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:: client overview
Worldwide property organisation specialising in high quality residential and commercial properties throughout the world. The client currently has offices in 39 countries, over 120 offices are based in the UK alone.
:: business challenges
In recent years the client has become one of the largest property management organisations throughout the world.
As a consequence of this, the IT infrastructure in the UK was recently reviewed, and as a result it was considered by the client to be lacking in several areas including service delivery, security and resilience.
The outcome of the review prompted the client to invest heavily into several particular areas to improve the business functionality and to cater for future expansion.
It was decided by the client that four key areas required immediate attention, these included Hardware Infrastructure, Storage, Messaging and Archiving.
Platform was approached to undertake the design and migration of the existing messaging infrastructure.
The original messaging environment was deemed as one of the largest areas of concern. Currently utilising Novell GroupWise 5, the need to migrate to Microsoft Exchange 2003 was prompted by the requirement to also integrate e-mail archiving, remote connectivity, and to utilise highly resilient storage.
:: the solution
Individuals, within our consultancy team, were assigned to the project and became involved with the client at an early stage. This helped to maintain consistency and ensure full working knowledge of other related projects.
Once fully engaged, Platform produced a detailed messaging design based on Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Cluster services. The design catered for all of the requirements as set out by the client.
Although our specific requirement was to deliver the messaging solution, it was important to us to work closely with the other third-party companies involved. We wanted to ensure full integration and to further assist the client, in providing a seamless working relationship, between all parties involved.
The messaging infrastructure needed to be both highly resilient and have the ability to deliver high performance scaled for approximately 2000 users. A migration strategy also had to be employed so that the client could stage the migration between GroupWise and Exchange over a period of time.
A Microsoft Exchange 2003 Clustered solution was proposed, designed, and implemented entirely by Platform. Both Exchange Clusters were configured in an Active/Active/Passive arrangement and were connected to the new storage array and archiving solution.
The same infrastructure delivered at the head office was duplicated at the clients DR site. As the storage solution had the ability to replicate data between both sites, this was configured to provide the ability to effectively switch over to the DR site in the event of server or site failure.
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