Production and Design

Era Screens

The client

Established in 1997, Era design and manufacture agile working products including office pods, booths, acoustic tiles, seating and screens which are supplied to office furniture dealers, manufacturers, designers, specifiers and architects.

The challenge

Era first came to us to discuss a project for replacing their aging server hardware. However, after our initial consultation we decided the best and most cost-effective solution for future proofing their network would be to build a new hybrid cloud solution using new server hardware combined with services in Microsoft 365.

The solution

To simplify the challenge and reduce the impact of a network migration on the business, we decided to build a completely new network separate to the existing environment and prepare it ready for user and data migration at a later date. This allowed us to test and perfect the environment prior to the cutover.

The new server hardware was deployed as a Microsoft Hyper-V Host server, allowing for the three aging physical servers to be consolidated down into one new server. Four virtual servers were then deployed on the virtual host server as an Active Directory domain controller, a File & Print server, an Application server and a Remote Desktop Services server for use by remote workers.

A new Microsoft 365 Tenant was created and Microsoft Azure Active Directory Connect was deployed on the local network providing a common hybrid identity across the on-premise and Microsoft 365 cloud-based services.

Microsoft Exchange for email along with Microsoft Teams and SharePoint were deployed inside the Microsoft 365 Tenant allowing the business to expand their collaboration tools and data into the cloud to provide easier access for remote and external users.

Finally, the existing Veritas Backup Exec subscription software was reconfigured to provide a robust backup solution for the new on-premise server hardware and data.

The outcome

Since the network migration we have continued to work with Era’s IT staff to provide support and consultation using our pre-paid IT support pack service.

The kind words

“Our experience of working with AMiTEK has been genuinely fantastic. Our internal systems had been running on old hardware and the thought of migrating them seemed like a daunting task. AMiTEK came in with a great understanding of existing and new technologies which they used , in conjunction with our requirements , to deliver a fully functional upgrade.

AMiTEK has a great team of experts and we now use them for IT support and will involve them on future projects.”

Gavin Brooker . Special Projects & IT Facilities Manager