The Company: MDO Ltd
MDO are a small startup situated in the heart of Auckland.  Producing a unique new retail product, and distributing it worldwide, they need to focus their efforts on the needs of the business, not their IT infrastructure.

The Situation
This unique business has assembled a number of employees with differing backgrounds and IT requirements.  Employees use both Mac and Windows machines with varying configurations.  Careful planning was required to ensure all users can maintain the existing resources that they require whilst also creating the new office infrastructure and making available all the new advantages.
 
MDO process & store significant amounts of digital media and need to have mobile email and calendar sharing. A Microsoft Windows 2003 Small Business Server with large hard-drive capacity was introduced which gives greater internet and information collaboration features. Being an internationally focused business MDO need remote access to files, shared network faxing and full use of all Microsoft Outlook features to their Exchange Server from anywhere in the world.

The Solution
Command IT purchased and configured an HP ML-310 Server as this was seen as the most appropriate model for MDO’s needs. The Server was configured and installed within a day and gradually integrated with the existing equipment over the following week.  The hard disks were setup with redundancy so no single hard drive failure will cause data loss.  To ensure reliable operation of the new server operating system a NOD32 antivirus solution was installed to provide a centrally managed antivirus solution.  SBS 2003 Fax Server was implemented, giving users faxing capabilities right from their desktops.  Remote Web Workplace was also used to give users access to their desktops and all other business-critical data from remote locations.

With Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook 2003 it is possible to configure fully functional connections from Outlook 2003 to the Exchange Server from remote locations by using the RPC over HTTP protocol.  A group collaboration website was made available via implementation of SharePoint Team Services, included with SBS 2003.

With the implementation of this project, MDO Ltd gained considerable remote access capabilities which allows them to be able to operate from the office or at any other location in the world with an Internet connection. Their employees are now able to remain productive, regardless of location or time of day.

The Company
DB Limited is an existing Command IT client which deals with the production and licensing of digital images.  Their IT systems are crucial to their business and Command IT has been assisting them to develop their platform for the last 3 years.

The Story
DB Ltd has achieved significant success over recent years which has meant their IT infrastructure has been required to keep up with the increasing demands.  Originally only 4 PC’s were used but this has grown to more than 10 with the introduction of additional staff.  2 servers are now used (Windows 2003 SBS + Windows 2003 Terminal Server) as well as a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device.  Being involved in image licensing, they require a large amount of storage space and to be able to transfer files quickly.  The NAS is windows server independent and allows large RAID enabled disks to handle the storage load whilst allowing the servers to perform other tasks.  A gigabit speed network switch has been installed to cope with the large volume of network traffic. The terminal server allows remote users (such as the company accountant) to work whilst not being onsite.  This also allow users to work from home as if they were sitting in the office.

As the management travel regularly, RPC over HTTP has been implemented for these key staff.  This allows users with laptops to connect using full Outlook functionality wherever they have an internet connection.   This has allowed directors to have a workstation at the office and laptop for travel, yet both have the same Outlook experience.  Additionally calendar sharing is used extensively within the office so using this technology makes this functionality seamless.

DB Ltd deals with a huge amount of email to a large number of clients.  This has meant that spam has become quite an issue.  After 3rd party online spam solutions had proved unsatisfactory it was decided to go for a specialist product.  Mailmarshal has proven to be very effective at controlling spam and it allows all administration of email to be handled internally.  The means the burden of spam is the lightest possible whilst still keeping full functionality.  Symantec Endpoint Protection is currently used to control the virus threat when dealing with such large amounts of email and other data.