Customer Experiences

MCG Health, Inc.

MCG Health, Inc. adds Logicalis to its IT team to complete a migration of critical file and print services from Novell to Windows Active Directory.

MCG Health, Inc. (MCGHI) is a not-for-profit corporation with a staff of approximately 3,200 and operates the MCG Medical Center, MCG Children’s Medical Center, MCG Sports Medicine Center, MCG Ambulatory Care Center, Georgia Radiation Therapy Center and related clinical facilities and services in the Augusta, GA, metropolitan area. Originally governed by the Medical College of Georgia, MCGHI was spun off as a separate but related entity in 2000.

As a legacy of its affiliation with the Medical College of Georgia, MCGHI paid an annual fee to the college’s IT department for basic file and print services using a shared Novell Directory Services (NDS) system. Logicalis Account Manager Art Vinson introduced the IT department at MCGHI to the migration capabilities of the Logicalis Email Management & Archiving Practice, and when MCGHI decided to assume responsibility for its own file and print services, it turned to Logicalis for help in migrating the Novell system to Windows Active Directory. Among the incentives for the migration was access for MCGHI users to a broader range of applications written for Windows Active Directory.

Broad and Deep Understanding
MCGHI Director of Information Dwain Shaw knew the migration would be a complex project and counted on the experience, and the broad and deep understanding of system migrations of the Logicalis Email Management Practice team led by Managing Consultant Tom Bridge.

Shaw was correct. The migration was not a simple undertaking. Not only were there more than 2,800 users but, as is typical of hospital systems, many users had access to multiple computers and counted on a diverse range of applications to accomplish their jobs. User accounts were also managed across multiple servers, there was essentially no asset management system in place, and many physicians and others who worked at the hospitals and clinics were also employees of the medical college, and required access to both systems before, during and after the migration.

One of the distinct advantages of a typical migration is that once the new system is established on a new platform, it is no longer necessary to interact with the old system. The MCGHI migration, however, was unique in that as many as a third of the users of the new system would continue to rely on services from both systems. Add to this the security and privacy issues associated with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the migration presented a formidable challenge to an IT staff already charged with maintaining IT services for a major metropolitan hospital system.

“Sharp People”
The migration was a tightly coordinated effort with Bridge working as part of Shaw’s team, which included Norton Wade, who acted as the Project Manager, Senior Database Administrator Eric Skinner, and Network Analysts Wade Napier, Paul Byers and James Baggett. “I’ll tell you what, they are very sharp people,” Bridge says of his teammates.

All the members of Shaw’s extended team got to know each other very well during the months leading up to the “big bang” conversion when they completed the switch from Novell to Active Directory. Having worked on complex migrations for other clients, Bridge was able to give the team a heads up to the kinds of issues they would have to resolve: computers at unknown locations, users with access to as many as 15 different computers, and many applications written for Novell Directory Services that had to be ported to Active Directory. In some cases, vendors had to be brought in to install new versions of their applications. One of the incentives for the migration, in fact, was access to a broader range of applications that are being written for Active Directory compared to the dwindling number developed for Novell’s Directory Services.

Active Directory
Using NDS Migrator from Quest Software, the team was able to run scripts that mapped the existing Novell system to the new Active Directory system; except, of course, for all the special cases that often had to be resolved manually. Shaw’s team used the analogy of “a plate of spaghetti” to describe the tangled parameters that had to be painstakingly mapped. Eventually, by updating and re-running the scripts iteratively, an exact mirror image of the old system was created in Active Directory.

After successfully switching over a few departments, the decision was made to flip the switch on all 2,800 users over the course of one weekend in June. It was a very long weekend, but a successful one. When the MCGHI staff came to work that Monday morning, they were presented with a different log on screen, but they each had their old passwords and transparent access to all the data, applications and files that had been available to them on the old system.

On Time. Under Budget.
No one would say it was easy, but the process set in motion by Bridge proceeded methodically and predictably to a successful migration that, in the tradition of Shaw’s IT team, was completed on time—before having to commit to another year of file and print services from the Medical College’s IT department—and under budget.

“We couldn’t have done it without Tom,” says Shaw. “He fit right into the team and became one of us. He ran interference for us and blocked a lot of gotchas that we wouldn’t have foreseen. Together we accomplished something that we are all very proud of.”

To show their appreciation for his dedication to their effort, Shaw and his team held a going away party for Bridge complete with presents, ample servings of grits and barbecue, and other traditional forms of Southern hospitality. “I truly felt like part of the family,” says Bridge.

Now that the migration from NDS to Active Directory has been successfully completed, the next phase will be a migration of the email system from GroupWise to Exchange. Based on his experience with Logicalis to date, Shaw says he’s looking forward to continuing the relationship.