Windows Server 2003 legacy infrastructure modernisation to Hyper-V with high availability and Office 365
Caps Cases Ltd are a £21m+ turnover firm, employing over 200 staff and are based in Newmarket, Suffolk. They work in the corrugated cardboard and packaging sector and have been a ctm IT Support client since mid-2016.
Problem Statement
The IT system was based around Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011 and several virtual applications servers running over VMWare and Hyper-V hosts. Caps Cases were limited to 75 users as imposed by Small Business Server 2011; this was proving highly problematic!
Major manufacturing facilities on the primary campus were connected through a single 100Mbps network cable. Downtime and system slowness were daily challenges; company growth was limited by IT.
Solution & Benefits
This project was delivered in six stages over seven months, covering 3 sites in two countries. Client machines, servers, backbone VPNs and the wireless infrastructure were all overhauled and modernised.
We designed and deployed a failover solution using Microsoft Hyper-V and two Dell PowerEdge virtual hosts; a branch office server was also deployed. Application workloads were migrated off aging legacy servers onto new Gen2 Windows virtual machines, replicated between buildings on the primary campus. The best of the old hardware was retained and reused wherever possible. Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and a Distributed File System (DFS) were also deployed allowing users to access data and applications as required.
The true capacity of the IT system was unlocked with no user or performance limits in place. Server and site downtime have decreased and campus wide communications are smooth and quick.
A massive step forward allowing Caps Cases to expand and grow.