Cloud Infrastructure as a Service for SlimTel


The Client:

SlimTel is a full-service provider of business and IT consultancy and solutions. Headquarters based in London, SlimTel team of IT and business consultants provide top-grade solutions, as well as customised products and systems that help their clients make the most of their businesses and organisations. SlimTel had long outgrown their existing infrastructure and recognised their need to change it. In addition, they also had an ageing desktop infrastructure that needed to be replaced and standardised across all branches. These current solutions were costly regarding maintenance and did not enable remote access for all users.

Solution

To address these issues, IT SYS created new dedicated VMware virtual servers for SlimTel within its Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform. Secured in IT SYS’s Tier 2 datacentre at Equinix, this platform represented a major investment in virtualised infrastructure and offered SlimTel a state-of-the-art solution, without a six-figure capital outlay of upgrading its Software, hardware, Licensing and the related costs of locating it in-house. Following this, a new BT 400MB uncontended fiber link was installed from SlimTel’s Headquarters direct to the datacenter, with their remote site links also reappointed to the datacenter. This not only improved internet resilience and speed, but it also gave SlimTel lower-cost internet access for all branches to connect into than their previous site-to-site links. User access is now delivered via new multiple hosted Citrix XenApp servers which delivers a rich user experience for everyone, irrelevant of their location or device. A Citrix Netscaler was also implemented to introduce a more granular access process for its users when both in and outside of the office, providing enhanced protection of the company’s data and systems. The Microsoft licensing is delivered on a rental ‘pay as you go’ basis through a program called Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA), which is a flexible and cost-effective way of having the very latest applications as and when they are upgraded. IT SYS streamlined SlimTel’s backup process through its Cloud based offering Veeam. With data secured in encrypted storage across two locations – IT SYS’s datacenters in Sydney and Melbourne – backup happens seamlessly and invisibly online, and removes the need for the costly method of storing data on tapes. Again, a simple ‘pay as you go pricing model’ is applied, meaning monthly costs are scalable as SlimTel expands.

Success and Company Benefits

SlimTel now enjoy the key benefits of ITSYS’s Corporate Cloud offering which includes state-of- the-art security, faster, cheaper and more resilient internet and a significant decrease in operating costs.

Kashaf Bashir, IT Director at SlimTel, added, “IT SYS’s delivery of the new infrastructure has provided a more stable and richer user experience, company-wide, which was an impossible task with our traditional on-site IT solution. It has also provided quick and easy placement of technology updates and maintenance when needed for new sites – not to mention the huge cost savings though renting hardware and paying for what applications and services we actually use.

“Completed on time and within budget, we are delighted to have a flexible, cost effective and robust system that can be scaled up or down as our business evolves.”

Technical Solution:

  • VMware ESXi 6.0
  • Microsoft Exchange
  • VMware vCloud Director & vSphere
  • Microsoft Skype for Business
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • Cisco Catalyst
  • HP 3PAR
  • Citrix Netscaler
  • Veeam Backup
  • Sonicwall Firewall

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