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Central Plains Water needed to migrate their users, data, licensing, voice, and IT systems from a shared IT infrastructure with Solid Energy New Zealand to their own independent infrastructure. With significant growth in the size, scale and complexity of the work CPWL was undertaking, they needed a more robust business IT solution that would support the immediate and longer term business needs.
Determine existing IT systems setup and provide an alternative solution for independent and scalable IT systems. Plan for, and implement new IT infrastructure and systems, and seamlessly migrate all existing data and users to the new systems, while ensuring as little disruption to business as possible.
Central Plains Water needed to migrate their users, data, licensing, voice, and IT systems from a shared IT infrastructure with Solid Energy New Zealand to their own independent infrastructure. With significant growth in the size, scale and complexity of the work CPWL was undertaking, they needed a more robust business IT solution that would support the immediate and longer term business needs.
Determine existing IT systems setup and provide an alternative solution for independent and scalable IT systems. Plan for, and implement new IT infrastructure and systems, and seamlessly migrate all existing data and users to the new systems, while ensuring as little disruption to business as possible.
We engaged with the client and current IT support personnel to understand their existing environment and the requirements of the new environment. The main components of the environment comprised of about thirty leased laptops, multiple virtual servers for running file share and accounts system, an in-house phone system and SharePoint intranet site, shared network, and hosted Exchange email.
Working with the business we presented a plan for achieving a fully independent IT infrastructure leveraging the best of both, in-house systems, and cloud based systems. We recommended implementing an in-house server for running virtual servers, replacing all aging leased laptops with new equipment, and migrating from internal SharePoint intranet site and hosted Exchange email to Microsoft Office 365. We investigated internet connectivity options for their location and recommended multiple VDSL internet links for data and voice systems.
In provisioning a local virtual server solution we allowed for localised file storage bypassing site issues of expensive and limited internet connectivity options, while also allowing for any future additional server requirements without need to purchase additional hardware. Office 365 provides a scalable solution for Exchange email and SharePoint intranet with huge allowances for data storage. Licensing for Microsoft Office, Visio, and Project is now all provided through Office 365 on an operational, rather than capital, expenditure basis.
We provisioned a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system, with IP based phones and local phone exchange, connected over VDSL to a cloud based phone exchange for reduced calling rates when compared with all the major telecommunications providers.
Our standard data protection and recovery, and layered security solutions, were implemented, utilizing monitored local and offsite disk based backups, with the defence of Cisco firewall and local installs of ESET antivirus reporting into, and monitored from, the cloud.
By recommending new systems we were able to pre-configure an entire new environment from firewall, server, and network, right down to individual user logon on laptops. On a migration weekend, we only had to copy data to new servers, upload intranet site data to Office 365, and replace all existing laptops with new laptops pre-configured for the users on the new network. We pre-migrated existing email, by running both old and new email systems in parallel and in scheduled data synch, and on the migration weekend a quick final synch of the latest email data was all that was required. We migrated all data from individual user profiles across to the new systems to also ensure the most seamless experience for end users.
CWPL now have a scalable solution that is covered under a managed services contract to provide ongoing proactive IT support.
“Our experience with iTOPS has shown that they have the technical knowledge and expertise to deliver on their promises. iTOPS were able to quickly understand the requirements of the organisation and develop a suitable technical solution to meet those requirements. The iTOPS team were able to quickly adapt to changing requirements throughout the project lifecycle. They were able to design and offer a technical solution that was fit for purpose and were able to deliver on their promises. All iTOPS staff have been professional, friendly and responsive and any issues encountered have been resolved promptly. They are practical and cost effective and have demonstrated an ability to communicate effectively to users at all levels within our business. CPWL has now successfully established its own IT infrastructure and migrated across to the new system without significant impact to the day-to-day business operations. iTOPS have designed and implemented and managed a cost effective solution that has met our budget requirements and has exceeded our user expectations. The small iTOPS team were able to provide CPWL with consistent technically capable people throughout the project (familiar faces). We would recommend using iTOPS.”
