnel
if any issues arise. Additionally, it
produces critical metrics and reports,
enabling the newspaper’s IT staff to
easily view trends in performance and
maintenance. Potential problems can
be detected early, helping the ReviewJournal to address them proactively.
IBM incorporated an enterprise
cabling system into the data center
design, using the latest copper and
fiber technology. Redundancy is a
critical component of the system; each
server is configured to connect to two
separate cabling systems, which, in
turn, connect to separate network core
switches.
Protective and safety features for the
new facility include a multi-zone very
early smoke detection apparatus
(VESDA), an FM200 gaseous fire suppression system, a pre-action sprinkler
system, and a security system composed of biometric readers and video
surveillance.
“This data center is truly a quantum leap from
what we had before”
— Steven Olson, Infrastrucure manager, Las Vegas Review Journal
To help ensure continuous operations,
IBM identified and eliminated single
points of failure in the newspaper’s
infra-structure. Olson comments, “We
now really have an infrastructure that
can take care of itself and will alert us
if there are problems. The data center
can support a virtual never-fail environment, and we never have to worry
about the electromechanical cooling.
This data center is truly a quantum
leap from what we had before.”
In constructing the new facility, the
Review-Journal thought that it was
important to create an addition that
would blend in with the rest of its
35-year-old structure. IBM worked
carefully to create a complementary
color palette for the room and helped
salvage surplus materials from the
original building for the new data
center. IT Services Principal Dave
McCoy of IBM Global Technology Services comments, “It’s certainly not the
traditional white walls. They wanted a
showplace and we did, too.”
Pursuing larger business initiatives
By fully addressing the Review-Journal’s critical requirements for a robust,
resilient operating environment, the
new data center offers an invaluable
benefit—peace of mind. The newspaper and its larger company, Stephens
Media, can move forward with the assurance that business continuity is no
longer at great risk. Chris Fredrickson,
IT director for Stephens Media, notes,
“The data center’s going to allow our
business to grow. Before, we were limited in the initiatives we could pursue.”
The company’s IT organization is
noticing a wider embrace of technology across the enterprise as a result of
the data center project. The monitoring
capabilities that play such a crucial
operational role in the data center are
also helpful in demonstrating the value
of IT to the company’s executives.
Fredrickson comments, “I can report
on system uptime and database availability as well as a whole other level
of metrics that will show management
they spent their money wisely.”
Extending more IT tools to the compa-
ny’s employees and external customers is an essential business initiative
going forward. The Review-Journal
is currently implementing Information
Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
best practices at its Las Vegas site
to help simplify data center operations and decrease the amount of
time spent on IT management. The
company’s smaller locations elsewhere
will receive wide area network (WAN)
upgrades and enhancements to their
voicemail and call center systems, including features to integrate voicemail
with e-mail and handheld devices.
The company also plans to continue
developing advanced online account
features for its subscribers and is
planning to launch a new classified
advertising system that will enable
customers to submit customized ads
via the Internet.
Additionally, the organization has initiated a data warehousing project to
gather and sort detailed demographic
information about the newspaper’s
subscribers and potential customers.
Stephens Media will be able to leverage the data for targeted marketing
campaigns as well as to demonstrate
the range and effectiveness of its marketing to attract advertisers.
The data center may also open up
an entirely new business channel for
Stephens Media, helping to transform
IT from an “expense” department to a
profit center. With plenty of additional
capacity available in the new facility,
the company is exploring the idea
of offering hosting services to small
businesses in the Las Vegas area. The
company is also researching the feasibility of building a second data center
locally, providing the newspaper with
a fully redundant disaster recovery
site in town.
For more information
To learn more about IBM’s data center
solutions, contact your IBM representative or visit:
ibm.com/services/datacenter
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2006
IBM Global Services
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Produced in the United States of America
07-06
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