Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Red Sox belt data center out of Fenway, to Downtown Crossing

At the Red Sox' home opener today, many will discuss the positives and negatives of the team's off-season moves. But one move that will most likely be overlooked is that of the team's data center, which was moved from Fenway Park to the Downtown Crossing area two weeks ago.

According to Red Sox officials, the team's front office in the 96 year-old park had become overwhelmed with networking equipment, and the team needed a change. As a result, the off season saw the move of the bulk of the team's IT infrastructure, including financial applications, video analysis system, e-mail, back-end databases, and storage area networking, to One Summer Street, one of the largest data centers in the area, and owned by Los Angeles-based The Markley Group.

French optical communications company Ekinops provided the fiber link between the two facilities.

The goal, according to Randy George, senior systems and network analyst for the Red Sox, was to have the move completed before opening day (at home), and the group beat its goal by two weeks.

One Summer Street is the data center home to a number of large companies and service providers, including Carbonite Inc., the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Harvard Medical, Verizon Communications and Comcast Corp.