We provided an on-site IT Infrastructure audit for a c. 50 user company who had grown from a very small operation and had never got round to thinking about their IT systems until the lack of infrastructure planning/design started to restrict further growth.

Our written report included analysing their "English" requirements that they needed their systems to deliver; specific issues with their infrastructure; and recommending the changes necessary in order to meet their future requirements.  In addition we provided an outline design of how their systems should be set up so that they could reuse the information and design with whoever they chose to undertake the project
 

Our client used the provided OEM version of Windows provided by the hardware supplier, and the IT team spent up to 1/2 day manually configuring and installing applications on each PC.  This led to inconsistencies in build as well as being very time consuming for the small team.

Traditional imaging techniques were not viable due to the lack of internal skills to maintain such a system as well as the licensing issues with changing from OEM to volume license media.

We provide our own proprietary Automated Build Framework script set which makes it easy to get a new PC out of the box, built with OEM software, then tuned and configured with the correct applications ready for deployment.  The script framework is hugely flexible with multiple builds/scenarios available for different departments.  This framework is provided free of charge with a days "PC build automation" consultancy.  Templates are provided for any future applications and changes.  The PC build process, including applying the latest service packs; office suite; removing "junk" software from OEM; adding to domain; and a few other jobs takes around 5 man-minutes as the "hour" or so build process is automated.

We have successfully used this framework for the automation of many changes being applied during a migration from one environment to another and ensuing configuration is as expected.

Our customer had an existing Windows Domain they were using, but were not seeing any benefits of centralised management, control, reporting, or automatic checking of routine jobs.  In effect, they were not realising many benefits of having a Windows Domain.

We assisted by implementing the following:-

• Implemented a centralised AntiVirus product (of their choice) and configured to automatically deploy, manage, update and report on the anti-virus status of all of their workstations.  In addition we implemented "Wake-On-Lan" so that we performed scans out of hours when users would not be effected.
• Implemented centralised patch management so that all workstations obtained updates from an internal server rather than the external Microsoft servers minimising bandwidth on their Internet link.  We provided the ability for testing patches on selected PCs before full company deployment.  Utilising the Anti-virus Wake-On-Lan we ensure the updates are applied seamlessly out of hours.
• Defining centralised settings using Group Policy, and training the local IT team on how it should be used.  After configuring the customer had much tighter control of the machines and were able to utilise "remote support" functionality with ease to allow the IT team to assist users from their desks.
• Automate checking of all automated routines, such as backups, SQL exports, FTP transfers etc.  Our own check scripts will check that all events have happened as expected and send an email to the IT team so they can have a quick overview of if everything is working.

One of our small customers had a very basic need for Internet access, but required their systems to be capable of more complex functionality in the future.

They also required the ability for remote access to documents, emails, and local applications (e.g. Finance)

We recommended and installed a flexible secure firewall structure and SSL-VPN system which provided selected remote access.  Due to their requirements, we only permitted files to be transferred via a secure HTTPs (SSL) connection and prevented full client VPN access.  We did also enable a remote desktop function to allow permitted users, such as Finance Team, to access their office PCs via remote-desktop from home so they could use their finance applications - even if their PC was turned off (utilising Wake-On-Lan)

One of our customers was utilising a Windows 2003 domain from an old SBS2003 system that was becoming restrictive to their future growth.  They also desired a planned redesign of their infrastructure to ensure they have strong foundations for future growth.

We planned and implemented a complete system migration, from SBS2003 to Server 2008 with thought and design to ensure the clients expectations were met in full.  To minimise cost and risks, each step had a safety built in which also permitted the migration to be carried out seamlessly without any company-wide downtime.

Due to their requirements, we also implemented a hardware-fault tolerance (to a tight budget that prevented SAN/Clustering) to ensure business continuity in the event of server failure