Case Studies

For a Full Lifecycle of Solutions, Royal Bank of Canada Relies on Lee Technologies

CUSTOMER: Royal Bank of Canada INDUSTRY: Finance APPLICATION: Site Assessment, Data Center Design, Operations & Maintenance BENEFITS: Greater System Reliability Lifecycle of Solutions Efficient Turnaround

As Canada's largest bank and one of North America's leading diversified financial services, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Financial Group has over 14 million personal, business and public sector clients in over 30 countries. With each investor relying on technology to manage their finances, RBC knows the importance of a top-performing data center.

That's why Royal Bank of Canada relies on the experts at Lee Technologies to build and maintain its mission-critical facility. From assessment to construction management to maintenance, Lee Technologies is there every step of the way to ensure 24/7/365 peace-of-mind for financial institutions and their clients.

Jumping Into the Deep End

With a steady increase of traders relying on this data center, and the facility having reached power capacity, Royal Bank of Canada knew they needed an expert to evaluate their existing electrical equipment… and fast. Working with a global leader in real estate development, RBC called Lee Technologies for a Mission-Critical Infrastructure Assessment (MCIA) to profile their current electrical and mechanical equipment, installation workmanship, operation and maintenance practices and current reliability issues against the financial institution's growth projections.

Royal Bank of Canada proceeded to employ Lee Technologies to investigate further into their data center's issues, requiring a construction budget for improvement, engineering analysis, assessments of as-built drawings, and interviews with IT groups and real estate management for 7-year growth plans. Lee Technologies delivered the 100(+) page report in 20 days and detailed a recommendation for RBC to expand its current facility.

As Lee Technologies delivers a full lifecycle of solutions for its mission-critical infrastructure clients, its capabilities include operations and maintenance, design and construction management, integration, commissioning, on-site staffing and 24/7/365 remote monitoring. Lee ensures every link in the infrastructure chain has the strength, power and resiliency needed for continuity of operations.

RBC then presented Lee Technologies with its first challenge: to collect proposals from vendors, coordinate with a general contractor a rebuild and interview construction firms, mechanical contracting firms, electrical contracting firms and permit expeditors in one month. Thirty days later, Lee Technologies presented a turnkey construction management proposal to key members of the RBC senior management.

Retrofitting a facility can be a difficult task in itself, especially when expediency is key. However the downtown Manhattan location of this multi-floor data center operation added to the dilemma presented to Lee. With the data center located on the 2nd floor, and the generator on the 15th, Lee Technologies redesigned the mechanical and electrical infrastructure layout to correct current data center cooling and power issues and to accommodate for future growth.

The facility's mission-critical equipment required additional Liebert HVAC systems, racks, and a fire suppression (FM 200 system). In addition, the mechanical infrastructure had to be quickly modified and redesigned to promote the most effective air flow throughout the data center. Lee Technologies placed a team of technical specialists with skills in electrical units, mechanical systems, controls and monitoring on-site.

In order to place the current and additional MGE UPS systems away from the existing data center, Lee Technologies was required to negotiate additional space on the 15th floor, previously a gym, as well as reinforce the floor space with steel. The additional UPS's and 128 breakers were added to accommodate for a future power distribution, and integrated with the existing equipment. Lee ensured that each equipment component met RBC's needs including cost, technical compliance, system compatibility, constructability and maintainability.

Mission-Critical mechanical and electrical equipment require extensive testing to determine the performance of each individual piece of equipment. However, testing was still needed to determine whether the equipment worked as an integrated whole. Integrated Service Testing simulates a full range of possible real-world scenarios to assure that all separate systems, once commissioned independently, would operate properly together.

Lee Technologies' Technical Specialists worked closely with subcontractors and equipment vendors to complete the construction management, integration, equipment procurement and commissioning in a record 40 days.

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