As a result of a successful migration to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, VT Group now has a resilient and scalable messaging infrastructure with enhanced user productivity, and reduced cost and complexity.
VT Group is a major support services and shipbuilding company with approximately 11,000 employees across the globe. It provides governments, government agencies and businesses in the UK, US and Middle East with a range of services from training and communications to careers management. Its shipbuilding division is a major supplier of warships and marine craft to the Royal Navy, and also designs and manufactures equipment for the marine, offshore and aerospace markets.
The Group comprises six major divisions, and in the UK has around 150 sites. As a result, email is an important communication and co-ordination tool, as Paul Freemantle, director of IT service delivery for VT Group, explains: “Email is the lifeblood of the organisation, and is essential for both internal and external communication. We also have a large number of remote workers who rely on email to keep in touch with the business.” This reliance on email means it is essential that VT Group has access to a robust and scalable messaging infrastructure.
“We had three different email systems in use across the company, which made collaboration extremely difficult,” explains Freemantle. “There was no single employee directory, central administration was not effective and sending attachments was problematic. The infrastructure was also becoming increasingly unstable.”
The creation of a new central IT function provided the ideal opportunity to embark on a number of projects that would help to standardise and consolidate the company’s infrastructure. The implementation of a standardised email platform was one such project – and one that would help prove the reputation of the new IT function. The email project, however, was a massive undertaking and required migration expertise across Novell GroupWise, Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange plus systems integration skills. “We had not attempted such a large-scale messaging project before, and lacked the breadth of skills in-house on the different platforms involved,” comments Freemantle. “As a result, we decided to bring in a skilled partner that had previous experience of such implementations, and end-to-end infrastructure knowledge.”
Computacenter was already a strategic IT partner, and in early 2004 VT Group turned to the company for help scoping out the Exchange 2003 architecture. As Peter Dewar-Haggart, IT infrastructure programme manager for VT Group, explains: “To ensure the messaging infrastructure could cope with future business growth, we needed a solution that was totally expandable and flexible. Due to the critical nature of email and the fact that some of our users require 24x7 access, resilience and reliability were also key.”
Computacenter implemented a clustered messaging infrastructure based on blade server technology across two sites. As Gareth Pearce, a Computacenter technical architect explains: “The new solution was developed to ensure it met the current and future needs of VT Group. To facilitate fail-over and data replication, the blade servers are split across two locations and have the capacity to support up to 10,000 users in the future.”
The next challenge was the user and data migration. “The project had to be completed by the end of the year, and as we needed to minimise business disruption, we had only a very short window of opportunity for migration,” comments Dewar-Haggart. The migrations took place on alternate weekends from early October to early December 2004. “By phasing the implementation by individual business units we were able to ensure that there was no disruption to users, and that the project stayed on schedule.”
The migration methodology used forms part of Computacenter’s Rapid Exchange Migration (RXM) solution. RXM combines proven project methodology with best practice automated tools refined within previous Exchange migrations to provide a modular solution, which helps customers reduce both implementation timescales and resource requirements.
There was also a colossal volume of data to transfer as part of the project. “We had to migrate more than one million messages, which accounted for around 300Gb of data. We had hoped to archive the legacy email in advance as part of a separate project, but this was not possible within our timescale,” comments Freemantle.
Despite the scale of the migration, the project was a major success, as Freemantle confirms: “This was a very critical and visible project, and its success was essential not only for business continuity but also for the credibility of the new central IT function. We have had a lot of positive feedback from the business about how the migration was managed and the resulting benefits.”
For users, these benefits range from access to a directory of all VT Group employees, the ability to book meeting rooms at sites across the UK, and reduced levels of spam and viruses. For Freemantle, however, the most beneficial element of the new system is its ability to support mobile working. “Staff are now able to access their email from any browser, which has made our workforce much more agile and efficient. The new messaging infrastructure has also reduced the complexity and costs associated with supporting a non-standardised email system.”
Working with Computacenter also helped to reduce the complexity associated with the project, says Freemantle. “Computacenter’s ability to offer a one-stop shop of expertise – regardless of our technology choices – proved invaluable to the project.”
