Re: [OT] - Office IT support

["Andy Whitfield" <andywhitfield2002@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Have you considered Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs)?
If you need any give me a shout.
Regards
Andy the UPS Man

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Ho Yin Ng" <architect.hoyin@...>=20
wrote:
>
> My office is expanding, currently at around 30 and need to be=20
around
> 45 by the end of the year.
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> We've out grown our current space and will move and hence this=20
gives
> us an opportunity to revamp and redo our IT system.
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> Currently our IT support / supplier is crap, we've been wanting to=20
get
> rid of them for years we've had countless problems with our system=20
and
> had problems we just cannot resolve. We are already their second
> largest client! Their largest client does not seem to care about=20
data
> backup though!
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> Currently we run a linux system with outlook (but no exchange)=20
with a
> 1TB NAS server with 12 x 300GB SAS drives which we are now at 94%
> capacity.
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> We need a stop gap solution for the next 3 months, but then when we
> move I want to reuse the new stuff, but put it into a new more
> efficient system.
>=20
> In addition we have a problem with software and licensing. Not
> everyone has the same version of software and this is causing=20
problems
> as people without adobe CS3 cannot open the files.
>=20
> We have a tape backup system, but it takes so long to back up we
> effectively could lose 2 days worth of information should there be=20
a
> fire.
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> The IT solution company at the moment proposing we get another 1TB=20
NAS
> with a gigabit switch (though we are currently on 100mbit) - which
> will cost us another =A314k roughly. I don't understand the real
> advantage of the SAS drives.
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> So my questions are as follows:
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> 1. Can anyone recommend an IT company in central London? Preferably
> with experience with dealing with Architects? Or knowledge of=20
Autocad?
> 2. How do you guys deal with backing up? The tape solution for us=20
is
> too slow, I don't want to go the incremental tape route for=20
backing up
> as this is prone to human error and will result in an explosion of
> tapes. I am looking at doing an online backup system, but for only=20
1TB
> of information I am being quoted =A31,700 per month, plus I will=20
need an
> additional ADSL line.
> 3. I will want to upgrade to Exchange server, and run windows=20
server
> (which would also allow for immediate file recovery). At the=20
moment we
> have no shared calendars due to linux - we must have this. I would
> prefer to run a separate email server and storage server.
> 4. I don't see the advantage of SAS drives, I'd rather go to SATA
> drives in a RAID 5 which will give us much more storage. I don't=20
see
> the performance gains of SAS being relevant to us we are not=20
editing
> video etc all we do is read and write cad files. If we run a render
> farm as well I don't think it will affect us either. But we cannot
> afford downtime.
> 5. Software licensing - is there a way of improving how licenses=20
are
> distributed. At the moment they are tied to computers rather than
> users. When a computer is upgraded the machine with the software=20
gets
> passed down, or if a new person joins they just get when is on the
> computer. I want specific people to get specific software depending
> what they are working on. Can we get the software tied to a user?
> Perhaps using Virtual Machines? What are the requirements of doing
> this? Is it feasible? OR too expensive?
> 6. I will want full access to the network - email and files=20
remotely.
> At the moment we only have access to webmail
> 7. Everytime a computer is attached to our network it needs to be
> automatically distributed with the relevant templates and settings
> from the server.
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> Is there anything else I need to consider?
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> Really appreciate anyones help.
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> Thanks
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> Ho Yin
>



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