SRRC Cloud Services
CASE STUDY OVERVIEW
In mid 2015, SRRC went out to the market looking for a partner to deliver Cloud Services to the Council.
The request for a proposal covered:
1. Infrastructure as a Service
2. Virtual Desktop as a Service
3. Managed Data Protection as a Service.
Digital Sense (DS) was chosen due to their extensive knowledge of the technology, and their innovative approach to the Cloud and data storage. A visit to their data centre sealed the deal, as not only were they talking the talk, they were implementing these solutions and succeeding.
“It came down to the Comfort Factor…Digital Sense could deliver. We did a site visit and were blown away by the data centre setup, everything was planned for…” said Colin Price, Manager Information Services, SRRC.
VMware was already in use at SRRC, but the innovation provided by DS was their ability to offer flexibility for Disaster Recovery, as it was already in their system. Others had talked about it, but hadn’t implemented it, only Digital Sense used this technology themselves.
THE CHALLENGE
The key challenge of the project was all around timing. Having staff available, moving apps at the right time with least disruption, managing around the implementation of systems such as Office 365, and moving other ERP solutions into the Cloud.
SRRC had a large on-premise system and getting the data to the provider in a timely fashion so that Council didn’t lose working days was key. Being able to go direct to the Digital Sense data center based in Kenmore was another major benefit of Digital Sense for SRRC.
Digital Sense’s robust network infrastructure was also key. The team at DS worked closely with SRRC’s ISP and has become an important partner in the delivery of all IT services. The failsafe in the links back to the ISP and the resilience in the links to backup have been fundamental.
DS worked well with the ISP (On the Net) and the feedback was very positive.
KEY PROJECT OUTCOMES
- Flexibility – ability to easily and quickly add or remove servers and desktops as and when needed. Ultra-modern highly scalable, flexible network.
- Peace of mind – DR capability is part of the service, if anything did go wrong there would be a replacement.
- Speed to ramp up – ability to react to seasonal ICT workloads
- Always on – ability for staff to work from home
- Disaster recovery – protection from the real threat of natural disasters at the Scenic Rim. No tapes, minimal hardware and access to digital backups at any time.
- 24 x 7 support – access to a team of experts who are constantly monitoring the platforms and developing ongoing solutions.
