Large scale Timber architecture projects

Industry Sector: Large scale Timber architecture projects
Location: Wokingham, Berkshire

Challenges:

1. On-premise legacy Windows Active Directory Server
2. On-premise legacy Exchange Server
3. Data Migration to OneDrive/SharePoint
4. Power outages/interruptions
5. User End-Point Protection and Encryption
6. Remote Access

Solutions:

1. New Windows HyperV Server with Failover:

Protec audited the current legacy on-premise Windows Server to confirm the services this provided to the internal user base and network. Data and file storage structures wre audited to confirm permissions and network shares.

Two HP Windows Servers running the latest Windows Server OS were deployed on-premise at the client using the Windows HyperV hypervisor. All required data and server services were migrated from the legacy server to the new primary server. The second server installed was configured as a failover server by way of Windows HyperV Replication. Both servers were protected with Next Business Day on-site break-fix directly from HP to ensure minimum downtime in the rare event of a server hardware issue.

2. Legacy Exchange to Office 365:

Protec investigated the current on-premise Exchange email environment, mail flow protection provider and user device email application(s). A new Office 365 tenant was created and configured to match the on-premise server (users, groups, distribution lists, forwarders, scan-to-email, etc). Next Protec implemented a middleware platform between the on-premise Exchange server and the Office 365 tenant to perform the migration. Migration of the system happened over a weekend to minimise business disruption. Simultaneously Protec rolled out the Office 365 application suite to the user base to ensure compatibility with the new Office 365 Exchange platform.

3. Data Migration to OneDrive:

Protec performed an audit against the on-premise data located on the Windows servers, this included such areas as, Share structure, permissions and storage requirements. SharePoint sites were created for the shares required.

Protec rolled out the OneDrive client to all user devices to facilitate the data synchronisation from SharePoint. On-Premise data shares were then set to Read-Only and our middleware platform performed the migration over a suitable weekend. OneDrive clients were set to “download on access of files” to ensure local disk space of the user devices were not filled due to amount of data on the SharePoint sites.

4. Active UPS system:

Due to the location of the clients offices power outages were fairly frequent. Not only did this present a business impact challenge, this also presented a high risk to possible corruptions on the Windows Servers if power is lost without a clean OS shutdown. Protec implemented UPS devices across all end user devices (desktops) along with suitable UPS devices to ensure the servers remained online long enough for the UPS system to send a signal to the servers to perform a clean shutdown. In addition the BIOS of the servers were set to automatically power on when power had resumed.

5. User End-Point Protection and Encryption

To ensure the desktop environment was sufficiently protected Protec implemented an end point protection application (AntiVirus / Malware protection). The deployed product allows us remote visibility to the health of the user device to ensure protection is up to date and detecting emerging threats.

As user devices were storing some local copies of data and email Protec implemented BitLocker encryption to the internal hard drives. This would ensure that in the event a machine was stolen/lost the data on the drive would not be able to be viewed or copied.

6. Remote Access

To improve data accessibility for the user base Protec implemented a secure remote access platform (encrypted VPN with 2FA) to allow access to the users office based desktop computers. From here the users were able to operate as if they were in front of their office computer with access to all applications, files etc.