Linking Technology to the Community
COMPANY
Community Link
OVERVIEW
The non-profit was in need of a new IT partner to provide a solution for their aging server infrastructure
SOLUTION
IT Virtualization Project
OVERVIEW:
Community Link is a non-profit organization that provides a variety of services to over 500 children and adults with developmental disabilities. As an innovator in human services, utilizing state-of-the-art technology to develop, monitor and manage innovative programs is essential to their mission. Therefore, when Community Link started experiencing issues with their aging servers, they were in need of a partner that could design and implement a cutting-edge solution within their budget.
Community Link turned to their current VoIP provider Tech Electronics for a solution. Tech Electronics’ IT Services team worked with Community Link to assess their network needs and proposed moving Community Link to a virtual server infrastructure. To further protect Community Link, the IT Services team developed a disaster recovery solution involving offsite data replication with full server image backups to facilitate quick recovery in the event of a crisis.
“Migrating Community Link to new hardware and building a virtual host platform will not only save on operational costs and provide a better user experience, but it also gives them the tools to support their mission.” says Ray Malon, Technology Specialist for Tech Electronics.
However, as a non-profit, finding the funds to purchase the new technology presented an issue. As part of the solution, Tech Electronics recommended working with TechSoup. TechSoup is an organization that provides members access to donated and discounted state-of-the-art IT technology. As a member of TechSoup, Community Link was able to purchase the software recommended by Tech Electronics. Tech was then able to complete the implementation and installation of the server virtualization and backup project on budget.
SOLUTION:
Community Link’s network is now running on an entirely virtual server infrastructure with a revamped backup solution including:
- Dell PowerEdge Servers
- Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive array
- Veeam backup & recovery management software
Since implementation, the network is more stable, the applications run more efficiently, the Veeam backup solution is more reliable and backup times have significantly decreased.
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:
“Overall we had a very good experience. We contracted Tech Electronics to install two new Dell Servers, do a physical to virtual conversion of two servers and move all existing Virtual Machines to the new Host Servers. We also had Tech Electronics replace our outdated backup system with a Veeam backup and replication solution. We worked with Jeff Kelsey, Senior Technology Systems Specialist, and Ray Malon during the entire process. Although we ran into several challenges and obstacles, Tech’s efforts and determination found solutions to all of our problems with a minimum of downtime to our end users.”