ATLANTA, March 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Center World -- Collective Technologies, a leading provider of enterprise-class IT infrastructure services, today announced the successful completion of a complex data center consolidation project for Columbia University. As an early adopter, Columbia University was one of the first organizations to use Collective's Data Center LifeCycle Management Solution, which was publicly announced in a separate March 21, 2006 press release.

Prior to engaging Collective, Columbia University's Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (C2B2) operated from five disparate data center locations in two separate buildings for its IT infrastructure. To reduce operational and maintenance costs as well management complexity, the university decided to consolidate its IT infrastructure into a single data center in a new building on campus.

Logistical issues such as technology compatibility, union requirements and transit insurance made the move complex for C2B2's IT and Columbia University's facilities departments, which were already fully engaged in daily operational requirements. After evaluating a number of services companies, Columbia University chose Collective to assess and execute the project due to the comprehensive nature of Collective's data center relocation solution and the extensive experience of its consultants in dealing with similar consolidations.

"For our data center consolidation, we were looking for a partner we could trust to provide solutions to complex technology issues while handling the details of the physical move, all with minimum downtime," said Megan Restuccia, program manager at Columbia's C2B2 Center. "Collective managed the entire project from beginning to end without a hitch. The company's consultants showed expertise and professionalism throughout the process, and the best practices they employed as part of their data center solution were obviously gleaned through many years of experience with complex technology issues."

Collective's Data Center Lifecycle Management Solution includes service modules that address the specific requirements of different data center change events, such as relocations, consolidations, migrations, and co-locations. Collective uses best practices developed from years of experience to recommend solutions that best address each customer's technology challenges.

Columbia chose the Relocation Service Module to move general purpose servers, high performance computing clusters and peripherals from five facilities into one data center. Collective's responsibilities included all the logistics of the move, from planning, site preparation and disassembly to packing, transport and reassembly at the new location. The entire project was completed in well under Columbia's time requirement of 72 hours, resulting in minimal impact on the University's day-to-day operations.

"At Collective, we take great pride in our customer relationships. We're honored to be working with an esteemed institution like Columbia University," said Ed Taylor, CEO of Collective Technologies. "They came to us with a complicated consolidation project that required some extraordinary efforts, and I'm proud to say our commitment to investing in high-quality people and building proven methodologies paid off. By providing Columbia a fast, incident free, cost-effective data center solution, we've established a relationship that we hope will lead to ongoing collaboration."

About Collective Technologies

Collective is a leading provider of enterprise-class IT infrastructure solutions. The company has tested and refined its methodologies through more than 5 million hours of professional, consultative service delivery to some of the largest, most complex and mission critical environments in the world. Brocade, Dell, EMC, HP, Legato, Microsoft, SunGard, Symantec, and others rely on Collective to deliver complex services to their clients. In addition to its Data Center Lifecycle Management Solution, Collective provides a broad range of Infrastructure Solutions in the areas of Mail and Messaging, Backup and Recovery and Storage Services. To learn more about Collective, visit, http://www.collectivetech.com/ .

CONTACT: David Gibbs of Collective Technologies, +1-512-263-5500, ext.
263, or cell, +1-512-826-0754, or dgibbs@colltech.com

Web site: http://www.collectivetech.com/