Atlanta Technology Ltd 20a Brownlow Mews London WC1N 2LA +44 (0)

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1 Atlanta Technology Ltd 20a Brownlow Mews London WC1N 2LA +44 (0)

2 Benefit Reliable and resilient technology fabric Optimised to help users work efficiently Value Obtaining first class consultancy, services and infrastructure Builds user confidence and efficient use of time Enables the customer s business to excel within its sector Background Stevens & Bolton LLP is a law firm with a national and international practice which is independently recommended in 21 specialist practice areas. Based in Guildford, the firm is respected and recognised as a City practice without the EC postcode. It attracts top legal talent; with a staff of approximately 170, the opportunity to avoid commuting to the City by working as well as living in leafy Surrey is a proposition that many find difficult to resist. Business issues A long established firm dating back to 1873, the business has grown strongly in recent years. Much of this has been organic, and to keep in step the technology fabric had developed in a similar fashion. However, this could not continue indefinitely, because at some point organically spawned IT expansion needs to be properly assimilated. If organic IT growth continues unchecked then it invariably reaches a point where it impacts business performance. In the autumn of 2008 Stevens & Bolton were approaching that point. There was a need to bring in someone with solid technical skills as well as project and management experience to provide leadership and address a range of issues. That s when the firm recruited Head of IT David Thomas with a focus on bringing change. Picking up the story, David Thomas says: Organic growth often leads to stop gap fixes being introduced. Technology had been misfiring, and the perception within the firm had taken hold that the IT function was reactive, and by extension non-proactive. The first month or so for David Thomas was a period of observation and planning. There was a need to provide system stability and tighten procedures and policies. IT is not always rocket science; there was a need to do things right, improve systems stability and get things working in harmony, says Thomas. I approached the role from the point of view that it was a case of providing confidence to the firm that the technology fabric could support the aspiration to be a top performer. Among his initial changes, he implemented a revised help desk structure and streamlined procedures for day to day activities. The initial changes involved the organisation and administration of the IT function but on the flip side were technology issues. We faced server-side issues, for instance the single anti-virus and web-filtering product was not very 1.

3 effective and we suspected that it contributed to stability issues on most PCs, says David Thomas. There were issues for desktop users because machines lacked consistency in OS (operating system), installed applications, and hardware specification. We needed to re-evaluate the virtualised server environment and storage solution to see if it matched our mid-term plans or whether it was unsuitable. Over 5 years in my previous role with another legal firm I had come to recognise the value of Atlanta: during my time with that firm it climbed into the legal sector s top UK 100. I don t think it s an overstatement to attribute some of the credit for that to the technology improvements that Atlanta helped us provide. Solution As a typical IT team of four within a medium sized business, the team lacked some of the detailed knowledge and high level skills to tackle such a range of specialised issues - there was a need to source expert help. For David Thomas the choice to put in a first call to Atlanta Technology was simple. Over 5 years in my previous role with another legal firm I had come to recognise the value of Atlanta. During my time with that firm it climbed into the legal sector s top UK 100. I don t think it s an overstatement to attribute some of the credit for that to the technology improvements that Atlanta helped us provide, says Thomas. From the desktop user perspective we needed to provide a consistent OS and application set and refresh 95% of the PC hardware. Using Windows Deployment Services (formerly RIS) we can replace a workstation and upload an optimised XP base build with all our applications in as little as 30 minutes. The attention to detail is important here and we included login scripts, user templates and printers as part of the program to create a better experience for our users, Thomas explains. We quickly reached the conclusion that Stevens & Bolton needed to adopt a strategic approach. In order to obtain stable and reliable performance, we needed to re-design the network architecture. 2.

4 He continues: As I sat down with Mike Kelson, Atlanta s Technical Director, we quickly reached the conclusion that Stevens & Bolton needed to adopt a strategic approach. In order to obtain stable and reliable performance across servers, desktops and storage we needed to re-design the network architecture. Cisco switches are at the core of the solution Atlanta proposed, providing a stable network infrastructure with a lifespan projected at 3-5 years. The Cisco 3750 family of products allow the connection of the SAN using iscsi (Internet Small Computer Systems Interconnect). High-bandwidth connections between the switch backplanes eliminate bottlenecks at the top of the network stack and ensure optimised distribution of data across the network. With this rock solid network infrastructure in place we could begin a program of projects with Atlanta s support to address the technology challenges. Top of the agenda were the anti-virus and web-filtering systems. We replaced a single server-side product with individual specialised solutions. This included a Barracuda security appliance at the web gateway to provide content filtering and spyware prevention. We have deployed Avira anti-virus for our servers and desktops, with Mimecast providing a layered approach to management, archiving and security, along with general data and network security, Thomas says. He goes on: We could then look at the server infrastructure and the SAN in detail. After evaluating the existing SAN we decided that it was not able to meet the future needs of the firm in the short to mid-term. There was a resilience issue and no upgrade path for the product from the vendor. Freed of legacy considerations we could select the best solution for our needs in the marketplace. Atlanta recommended a Compellent solution for a number of reasons. The question of obsolescence was important as the previous SAN had gone end of life earlier than expected. In terms of capacity the Compellent SAN is as future proof as anything can be. We re currently driving about 1.5TB of data across a capacity of 3.5TB of available space, so there s plenty of headroom On top of that it s easy to add additional disk arrays or to expand it further. A key value point for the Compellent solution is the ability to run high cost disk, like SAS - (Serial Attached SCSI) and low cost disk like SATA - (Serial ATA) within the SAN. The system is dynamic and intelligent in that it stores data that is frequently accessed on the faster SAS spindles and less frequently accessed data on lower cost SATA spindles. Simplifying connection and further controlling costs, the Compellent SAN is well matched to the choice of Cisco network hardware. The Cisco 3750 switches are iscsi-native, supporting the direct interconnection of the SAN. Another part of the server side program is to upgrade the virtual servers from VMWare ESXi 3i to version 4. This is ongoing at the moment; Stevens & Bolton is driving around 20 virtual machines across 3 physical VMWare host servers. The 3.

5 Compellent SAN is purpose-built for virtualised server environments. It allows administrators to present a virtual volume of any size without allocating drives to specific servers. This eases the management function because administrators do not have to deal with complicated capacity planning or performance tuning. Throughout the program of projects, Atlanta continues to support the internal team. Their knowledge is excellent and they have a genuine interest in what technology means to the firm. Of Atlanta s project and support teams Thomas says: Throughout the program of projects, Atlanta continues to support the internal team. Junior engineers aspire to a level of excellence and possess a work ethic that is passed down from the senior engineers. Their knowledge is excellent and they have a genuine interest in what technology means to the firm. Ad-hoc training and tips passed on during deployment have been a valuable add-on to training courses. It is an essential bit of knowledge transfer that builds confidence in our ability to manage the system. Results so far Atlanta recently assisted us with a major relocation project, which involved moving all our staff to a single site. Atlanta have been invaluable in helping meet our needs as the firm moves forward, says Thomas. Atlanta is the lead partner for service fulfilment and is taking total control by providing a single point of contact for all service issues. Service delivery is against SLAs that are designed to meet the needs of the firm. Everything we have done across the technology fabric enables our lawyers to accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently, which is essential to meet our objective of consistently delivering high levels of service to our clients. The improvement of the user experience has significantly improved confidence in IT right across the business, Thomas says. Much of the improvement is about providing speed and reliability for routine processes. Everything we have done across the technology fabric enables our lawyers to accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently, which is essential to meet our objective of consistently delivering high levels of service to our clients, David Thomas concludes. 4.

6 About Atlanta Technology Atlanta Technology Ltd has advised, supplied and supported advanced technology solutions aimed at enabling growth and adding value to businesses since Disaster Recovery Your servers operational on our infrastructure in 60 minutes Our dynamic team concentrates on simplifying technology from the business customer s perspective. As a company we share a vision of harnessing complex technology, creating defined solutions and communicating business benefits. Atlanta Technology s corporate-class Cloud Computing environment is built for business, securing data and applications on remote servers at top class data centre facilities. This corporate-class Cloud Computing environment is an integral part of the vision we have been developing since Our customers include private and public sector organisations including those that are subject to strict regulation and governance such as financial institutions and housing trusts. Cloud Computing Enterprise class server infrastructure without capital investment Storage & Server Virtualisation Rationalise your infrastructure to provide a more flexible and dynamic platform General Enquires: +44 (0) Sales Freephone: (UK only) Fax: +44 (0) enquiries@atlantatechnology.co.uk Web: Atlanta Technology Ltd 20a Brownlow Mews London WC1N 2LA Atlanta Technology Ltd UK Reg VAT Reg Registered Address: 47 Mount Pleasant, London, WC1X 0EA Content extraction and reuse is forbidden without the prior written authorisation of Atlanta Technology Ltd. 5.