Bracknell Forestcouncil has installed
software to standardise its server farm and simplify IT
maintenance, saving staff time and improving service to
users.
The council consolidated its
Microsoft and
Novell server environment using RES Wisdom software, in an
attempt to get a uniform build across the organisation.
Staff were spending too much time on routine maintenance, said
IT services manager Richard Dawson, and tackling problems was
taking too much time.
"The Citrix estate we had was quite disparate. We had different
pockets of technology that were all spread about. Nothing was
standard. It was a real headache trying to trouble-shoot and
maintain a decent service," he said.
Each of the council's 30 servers was in a different
configuration, meaning every installation was different when an
upgrade was carried out.
If a problem arose, Dawson said, IT staff had to test all the
servers and the software to work out the source of the problem.
After deciding to upgrade the server farm, Dawson embarked on
standardising the servers in June last year. He wanted to make sure
staff were spending less time on assessing and tackling problems,
and make the upgrading project run more smoothly.
"We ended up saving two weeks off the upgrade project time, and
it is also saving staff time in their day-to-day maintenance work.
We no longer have to spend our time cobbling together inadequate
in-house software programs to cope with an irregular server set
up.
"Now that all the servers are identical, it is a lot easier to
see quickly if the fault is in the software or the server. Because
of this standard set up, we are seeing a lot fewer calls coming
through to the helpdesk."