We started deploying equipment today in our $2.2M project to replace the eighty-odd ATM switches in the schools/libraries with new Gigabit switches. We installed new switches at Bulkeley High School, running in parallel with the ATM equipment, to provide an interface between the new and old networks and provide an 'anchor point' for other schools. We went on to Fox Elementary which connects to the outside world via Bulkeley and did our first ATM-to-Gigabit conversion.
We got there around 3:30 PM, with the cutover set to start at 4:00. My boss, the CIO, showed up just before four (my guys felt no pressure there!) and we were ready to pull the plug on the old gear right on time. From arrival to departure the changeover took just under two and a half hours. There were no real surprises. I don't want to jinx the next three months worth of work, so I'll borrow a little NASA-speak and say that "all systems are nominal".
I am utterly and completely geeked. This project really has been four years in the making (almost five). And now it's finally coming together.
As we were moving into the wrap-up phase, my boss was on the phone to the office. Apparently when we pulled the plug at M. D. Fox, there was a momentary glitch that rippled across the core of the network. It's nothing that should have happened we were working way out on one edge, and not doing anything with any of the core systems. All I can think of is that when Pat and I killed the power to Fox's 5005BH the other eighty-odd ATM switches gasped there has been a great disturbance in the force; it is as if one of our brothers has been slain; I fear something terrible has happened!