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A leading automotive financial services company in the UK was looking to outsource their internal server management to reduce costs and improve efficiency. With approximately 50 employees located in their main office and less than 10 IBM/windows based servers they wanted to reduce their internal IT staff overheads whilst improving their current level of management and support. In particular they were concerned about keeping the servers up to date and understanding areas of risk without impacting on the users. They were looking for a quicker resolution to problems to keep down time to a minimum and to solve an issue with support coverage during periods when their IT staff is on holiday.
Our Solution
Present UK has a dedicated team of support engineers and help desk operatives with a depth of knowledge and commitment to our customers. Present UK proposed our server management solution which won us the contract based on our ability to cost effectively address the requirements and concerns of the customer.
Initially the support engineers conducted an analysis of the servers in place looking at the existing operating systems, patch levels and usage trends. This allowed them to identify the best plan of action to bring the servers up to date and put an ongoing maintenance plan in place that would have minimal impact on the users and business.
A number of the servers were business critical and not up to date with system patches posing a significant risk to the customer. Our team of engineers was able to identify and propose a patch plan for each server to bring it up to date. By looking at the usage trends they were able to identify windows of opportunity to carry out the maintenance.
Once the servers were up to date, the team set about implementing an ongoing maintenance plan. They set up remote access and put in place health monitoring of each server, checking parameters such as system events, disk space and load bottlenecks. An action plan was created to analyse and apply patches on a regular basis and ensure the servers are kept up to date and running smoothly.
The customer also has access to the online support and help desk system, allowing them to raise and track problems they are experiencing with guaranteed response times and levels of service. Remote access to the servers allows fast response and resolution, with the peace of mind that an engineer will come to site if required.
Finally our team is proactively recommending an upgrade plan to minimise areas of risk and provide lower operating costs. Some of the key areas are;
- Power consumption
- Virtualization and server consolidation
- Operating system upgrade
- Hardware upgrade
Key Benefits
The solution provided has given the customer a number of benefits;
- Cost reduction
- Lower risk
- Proactive monitoring
- Guaranteed support coverage and response
- Minimal business impact
- Access to a wider knowledge base