Client Background
Care Learning Centre is one of the largest independent Health & Social Care training providers in the country and has become a market leader for the delivery of apprenticeships, workplace training and programmes for the unemployed. Care Learning Centre head office is on the Isle of Wight, with branches in Brighton, Guildford, Southampton, Bournemouth, Kent, Somerset and Cornwall. In addition, CLC employ a number of remote Training Advisers.
Client Requirement
The Care Learning Centre had been running a relatively low spec at their main office since mid-2008. The server runs Windows Small Business Server 2003 and performs domain controller, file sharing and Microsoft Exchange functionality. At the time, the number of employees was small, so the Server was considered adequate enough to perform the above functionality for the number of users.
In the years since, The Care Learning Centre has grown considerably and the Server has been supporting some 30-50 users. This has added tremendous load to the aging server and of late the machine has been struggling, causing performance issues for the users.
The addition of remote users in that period has meant some configuration changes to the server, which has added to the load, including VPN and Outlook Anywhere. A small number of these users have remote desktop connections to desktop PC’s in the office to give them access to the company’s learner database system.
The slow server and relatively slow internet access have combined to provide a poor user experience for the users.
The remote desktop scenario is not ideal as it means a number of desktop PC’s being left turned on wasting power.
DataSwift’s Solution
Because of the larger focus on remote users, it was decided early on that a cloud-based email solution would be desirable. The Care Learning Centre were aware of the Google Apps platform and were keen to investigate this. DataSwift are an authorized Google Apps Reseller and so it was decided to migrate away from the existing onsite Exchange Platform to Google Apps for Business.
Once the mail migration was completed, a new Server, configured for high-availability and running Microsoft Hyper-V was installed at the Care Learning Centres office.
Two guest machines were configured, one as the new Domain Controller and File Server and the second as a Remote Desktop Services Host.
Files and user data were copied across from the old to the new server. New accounts were setup for each user and these were linked to each user’s Google Apps account via the Password Sync technology.
The companies Database client and Microsoft Office 2010 were installed on the Remote Desktop Server.
Symantec Backup Exec running on the Host Machine backs up booth virtual machines and is able to provide granular restoration of files if necessary
Benefits
- Email is now located in the cloud which takes load off the onsite server and office internet connection and removes this as a single point-of-failure. Remote users are now no longer reliant on the office network for access to email. Users both remote and onsite now have a choice of using Microsoft Outlook with the Google Apps Connector tool, or the excellent Google Mail web interface.
- The new server hardware installed provides a number of benefits including superior processing performance, 16GB of RAM, Redundant Power Supplies, RAID 5 Hard-Disk Array and LTO4 Tape Drive.
- The installation of Hyper-V based Virtualization provides a number of benefits including reduced power consumption when running multiple guests machines compared to physical machines, ease of backup of multiple machines (using Backup Exec V-RAY edition) and excellent disaster recovery options.
- New Domain controller configured to sync user passwords with Google to minimise administration.
- New Remote Desktop server provides access to Database software for multiple users without requiring multiple computers in the office to be turned on, saving power and easing administration.
Conclusion
Now that the above system is installed, Care Learning Centre have a robust and resilient IT Solution. The use of Virtualization adds almost unlimited future proofing in terms of hardware and Google Apps for Business provides an equally excellent experience for both office-based and remote users.
