Seayard

The challenge 

Seayard, a joint venture between TIL and Seayard, has a big challenge on its hands as the co-promoter of the FOS XL project in Fos-sur-Mer: tripling the throughput capacity of the Marseille seaport. Two new seaport container terminals are being constructed for this project, one of which will be operated by FOS Holding. The Terminal Investment Limited (TIL) company, wanted to start using the new Terminal Operating System (TOS) as soon as possible. This Entity Resource Planning (ERP) package was specifically developed for container terminal operators specialized in seagoing transport. The hope was to get the necessary ICT infrastructure up and running as well as get the operational teams up to speed on the use of the new (TOS) application so that the company would be fully functional before construction ended in late 2011. It is important that the new ICT infrastructure remain available to users with a maximum of uptime during the construction of the new Seayard container terminal. The company would further like to be able to continue operating at the current Seayard container terminal during the transition. The company called in the services of Skillteam in order to find a solution to this challenge.

The solution

Skillteam proposed the deployment of an IBM Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC) in the form of a modular shipping container. The standard shipping container (20 feet) with a fully equipped data centre was furnished with 3 racks, with the option for adding an extra rack later on. The mobile data centre contains all of the necessary provisions of a traditional data centre: redundant air conditioning and uninterrupted power supply (UPS), lighting, emergency lighting, fire detection, sprinkler system, electronic access security, humidifier system and various sensors with remote monitoring capability.  In addition the container has quite a few advantages: it is compact, portable, fully secured, energy efficient, and is easy to expand without making any renovations. Skillteam configured and supervised the project from Brussels through and including the temporary installation of the Seayard container terminal in a car park. Seven weeks after being ordered, the customer received its custom-made PMDC, along with a personalized logo.

The result

In less than two months time, Skillteam delivered a secure, flexible and portable solution tailored to the customer’s needs. The investment made in this flexible, modular solution will continue to yield benefits even once the construction phase is complete. After the transition has been made from the existing container terminal to the new one, the IBM PMDC will be relocated to a secure hangar on the new Seayard concession, where it will be put to use as a Disaster Recovery data centre.

 http://www.investinprovence.com/en_US/territory-vision-fos-2xl.html