Operational issues were causing endless disruptions to service before Trident tailored a solution to simplify infrastructure and streamline office procedures both for now and future expansion
Trident were one of a number of companies chosen to put forward a written proposal when a company of 325 users decided it was time to upgrade their ageing, and poorly functioning servers. There were 36 servers in total, spread over two sites, which were mainly based on Server 2003 operating systems soon due to be end-of-life, with poor back-up and no disaster recovery process for fast recovery from failure. The servers were causing many day-to-day operational issues disrupting both users and customers, and so becoming an expensive IT overhead.
After our initial engagement meeting we undertook a comprehensive network evaluation, which highlighted the company’s major considerations. Reducing the hardware footprint and associated hardware and software costs then implement a Disaster Recovery plan were paramount. We followed this up with a highly detailed network proposal.
Proposed solution offered:
- Greatly reduce the number of physical servers by using HyperV Virtualisation
- A solution which allows for server maintenance with no downtime
- An automated failover solution for failed local server reducing server recovery time from 3 to 4 days down to a few minutes
- Create an automated offsite back-up for fast recovery in the case of site failure allowing them to recover their core services to a different site within hours
Our thoughtful approach meant that we were able to accurately identify specific needs that dictated the choice of technology. We put forward a strong case for a Dell VRTX solution, which for the client requirement was more cost effective than other shared storage solutions but still provided all the key benefits.
After Trident were chosen from many other companies, we installed a Dell VRTX at two key sites. We migrated key servers onto this new hardware, decommissioned the aging servers and delivered automatic offsite back-up and failover. The client now has a greatly simplified, highly available solution which is simple to manage and maintain, and provides a powerful foundation for their network for the foreseeable future.
The customer says:
