Case Studies

challenges & solutions

Sheehy and Partners

Challenge

Sheehy and Partners is an engineering firm, when the power supply blew in their server taking out the motherboard and other parts it was decided that a redundant hardware and software solution was required.

Solution

We performed extensive research to find a solution and in a short amount of time were able to source software that enabled us to run two identical servers side by side, creating one virtual Small Business Server. The benefit of this software was that if a part failed in one server the virtual machine would reroute its resources to use the server that was still working, resulting in no downtime should a catastrophic hardware failure occur. The servers were installed on time and on budget.

Lifetime Smiles

Challenge

Lifetime smiles is a dental surgery with practices throughout Queensland including the outback. They required data to be accessed by all practices, but kept on a secure server.

Solution

We utilised Windows Server 2008 and Terminal Server to enable all surgeries to access the programs and data stored on the main server in the Brisbane office, This met the requirements of being secure and also took away the reliance on client PC’s. It also provides a platform for expansion at lower cost to the client.

Liquid Animation

Challenge

Liquid Animation is an award winning animation and design studio. They run a windows and Mac environment. A dependence on a corrupt Xserve OS X was causing instability in the network. Although running mostly PC’s on a Windows Server network, shared drives and RAID access was performed through the Xserve with authentication to active directory on the Windows Server. Work also needed to be done with no downtime.

Solution

A complete rebuild of the operating system was performed overnight. OS X was reinstalled and shares and permissions recreated and authentication with the Windows Server took place. Connection to the RAID was also reestablished through fibre channel. The job was performed with no downtime to any staff. It was also performed on budget.

Travel Organisation

Challenge

We maintain the systems for the artworks department of a large travel organisation based in Brisbane with offices throughout the world. These Mac’s are integrated with a windows network managed by on-site technicians. Corruptions were occurring on their Xserve causing network instability and downtime. Although we were able to keep them up and running a permanent solution was required.

Solution

A rebuild of the operating system was performed at the off-site data centre. Configuration was done via remote access from the city office. This travel company uses multiple advanced software programs that needed to be reconfigured and tested. A windows virtual machine that is required to run one of these programs was reinstalled. We also liaised with internal IT to ensure that the operation went smoothly. We also diagnosed issues that Windows machines had accessing information stored on the Xserve.