Case Studies
CertSys has established itself by effectively converting user requirements from business processes and delivering these to the client as successful projects.
To demonstrate and highlight some of our successes, we have provide some recent examples of Migration, Programming and Recovery projects. Each project will present the challenges that we faced, solutions we provided and a description of overall benefits the company gained.
Case Study 1 - Server Exchange and Migration
Title: Windows 2003 Server Exchange and Migration
Company: Kiddicare
Challenge: In response to a work package requirement stipulated by Kiddicare, we were tasked to provide a proposal with options and a plan of migrating servers from the current NT infrastructure to Windows 2003/MS Exchange 2003. The proposal was to include provisions for high level of resilience and to be implemented in such a way that the migration was seamless and provided minimal disruption to the users.
Solution: Enterprise class servers were purchased and configured in such a way to provide maximum resilience within the stipulated budget. This included providing hot-plug drives and raid controllers. The work was done out of hours and within strict timescales. Due to the careful planning and detailed test plans, all data and users were migrated to the new domain using standard migration tools within the constraints set.
Benefits: Kiddicare can now benefit from higher productivity, greater dependability, tighter security and the best economics because of faster development and lower support costs. Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 are designed to work together to provide Kiddicare with the highest available levels of performance, reliability, security and manageability.
Case Study 2 - Migration
Title: Deployment of SAN (Storage Area Network)
Company: Large Financial Institute
Challenge: Having merged from many independent organisations, the company was left with numerous dispersed systems, servers, and services that led to duplicate data which was difficult to access. Several different methods, procedures, domains and strategies were enforced. Again this led to duplicated effort.
Solution: We provided the client with comprehensive migration and implementation plans as well as overseeing the completion of the project itself. The project involved devising configuration, migration, test plans, deploying Windows 2000 active directory, utilising both Windows 2000 clustering technologies and distributed file systems (DFS). Additionally the client was provided with a plan for migrating data from current live servers into the new SAN which was tested in a secure test lab environment. Working closely with the vendors we were able to detail all the necessary preparation work required as well as the actual migration itself, in a very concise and timely manner.
Benefits: Testing plans were written to allow the client to ratify the configuration and to allow the client to test full recovery of systems. From this recovery documentation, failover procedures and build documentation was completed. The result was a fully recoverable SAN environment which was achieved via automatic data replication over fibre to the client’s disaster recovery site, providing the client to provide a very fast recovery time.
Case Study 3 - Programming
Title: Developing a diary system
Company: Law Firm
Challenge: To expand on the functionalities of their current system incorporating a user-friendly navigation system to automatically book appointments, view/filter court hearing dates by specific order, prevent deletion of entries and link entries in the court hearing diary with the user’s diary.
Solution: The main problem area seemed to be the automatic rebooking of appointments in the user’s diary which was resolved by creating new input forms to manage and link appointments/ hearing dates. Custom fields were created to allow sorting and grouping in a flexible format to meet the individual needs of the user. Workflow was achieved by integrating this system with MS Exchange. Court booking was a process made more efficient by the creation of a code behind the navigation, ensuring data integrity and correctness. User and system documentation was produced to guide the users’ of new procedures and system functions.
Benefits: A unique custom tailored diary system was developed to allow entry and visibility of court hearing dates. The new system improved user productivity and made the booking appointment process more dependable. Migration to new version of operating system was seamless as the modules within the system was based on core Microsoft standards.
Case Study 4 - Recovery
Title: Installing recovery systems
Company: Large Financial Institute
Challenge: To provide immediate solution for the provision of the current Disaster Recovery plan to meet the user requirements. Recovery of data was to be achieved within a particular time frame in which data was to be replicated to a hot stand by site.
Solution: This involved designing a Disaster Recovery plan to recover Intel based systems. To aid recovery, a system was developed which created recovery scripts (extraction of users, groups, logon scripts and permission from live). In doing so, the project also delivered:- recovery procedures for infrastructure and application servers; Improved business continuity processes and gave the opportunity to ratify the test plans.
Benefits: We provided the client with a robust recovery system within the required time frame. The client had instant access to data which was stored at a hot stand by site. Recovery scripts were written and fully tested.