Venture Access™, our client-facing CCM portal, lets clients see all their important communications data and tools—document archives, production oversight, customized reports, and delivery tracking—in one place. The data storage and processing for various programs, including Venture Access™ and our mortgage applications, are currently held in our Fort Worth data center. However, as Karen Perry, the migration’s lead project manager, explains, this data center is not a certified Taylor Technology Services (TTS) data center. Certified TTS data centers are more physically secure than Fort Worth’s: “These structures are brick buildings within brick buildings, with more resources available in house.” In the event of a natural disaster, a certified TTS data center is more likely to withstand the same physical damage that would normally disable an uncertified center.
This upcoming weekend, Fort Worth’s data servers will be relocated entirely to a certified TTS data center in Mankato. While Fort Worth has served us well, our two state-of-the-art certified data centers in Mankato are both highly secure and within two miles of the other. The backup system fully mirrors the primary system, providing an added layer of resilience. These facilities also operate on separate power grids and independent ISP connections, ensuring superior redundancy and backup capabilities. Making this move will translate to stronger security and quicker DR and RTO times for our clients and their protected data. This migration has also created an additional opportunity for our tech teams to replace outdated or legacy processes within our data workflow with cutting-edge upgrades and restorations.
The main project team, led by Karen Perry along with about 50 people, encompasses multiple areas of the company: TTS, Venture Access, Windows, UNIX/LINUX, GMC, Compart, Tech Ops, Operations, Client Services, Production, Production Control, and Programming primarily. Karen mentioned the amazing support of TTS, the Venture Access team, and Tech Ops as particularly crucial to the success of this impending migration: “We couldn't have done it without all the help of the teams that are involved in this.”
Due to the substantial amount of client data held in Fort Worth’s servers, extensive testing was necessary to ensure a seamless transition alongside these upgrades. While this migration does not require a full shutdown of Fort Worth’s capabilities, as print production will still continue, clients will not be able to access Venture Access™ until the final move is complete. The migration will officially start at 10:00 PM Central on Saturday, April 26th and end at 4:00 PM Central on Sunday, April 27th.
