Wahl Industries, one of the largest aluminium gravity die casting companies in South Africa, has outsourced the integration of a complete IT infrastructure solution to Integr8 IT, South Africa’s largest privately owned national BEE ICT network integration and infrastructure management specialist.
The industrial company began as a manufacturer of bells for clock towers and has grown to represent established gravity die cast specialists. This growth necessitated a comprehensive review of the existing corporate network and
Representatives at Wahl Industries (Pty) Ltd. sought to outsource to a service provider with a proven track record and expertise in the integration and management of Microsoft-based product and infrastructure.
There was a requirement for a complete IT infrastructure solution that would provide the business with a reliable, secure networking system. The solution had to include server hardware & software, LAN, WAN, security hardware and software.
Integr8 IT was selected as the IT managed services provider of choice. The national company is a Gold Certified Partner in four competencies, including Advanced Infrastructure, Network Infrastructure, Security, and Information Worker.
Furthermore the service agreement with Integr8 IT covered complete IT support of the infrastructure upon implementation. This included installation, configuration and comprehensive support and maintenance on routers, servers, desktops, laptops, firewalls, Microsoft operating systems, databases and applications.
Technical engineers at Integr8 IT decided upon the deployment and integration of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003.
The core value of the solution involved a new windows 2003 domain, using windows small business server 2003 and a deployment of a new 32-bit server.
The new domain was implemented as a single forest single domain infrastructure with a local Domain controller at Wahl Industries (Pty) Ltd., SBS hosting applications for the high demand of e-mail using exchange server 2003, ISA 2006 and SQL server.
This solution focused primarily on Active Directory providing secure access to files shares and business critical applications, Exchange 2003 using Windows Server 2003 R2.
“This version of Exchange provided the client with a fantastic set of abilities for their requirements and the benefits of access to e-mail, RPC over HTTPS, Webmail and Active Sync.,” says Robert Sussman, joint MD at Integr8 IT. “The scope of this project and the level of technology skills required falls in line with our business model as a Microsoft centric solution company.
In addition to meeting the core requirements of the business, the solution offers the complete power of the latest Small Business Server on the market.
“The ability for the user to access the mailbox via webmail, using their laptop or mobile outlook device, has never before been available and will completely change the way business can be conducted. This was all made available by publishing these tools securely using ISA Server 2006. A user will never again be out of contact. Productivity, availability, return on investment have all been massive gains, whilst cost of ownership, support costs and management cost have all been reduced,” adds Sussman.
