"We actually had two reasons for the network upgrade: the implementation of the Media Asset Management System (MAMS) and the obsolescence of the eight-year old infrastructure," says Javier.
The company was using a four-core infrastructure (with each core capable of handling 1G of data) set up at the ABS-CBN main building and the Eugenio Lopez Jr. (ELJ) building. However, due to ABS-CBN's highly critical operations, whenever a system downtime or failure occurred, getting support or, in some cases, parts replacements increasingly became more difficult. This problem, plus its new initiative to digitize all of its content materials, handle multimedia lifecycle management and enable workflow productivity enhancements using MAMS, prompted the broadcasting giant to upgrade its network.
"The network will be the main delivery channel for production people to view their work in progress online, and for delivering content to our various platforms. Thus, the need to upgrade our network infrastructure to 10G," Javier explains.
One of the things that Javier immediately addressed when she came on board last year was to establish a closer IT and business relationship- which really helped them when they began the process of their network upgrade. "I noticed that some departments are protective of their own network due to security risks. They designed and implemented their own network that do not allow other groups in; this would run contrary to future plans of tapeless production where video files will flow across departments from creation to distribution," she notes. "So I asked all concerned groups to send their representatives to a workshop we conducted. There, my team and I demonstrated our network upgrade plan and explained the importance of having a continuous flow of information and data. We asked them to critique the proposed design and share with us their concerns. In other words, we asked them to participate in the design of the new network."
Held in June 2007, the workshop played a key role in laying the foundation of the upgraded network. The workshop and subsequent presentations to other heads became instrumental in getting the buy-in of various business unit heads in the project. "It was more about developing partnerships and we (at the IT department) made the first move by showing our plans and proposed design since we wanted to make sure that the upgrade was acceptable to all users," she says.
Aside from handling corporate and back-office support, ABS-CBN's IT team also provides consulting and project management services to other business units, offering cross-functional assistance from planning, to design, all the way to implementation.
Fostering Relationships
Replacing the old multi-core design with a simpler set-up enables Javier's IT team to manage, scale, and troubleshoot the network easier. The new design uses a 720G core infrastructure (with VSS feature), 10G uplinks on critical high bandwidth, layer 3 switching to the edge, and some firewall modules for internal application isolation. And although it sounds complicated, Javier notes that managing the network is actually easy. "During upgrade, we only turned on the features needed to meet our requirements. We only activate additional features after a thorough study of its potential impact and careful planning of its implementation. This way, we are able to manage downtime and lessen the impact on the users," she explains.
During MAMS' pre-implementation stage, Javier's team had to consolidate all the inputs coming from the different business units, the vendors, and even ABS-CBN's subsidiaries, validating their suggestions and ideas, together with its own requirements before adopting and incorporating them into the final design.
"It took us months (to get the design done) because even during the deployment stage, we were still making changes in the design and the way to implement it," Javier recalls. "Our initial target (for implementation) was to everything during Holy Week, since that was the only window we saw when we could do a two-day shutdown of all the operations. Then, we found out that we could not do so because ANC and the News (department) would continue to air their programs even during Holy Week so we had to adjust. To reduce risk of failure, we decided to stagger the implementation over a period of two weeks." The network team also had to provide a separate network to allow ANC and News to stay connected until the new core was in place, then had them switched over to the new core within the very small window given to them .
The phase one upgrade was a success with no major problem; key to the success was the series of simulation tests done with their vendor partner (Fujitsu) to surface all the potential performance issues and problems . Phase One, which began in the first quarter of this year, covered the core and distribution upgrade of the priority groups that will utilize MAMS. Phase Two, which starts in the first quarter of 2009, will involve stabilizing the system and activating features like the VSS or the virtual shared service, a network functionality that can cluster the core into two and turn it from 10G to 20G, among others.
"Hopefully, we can complete this next year. That way, we can already do virtualization, make the availability higher, enable the load balancing to be automatic, and address other issues as well," says Javier.
Addressing Requirements
Among the challenges that Javier's team has encountered were getting all the business units to share their future plans with IT for the proper sizing and design of the network, selecting which solution to use that would best fit their size and budget, and identifying which areas to include in the distribution upgrade. "The business units' representatives have appreciated our effort to involve them in the network planning and design, and from then on, collaborated with us in studying and planning their technology requirements," Javier notes.
The good relationship established between business units and IT provided room for IT to challenge submitted requirements-pinpointing those that are really critical to the company so as not to overkill the budget." "We had to strategize in order to arrive at a good plan that complements our corporate direction of going into tape-less production and implementing MAMS. So, what we did was prioritize first the groups (like Production, Engineering, and News) who will be using the new systems," says Javier, who also made sure that the rationale behind such decisions was properly communicated to those affected.
Common issues that business users raised included access from anywhere, security, reliability of the system, and "loss of control", among others. Choosing the appropriate set-up was delegated down to the business units to ensure utmost security and control. "Our task is to make sure that we are able to address requirements, and the concerns of the different business units and network users," Javier points out.
The immediate benefits brought about by the completion of the first phase of the upgrade included the achievement of a flexible, responsive, and resilient infrastructure, with a reasonable capacity to spare. For instance, two months after the implementation, ABS-CBN users already enjoyed the benefits of an upgraded network during a company-wide event, wherein they had video streaming across all participating business units on top of the daily network load.
Improving Processes
Aside from the network upgrade, ABS-CBN has previously implemented VoIP and IP telephony. Javier says: "When the ELJ building was constructed in 2000, it was already designed to handle pure IP, complete with raised floors and other retro fittings. Last year, we also implemented a file transfer solution that could transfer large files in a short amount of time. Before, our regional and global offices used to send materials either via satellite (which was too expensive) or through courier (which took too long and was expensive as well). So the network and the FTP (file transfer protocol) software are now the preferred means for transmitting materials nationwide and even abroad."
Another project in the pipeline is deploying enterprise Wi-Fi. Business units, particularly News and TV productions, have been demanding greater flexibility and mobility in doing their work. They want to be able to access the systems needed whether they are in the studios or in their offices. ABS-CBN is looking for a robust solution that will support video streaming for MAMS users.
Data build up for the MAMS project has started and is expected to take at least three years to complete, given the huge size of its library. A multi-phase project, the future MAMS will include access to a full suite of collaboration tools embedded in the system, which complements the network's data warehouse analytics.
For the future, the IT team is studying RFID technology as a way of facilitating the checking in and out of production equipment, streamlining and automating production processes and providing computer training to TV production personnel. Javier elaborates: "Next year, our thrust will be more of improving the production processes from the current highly manual system. So we are looking at script writing tools, planning tools for the production to help streamline processes and improve the timeliness and planning of the production groups. On the training side, we are developing customized hands-on training with the help of our IT account officers who are assigned to work closely with business units. We ensure that IT is proactive and that there is close alignment between IT and the business."
For those who are just starting to build their network or planning to further enhance their network capabilities, Javier offers some focus points to consider. "It is important that the upgrade or the network that you will implement address a business requirement or capture a business need. Don't do it just for technology's sake; that way, you can easily get approval for the funds you need. Next, there must be collaboration and support among business units to champion the project. The CIO must lead IT in building relationships with the business so that they (users ) will be more open to share their directions and business plans, and enable IT to deliver solutions that will really be of value to the business."