Chandlers (Farm Equipment) Ltd - Virtualised Network Solution - Case Study

Abtec has worked with the long established company of Chandlers since 1999. Their existing IT network, installed by Abtec in 2005, had reached its storage capacity and further updates no longer offered the best commercial solution. There was also a need to update the E-mail system to the latest version of Exchange having used POP3 for many years.
In line with Abtec’s policy to offer clients the best service possible, the Chandlers IT team were invited to experience the Virtual Environment through a live demonstration at Abtec’s Head Office. Here they were introduced to all of the advantages of the system in a live environment, including an introduction to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook 2010.

The Solution

The overall scope of the project was a Virtualised solution that was devised to move Chandlers to a new hardware platform that included:

  • Multiple Servers for processing and power resilience
  • Future proof Storage Area Network consolidating storage from multiple servers
  • New core network switching
  • Microsoft Data Centre Licencing
  • Virtualisation software from VMware
  • Cloud based Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam and emergency mailbox from Maildistiller
  • Backup solution from Quantum and Symantec
  • VMware and Exchange Training for IT staff
  • Abtec project management

Planning played a major part in the successful implementation of the project. This involved close consultation with Chandlers which resulted in the successful delivery of the project to time and on budget.
 
The Benefits
 
The benefits to Chandlers include:

  • Simple transition to a Virtualised Network
  • Virtualisation of existing operating systems including Windows 2000 Servers
  • A system with capacity for future projects such offsite replication and disaster recovery
  • Ease of day to day system housekeeping and maintenance
  • Future growth capacity for processing, memory and storage
  • Capacity to speedily deploy new operating systems to be up and running in less than thirty minutes
  • Added resilience through multiple disks, hardware controllers and connections to the Network.
  • Increased longevity, with potential doubling of hardware lifespan to ten years
  • Ability to easily introduce additional physical hosts and storage onto the live system, avoiding major system overhaul and downtime.
  • Long term licence cost saving through the ability to roll out unlimited instances of Microsoft Operating System.


Quote from Steve Lord IT Manager at Chandlers (Farm Equipment) Ltd:

“Having built up a trusting relationship with Abtec over the past twelve years, they were an obvious choice to work with when we felt our network was if need of a complete update.
A visit to Abtec’s Head Office offered the ideal opportunity to see the features we needed in practice and this gave us the confidence to make the important commercial decision to go ahead.
Now, with the new systems in place our confidence has been repaid and we are extremely pleased with both the results and the advantages they bring to our business.”