In case of emergency

When reference is made to the finance industry, sensitive information and affluent clients spring to mind. So when Elderslie Finance Group was alerted to the fact that its existing IT infrastructure was outdated and that there could be severe fallout in the event of a system crash, the organisation enlisted the services of Vertebral Solutions.

In February 2007, the independent supplier of corporate finance and operating facilities for corporations, government, educational institutions and SMBs upgraded its existing servers and software. The company’s entire domain infrastructure was running on outdated and unsupported hardware and software, severely diminishing its disaster recovery capabilities. Elderslie was also experiencing poor performance due to regular system crashes.

“There would have been a serious impact to the business if the server went down as there was no support arrangement,” said Maghdi Styer, IT manager, Elderslie Finance Group.
When Vertebral arrived on the scene it immediately raised concern over the absence of a data recovery ‘safety net’ in the event of a system breakdown.

“The network was running on systems that were no longer supported by the vendor,” said Yasien Adams, director, Vertebral Solutions.

“If data storage critical systems remained unaddressed, it could have caused serious problems.”

Vertebral approached the project by first auditing the network infrastructure and identifying what exactly required upgrading. The reseller concluded that the server hardware needed to be replaced with the latest IBM X series servers; the network operating system should be upgraded to Windows Server 2003; and the messaging platform would better serve users if updated to Exchange Server 2003.

“The internal IT staff lacked the necessary skills to address the problem,” said Styer.
“Vertebral had expertise in implementing the Microsoft platform and past experience demonstrated it had the skills and resources for this project.”

The majority of the work was performed after hours and over a weekend to ensure minimal disruption to the daily activities of employees.

“To migrate the users and get them up and running on email only took a weekend, however there was housekeeping from an IT perspective – tidying up bits and pieces – that took about a week,” said Styer.

Care was taken to preserve and transfer the previous domain information such as user accounts, group memberships, login scripts, security, permissions, naming conventions and computer accounts stored on the outdated Windows NT 4.0 server. Elderslie also specified it wanted to save user mailboxes and distribution lists residing on the old Exchange Server 5.5.

“We worked very closely with Vertebral to plan the project,” said Styer. According to Adams, no two projects are the same and this particular venture had its own unique obstacles.

An unanticipated problem arose when Elderslie’s Outlook client was not automatically updating to the new server. Vertebral had no alternative except to log onto each individual machine and update the information manually.

“There was one week of implementation and if there were any hurdles we were able to address them then and there,” said Adams.

“Other than this [hurdle] the project went smoothly with no business impact … so when the staff came back they didn’t notice anything except that everything was running faster and more smoothly.”

The success of the project can be attributed to Vertebral’s use of tools and strategies that were well-suited to the particular needs of Elderslie Finance Group. The reseller began by building an interim server and copied critical information across to ensure it could be easily configured and transferred to the new environment. Then an Active Directory migration tool linked to the old exchange server was used to transfer user mailboxes. This not only prevented disruption, it also enabled the user interface and applications to remain the same, avoiding the need for additional staff training.

“All the new software is a combination of the old elements in the new environment,” said Adams.

An easy-to-manage platform was high on the list of priorities for Elderslie. Vertebral was able to respond by combining all the critical data – previously stored in different areas – onto a single console. The IT staffs are now able to maintain accounts and user profiles more easily and efficiently. Vertebral also offered training to the Elderslie IT team, briefing them on implementing, managing and maintaining the new network.

“From an IT support team point of view, the system is much easier to manage and administer,” said Styer.

“Vertebral was able to train the IT staff so they could support the infrastructure going forward.”

Elderslie is aware that the business is becoming increasingly dependent on email and was pleased with the added bonus of remote access to corporate email via Outlook Web Access.

“External staff members now have access to email while on the road,” said Adams.
The organisation is also secure in the knowledge that the network infrastructure is now stable and scalable. Vertebral succeeded in improving data recovery capabilities and recovery times, speeding up access, and tightening security through an Exchange Front-End server.

“There is greater peace of mind for our IT support team and the business as a whole,” said Styer.

“We also have the ability to integrate more solutions through the new platform.”

It is interesting to note that many SMBs are running their systems on outdated servers. Vertebral stresses the importance of addressing problems early to prevent them turning into much larger problems in the future.

“Our customers lie in the SMB market – we generally cater to businesses with five to 250 employees – and we’ve noticed that many organisations will hold back on upgrading, often because they don’t have the in-house expertise to implement the best suited solution,” said Adams.

An official announcement on 28 August 2007 named Vertebral as one of three companies to achieve the new Cisco branding of Select Partner, Australia wide.

“This is a new and exciting time for us, as we will go to market with some of the newest Cisco Unified Communications equipment that only Select Partners have access to,” said the reseller.

Vertebral has a strong focus on the SMB space and claimed the recent achievement will better equip the company to penetrate this market even further.