Re: Re: [OT] - Office IT support

["Ho Yin Ng" <architect.hoyin@xxxxxxxxx>]

We have one already thanks.

2008/8/9 Andy Whitfield <andywhitfield2002@xxxxxxx>:
> 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@...>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> My office is expanding, currently at around 30 and need to be
> around
>> 45 by the end of the year.
>>
>> We've out grown our current space and will move and hence this
> gives
>> us an opportunity to revamp and redo our IT system.
>>
>> Currently our IT support / supplier is crap, we've been wanting to
> get
>> rid of them for years we've had countless problems with our system
> and
>> had problems we just cannot resolve. We are already their second
>> largest client! Their largest client does not seem to care about
> data
>> backup though!
>>
>> Currently we run a linux system with outlook (but no exchange)
> with a
>> 1TB NAS server with 12 x 300GB SAS drives which we are now at 94%
>> capacity.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> In addition we have a problem with software and licensing. Not
>> everyone has the same version of software and this is causing
> problems
>> as people without adobe CS3 cannot open the files.
>>
>> 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
> a
>> fire.
>>
>> The IT solution company at the moment proposing we get another 1TB
> 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.
>>
>> So my questions are as follows:
>>
>> 1. Can anyone recommend an IT company in central London?
Preferably
>> with experience with dealing with Architects? Or knowledge of
> Autocad?
>> 2. How do you guys deal with backing up? The tape solution for us
> is
>> too slow, I don't want to go the incremental tape route for
> 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
> 1TB
>> of information I am being quoted =A31,700 per month, plus I will
> need an
>> additional ADSL line.
>> 3. I will want to upgrade to Exchange server, and run windows
> server
>> (which would also allow for immediate file recovery). At the
> 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
> see
>> the performance gains of SAS being relevant to us we are not
> 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
> are
>> distributed. At the moment they are tied to computers rather than
>> users. When a computer is upgraded the machine with the software
> 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
> 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.
>>
>> Is there anything else I need to consider?
>>
>> Really appreciate anyones help.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Ho Yin
>>
>
>=20

------------------------------------