The project, called Operation Cobra, was on a fast, furious, and "deadly accurate" pace to complete the fit up in a record 43 days.

"The project was largely driven by our Loan Prospector automated underwriting service which grew from 38,000 per year in mortgage loans processed in 1995 to 8.2 million in 2002," says Tim Prime, director of facilities management at the McLean, Va.-based Corporation. "Our existing data center had reached power capacity on generators and the Information Services department needed space to install new equipment."

The corporation buys residential mortgages and then sells them as investments on Wall Street. Created by Congress in 1970 to stabilize the country's mortgage markets, Freddie Mac has financed more than 30 million homes and recorded earnings of $3.2 billion in 2001.

The Loan Prospector program, an online application tool, sends a credit-risk evaluation and a Freddie Mac purchase decision to a lender in seconds. As a result of the heavy volume of users, Freddie Mac began operating in a 24/7 environment and pushed the capacity of its server to the limit.

The need for more electrical capacity at the company's 8,600-sf Reston Two data center began to surface in 1993. Creative solutions, such as changing the humidifiers and converting to a central HVAC system, gave the center-renewed power. The generators at Reston Two are capable of running a 1,025-kilowatt load for two hours and a long-term load of 895 kW. Problems became evident when usage jumped to a high of 868 kW between 1997 and 1999, and climbed by another 22 percent from June 2000 to June 2001, forcing Prime to issue a wakeup call.

Launching Operation Cobra

"in June of 2001, we were the Titanic about to happen because we only had one year of capacity left at the Reston Two site," recalls Prime. "We were within 56 kW of hitting our long-term capacity and 186 kW of our short-term capabilities, but the facility could not be upgraded due to a lack of space.

In December of 2001, Freddie Mac began searching for a larger facility and a mechanical electrical firm experienced in data center hookups. Planners initially thought it would take a year and a half to find a new site and complete the necessary work. However, corporate officials realized the urgent need for additional power capacity meant the project had to be completed quickly—and gave a deadline of April 15, 2002.

The real estate group began looking for a facility that could meet the needs of the Information Services (IS) group by providing enough power, adequate space, a fully redundant equipment infrastructure with reliable generators, and an HVAC system sufficient to cool the equipment. A 100,000-sf warehouse, which previously served as a Web hosting site, provided plenty of room to grow and an infrastructure foundation suitable for a data center. Freddie Mac purchased the building, located near the corporate headquarters in McLean, for $25 million.

"We were looking at building a new facility at $600 per square foot for 100,000 square feet which would have cost $60 million," says Prime. "The company that owned the warehouse was going bankrupt and on the surface it seemed like a deal."

Freddie Mac completed the planning and construction documents in less than 30 days, put together a detailed budget within two weeks, selected a design consultant in one week, and developed a comprehensive project plan and action list within two business days.

Taking Action to Survive

"We were overwhelmed by the amount of work that was necessary when we did a walk-through of the warehouse," says Prime. "The first thing we did was make a list of nearly 400 items that needed attention, including everything from testing a system to landscaping to fixing broken windows."

Prime assigned tasks to various groups working on Operation Cobra. For example, the fit-up team performed the renovation work, while the project management team handled the budget and communications. Once the work assignments were outlined, a kick-off meeting for employees and vendors was held to discuss objectives and emphasize the critical nature of the project.

Freddie Mac also designed the Operation Cobra emblem and used it on t-shirts and emails to help employees buy into the project.

"I told them that this project is either going to be a home run or a strike out," says Prime. "We had everyone lined up before we received the keys to the site so the next day the vendors and employees all showed up with a specific task."

EYP Mission Critical Facilities Inc., a mission-critical design and facility consulting firm based in New York, was selected as the mechanical, electrical, plumbing firm. Preventive maintenance was performed on more than 150 building/computer room systems, and at least 200 repairs were completed in two weeks.

In addition, the crews removed 700 racks, 1,000 linear feet of cages, and 250 power whips. Even with the decision to replace 3,500 feet of electrical cables Freddie Mac saved $28 million compared to what it would have cost to equip a new facility.

Keys to Success

Freddie Mac's completion of Operation Cobra in just 43 days is attributed to the manner in which the project was handled. The initial brainstorming session gave team members an opportunity to list all tasks that needed to be completed at the new site, and to break the jobs down according to function.

"No matter how big the problem, it's not so big if you break it down into manageable chunks," says Prime.

Daily and weekly status meetings gave vendors and employees a chance to provide an update on the progress of their work. Charts were used to monitor each person's progress with either a red, yellow or green dot. A red dot signaled that work was lagging behind and prompted the individuals to work harder.

Two monthly reports were also issued and a mid-way evaluation was conducted so that project team members could evaluate each other and see if changes were warranted.

"The most important action was the celebration party at the end of the project," notes Prime. "I invited everybody who had anything to do with Operation Cobra. I sent personalized letters and t-shirts to all of them with the invitations."

Team Effort Pays Off

Freddie Mac team members and vendors learned the importance of empowerment through working together on Operation Cobra.

"Our rule was that if we have a problem, we're solving it today," says Prime. "I must have looked at my watch a million times during this project because everything was needed in hours instead of days."

In light of the rapid project pace, team members put together a budget to cover all aspects of the data center work. However, the budget was later broken into two parts—one for the immediate work in the first phase and another for the remainder of Operation Cobra. Prime now knows the importance of breaking the budget into manageable chunks for various parts of such a large project.

Another crucial element that led to Operation Cobra's success is the constant feedback between all team members and the vendors. Freddie Mac made everyone feel like part of the team by occasionally taking them to lunch and acknowledging their contributions. Taking advantage of the wide array of experience associated with the corporation also contributed to the timely completion of the data center.

"The timeline was critical because we had to back into these dates and I couldn't move them," says Prime. "You have to get 100-percent commitment up front or you're going to run into a lot of obstacles."

By Tracy Carbasho

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