Excellence through Partnership

Case Studies

  

The following are case studies depicting scenarios commonly encountered by Alteon Technologies.

Company A*

Whilst the primary focus had been on building the consultancy, this London based consultancy had come to include a staffed office as well as client based consultants.   The IT infrastructure of the business had been managed internally but now had grown only so far with the business and improvements and reliability were needed in the day to day running if the IT systems in order to support continued growth.

A lack of proper infrastructure, back office, disaster recovery and remote access were the main issues facing the business’ growth and were proving to be everyday problems.  The business contacted Alteon Technologies and initial health checks and consultancy were carried out in order to gain insight into the current issues and the future needs of the business.

Alteon Technologies outlined a strategy to implement a new solution including a new server providing;

  • Centralised and reliable file storage
  • Email
  • Security
  • Remote Access and Terminal Services

A new firewall solution providing;

  • Secure Access to the Internet
  • Content Filtering
  • VPN
  • Anti-Virus Management across the Network
  • Wireless Network

A new backup solution providing;

  • Reliable Tape-Free local backup and recovery
  • Off-Site backup to the Alteon Technologies Backup Vault

The existing network cabling was tested for reliability and was re-used in the solution along with all current PCs and Laptops which were re-configured to use the new infrastructure.  A wireless network was set up in the office to allow for convenient access to the network for users with laptops.

Alteon Technologies then on an ongoing basis supported the business with all its IT needs by becoming the IT Partner for the business providing; monitoring, support, maintenance, disaster recovery, off-site backup and new hardware.  As part of this, during the initial solution design it had been recommended that push SMTP technology would be ideal, however, the extra investment was not possible at the time.  Once the business was able to Alteon Technologies implemented push SMTP for all the consultants enabling them to receive and send emails from wherever they were in real time.

Company B*

This London based consultancy business had only a few employees working from home but used contractors based across many client sites.  Therefore there was no centralised storage or viable backup solution in place.  This became apparent when one of the laptops was stolen resulting in the loss of business and marketing data causing great disruption to the business and the loss of current proposals 

A director from the business contacted a Alteon Technologies director to find out how we could help, initial consultation was carried out as the best way forward to gain an insight into the current issues and the future needs of the business. 

Alteon Technologies outlined a strategy to implement a solution using a server hosted at the Alteon Technologies data centre, access to the server is provided using VPN technology and optional Terminal Services.  Using the server Alteon Technologies’ solution provided the business with;

  • Centralised and Reliable File Storage
  • E-Mail including push SMTP
  • Security
  • Remote Access and Terminal Services
  • Backup and Recovery
  • Hosted Server in a Secure and Controlled Environment

Alteon Technologies then on an ongoing basis provided monitoring, support, maintenance, disaster recovery and backup for the hosted server.  Alteon Technologies were also able to offer a replacement laptop service should one be misplaced or stolen in the future until a permanent replacement arrived.

Company C*

Alteon Technologies was asked to visit this particular business as the Managing Director was unhappy with the service provided by the current IT Support provider.  A health check and initial consultation were carried out in order to gain insight into the current issues and the future needs of the business.

The business consisted of thirty employees using four servers, twenty-five desktops and nine laptops in total.  Alteon Technologies was able to offer a support package to the business which would provide for all the business’ IT needs including; monitoring, back office support, user support, maintenance, disaster recovery solution design and testing and off-site backup.

The first phase of the solution required a thorough audit of the current IT environment and hand over from the current provider, Alteon Technologies managed these tasks on behalf of the client, paramount to this phase was security, not only is it imperative to ensure all usernames and passwords are handed over but also that these are promptly changed to avoid potential security breaches. 

It is standard for Alteon Technologies to perform all non-essential work outside of normal working hours so the audit was conducted over the weekend to avoid disruption to the day to day running of the business.  Information on all aspects of the business’ infrastructure and standard operating procedures were gathered, this information was then entered into the Alteon Technologies Runbook and Asset Management system and facilitates the ongoing support.

The Audit also allows Alteon Technologies to identify any potential issues with the infrastructure and provide advice and solutions for these.  The Audit showed in this case that the network was healthy, as were most of the servers, workstations and laptops.  It was recommended that the business critical Email server be replaced as it was overloaded and out of warranty, at least two of the workstations should be renewed and the disaster recovery strategy also needed reviewing and testing.

The business decided to replace the Email server and review the disaster recovery strategy as any loss of Email services or data would cripple the business, the workstations would be left for the time being.  Alteon Technologies put a solution and plan together to replace the Email server and also redesigned and tested a new disaster recovery plan for the business making use of off-site backup services.

Alteon Technologies then on an ongoing basis supported the business with all its IT needs by becoming the IT Partner for the business providing; monitoring, support, maintenance, disaster recovery, off-site backup and new hardware.  The business was later able to replace most of its workstations and laptops, Alteon Technologies was able to put a plan and specification into place and then implement this seamlessly into the current infrastructure.

* Alteon Technologies does not publicly reveal the identity of it's clients in the interest of the client's security, reference sites are available on request.