TigerRidge - Case Studies

TigerRidge Case Studies

Windows 2000 Active Directory Migration

TigerRidge were asked by a leading charity to convert an NT4 domain based token ring network to a Windows 2000 Active Directory on a switched Ethernet network, and to migrate the system to new servers. It was vital that work was undertaken with the minimum downtime to the customer, so key tasks were undertaken outside core working hours.

The first stage involved the migration of the primary domain controller from NT4 to Windows 2000 and the transfer of the operational masters to a new Windows 2000 Active Directory Server. We also installed an additional domain controller, a more efficient alternative to upgrading the old BDC (backup domain controller).

We then moved the customer from NCD Thinstar token ring thin clients to HP Ethernet thin clients and replaced their existing IBM terminal servers with HP ML350 servers. Stage three involved moving the customer from a Shiva ISDN Landrover to Microsoft VPN server for remote access (incorporating RSA SecurID for additional security) and installing some new SQL server boxes for the customer’s internally written application.

We recently completed stage four of the project, which involved migrating the Microsoft Exchange 5.5 environment to a new server and Exchange 2000. The new server was built, commissioned and tested and the mail boxes were migrated at a convenient time to the customer.

All of these tasks were successfully completed according to the customer’s chosen timescales and the customer experienced no down time for its employees, either local or remote, during their extended working hours of 7.30am to 7pm.

A Dynamic Web Site

This company publishes key financial information from their core system onto their website. Due to the systems and manipulations involved, each update consisted of a six stage process and took approximately four working days a month. The amount of work involved meant that the process was error prone, inflexible and expensive.

TigerRidge wrote a software application to control and automate the process from data source to final web site. The task was performed by importing the raw data into an intermediary database where calculations were automatically executed, reducing the number of stages from six to three.

We then wrote and designed a data driven website to display the draft figures directly from the intermediary database. This meant that the results were available almost instantly and that the customer could verify them straight away. Once the data is verified, the website is automatically updated at the click of a button.

The company is delighted with the software. Not only has it reduced the time taken to update the website to about one day a month, but it has allowed the operators to focus on verifying the data rather than creating it.

Rather than struggling to update the website once a month, the company now looks towards updating the web site once a week, providing a better, more dynamic service to its own customers.