Zero Downtime, Full Migration: How Deployus Moved icubed’s Data Centre Without Disruption

Background

icubed consulting is a civil and structural engineering company, operating throughout Australia and New Zealand. They have been partnered with Deployus for over 15 years, and the relationship has grown from standard IT support to full project ownership, including consulting, deployment, and ongoing infrastructure management.

Problem

icubed’s on-premises infrastructure had served them well for years, but it was nearing both capacity and end of life. The existing setup could no longer support the demands of a growing team and expanding operations. As storage needs increased, performance began to suffer.

The business required faster access to larger datasets, especially for engineering projects involving multi-gigabyte survey files.

What was more, Brisbane’s recent weather events had exposed a critical vulnerability. The loss of power at the company’s new headquarters raised concerns about the risk of extended downtime and data loss.

Impact on Operations

The limitations of the old system began to affect day-to-day operations:

Poor scalability was slowing down project delivery
Data access was delayed due to storage constraints
The cost of maintaining complex server hardware onsite was increasing
Staff in other states were relying on connections that weren’t built for national use

These risks had the potential to impact both revenue and reputation.

Solution

Assessment & Planning

Deployus met with icubed’s leadership at their new Brisbane office to understand their business continuity requirements, data access needs and application dependencies.

A full infrastructure review was conducted, including:

Hybrid Infrastructure Approach

A private cloud infrastructure housed in a professionally managed data centre was recommended. This approach provided:

While full public cloud options were evaluated, the operating costs of a fully cloud-hosted model were significantly higher. The data centre solution met the business requirements without adding ongoing cost pressures.

Solution Delivery

Deployus took full ownership of the solution:

Designed the infrastructure based on performance and resilience goals
Selected and liaised with the data centre provider
Procured all required hardware during a challenging post-COVID supply chain period
Coordinated all stakeholders, including internal teams and third-party contractors

Implementation

Phased Rollout

The project was delivered in stages over five months, with work scheduled outside business hours to prevent disruption. Core systems were transitioned in phases, with several key cutovers aligned to coincide with a planned office relocation.

Deployus managed the full migration schedule, coordinating between:

A three-day migration weekend was selected to align with a public holiday, allowing a longer buffer for final cutover.

Zero Downtime Strategy

In order to eliminate downtime, the migration was gradual, mostly performed overnight and on weekends. Several hard cutovers were scheduled to coincide with icubed’s office relocation.

All key systems, file shares and applications were available throughout the project, with no reported incidents.

Behind the scenes, the migration included:

Data Validation & Continuity

Data integrity was a critical part of the migration. Deployus used file-level checksums before and after each transfer. All retired systems were retained for a validation period to ensure successful replication. Any exception issues were addressed in real time with minimal impact.

Result

Since going live, the environment has delivered consistent uptime with no major incidents. Minor adjustments were made to fine-tune connectivity, but no core systems required rollback or remediation.

Key outcomes include:

Measurable Improvements

The infrastructure now supports a distributed team with high-volume workloads and gives icubed the ability to scale without rework.

Future

Deployus remains closely integrated into icubed’s operations as their default provider for all IT projects. The relationship goes well beyond day-to-day support. Regular discussions cover upcoming infrastructure needs, risk management, and scaling requirements across multiple locations.

icubed values the continuity and institutional knowledge that Deployus brings. Their familiarity with internal systems, paired with consistent delivery across both support and project work, reduces decision-making overhead and ensures a high standard of execution.

“We wanted a situation where we could finish work on the Friday and be back up and running on our next business day without any downtime. And [Deployus] were able to perform that. They managed the entire process, including sourcing the equipment, coordinating with the data centre, and lining everything up with our office move. There was no downtime, and everything was where it needed to be.

“In a world where there are always niggles or difficulties, it was a very surprisingly seamless process. I would say we got lucky, but it was in actuality just a really good effort by Deployus.

“[Deployus has] been scaling at the same time we have; as we’ve been growing, they’ve grown. So we have a lot of conversations about the issues and complexities of growing business as well. Our relationship has turned into a real partnership. The whole team has been really great to work with.”

– Travis Smith, Principal Civil Engineer, icubed consulting