Case Study: Network Infrastructure Upgrade
Background:
A large construction company located in Chicago had the following situation:
- An old version of MS Mail was used as the email system
- Internet access through dial-up modems on a few employee desks
- Employees working at construction sites or from home dialing into a bank of modems for remote access to the corporate LAN
Need:
The company wanted to address these problems:
- Employees did not have the ability to send or receive email from someone outside of the company
- Most employees did not have access to the internet
- The modem bank was not as reliable as the company required
- When employees where out of the city, the call required for remote access was long distance
Solution:
The solution that InStep implemented was done in two parts. First, we helped the company choose what type of connection was needed based on the budget and required bandwidth. Since DSL met the bandwidth requirements and was lower cost vs. a T1, we determined it was the connection type to use. Next, we helped the company find a provider that met the requirements for service guarantee and time to deliver, while remaining in budget. Once the service was operational, we programmed the firewall and VPN server.
The second part of the project was to migrate from MS Mail to Microsoft Exchange 5.5. The company decided to use Exchange because of its features and its reputation. To begin, InStep helped the company choose the hardware configuration for the Exchange server. Once the server was received and configured, we installed Windows NT 4 and Exchange 5.5. We then migrated the mailboxes from MS Mail to the new Exchange server. Next, we configured the Exchange server to send and receive mail from the internet. Finally, we created an automated install for Microsoft Outlook 2000 so that each workstation would have access to the Exchange server.
Benefits:
The benefits to the client are:
- Employees can now communicate via email with suppliers, contractors, and anyone else outside the company
- With Outlook Web Access (part of Exchange), employees can use the email system from any computer that has a browser and access to the internet
- All employees have access to the internet from their desktop
- The modem bank could be retired because users dial into an ISP and then use the VPN to access the corporate network
- Employees can use ISP with nation wide dial up presence, allowing them to make a local call in most situations and access the corporate network
- Exchange has productivity enhancements such as calendaring, group scheduling, shared contacts, tasks lists and public folders.
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