Brian KibetData Center Infrastructure Refresh — Compute, Storage, Network & Security
Sourced and deployed a full hardware refresh across production and disaster-recovery data centers — core switching, firewall, compute, storage and SAN.
Production (PR) and Disaster Recovery (DR) data centers, both hosted within the head office — Kapa Oil Refineries Ltd.
Scope of Work
- Vendor selection and sourcing for core networking, security, compute and storage hardware
- Specification and sizing of replacement equipment against current and projected capacity needs
- Installation and physical rack/cabling work across both the PR and DR sites
- Migration of workloads, storage volumes and network configuration from the old environment
- Configuration of the new core switch, firewall policies, and compute/storage platforms
- Decommissioning of the previous generation of servers, storage and network hardware
Equipment & Vendors
Core Network
Replaced an ageing Netgear core switch with a Huawei core switch
Security / Firewall
Migrated the perimeter firewall from Sophos to Fortinet (FortiGate)
Compute, Storage & SAN
Refreshed the full server environment — compute, storage and SAN — sourced across Huawei and Lenovo hardware platforms
My Role
Sourcing and deployment, working alongside the IT infrastructure team — end-to-end from vendor selection through go-live and decommissioning of the legacy environment.
Most recently 2025 — the second full infrastructure refresh cycle delivered in this role over an 8-year period.
Outcome
Reduced unplanned downtime and increased headroom to host more servers and handle higher network traffic across both data centers.