4-page Case Study - Posted 2/12/2008

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Qbranch

IT Solutions Provider Uses Server Technology to Streamline Systems, Reduce Costs

Qbranch is a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. The growing organization provides systems integration and IT consulting services to a range of customers throughout Europe. Many of these customers increasingly have been choosing the company’s Windows®-based managed and hosted solutions. As a result, the company needed to offer the latest Microsoft technology. Qbranch also wanted to streamline its IT infrastructure, automate IT tasks, and lower its operational costs. Qbranch recently began to deploy Windows Server® 2008 Enterprise, which includes the option to install a minimal IT environment. Qbranch will now be able to centralize many of its applications, consolidate systems, and reduce costs. The company also expects to improve system security, increase stability, and expand its business opportunities. 

Situation

The Windows Server 2008 Server Core installation option provides us with a streamlined operating system.... Our IT infrastructure will cost less to operate and maintain than it did previously.  Emil Dahlin IT Manager Qbranch

Qbranch, which employs 450 people, has branch offices located in the Swedish cities of Göteborg and Malmö. The Qbranch IT department consists of 15 full-time employees in the Stockholm office who manage all the company’s solutions and data centers and the overall IT infrastructure. The organization operates 1,800 server computers and offers custom applications and hosted solutions based on the Windows Server® 2003 operating system. Qbranch also manages its IT network using Active Directory®.

The primary Qbranch solution is a fee-based Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, which includes managed Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 e-mail hosting services provided from Qbranch data centers in Stockholm. “Many of our customers are demanding monthly services, rather than investing in their own hardware and software,” says Ken Petersen, Technology Development Manager, Qbranch. “That’s the growth area for Qbranch right now. Customers want flexibility and lower costs, and that’s why they’re increasingly turning to our SaaS solutions.”

Recently, Qbranch has also become more focused on creating and delivering custom Windows®-based applications and solutions. “We want to be a leading IT provider, both in our consulting and hosting businesses,” says Emil Dahlin, IT Manager, Qbranch. “As part of that goal, we need to have an in-depth working knowledge of the latest Microsoft technology. That is the best way to provide our customers with cutting-edge solutions.”

At the same time, Qbranch is trying to streamline its IT environment and overall approach. “We want to do more with less,” says Petersen. “That means simplifying the IT infrastructure, using less hardware, and consolidating our environment around Active Directory.” Qbranch also seeks to reduce manual, time-consuming IT administrative tasks, such as patch management and new user account creation. “As part of our need to streamline, we want to automate deployment and other IT management tasks internally and for our customers,” says Dahlin.

In addition, Qbranch had been using a third-party application delivery infrastructure that was too costly for the company. “We found that the overhead required from the solution was much too high when considering the functionality we actually needed,” says Petersen. “The solution offered many good features, but we only actually used about 10 percent of them.”

In late 2006, Qbranch started its search for new technology that could help it meet all of these important business needs.

Solution

I have worked on Microsoft servers for many years, and I can definitely say that Windows Server 2008 is a very stable solution that will help us provide highly available managed services and hosted solutions.  Emil Dahlin IT Manager Qbranch

Among those features is the Server Core installation option, which gives Qbranch administrators a minimal, streamlined installation in which to run specific server roles. “With Server Core, we only need to install file subsets, which we can manage locally or remotely,” says Petersen. Qbranch used this option to install a streamlined Active Directory domain controller and Domain Name System (DNS) server, which is used for naming computers and services organized by domain. In addition, Qbranch implemented the Windows Server 2008 Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) feature, which the organization is using to improve Active Directory domain services security.

The company also made use of Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services, a group of technologies that help the company’s administrators provide centralized application access and management. Terminal Services complements built-in server virtualization technology called Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V™, and Qbranch IT managers are taking advantage of both features to consolidate multiple server roles and use server hardware more efficiently.

Qbranch also plans to implement Terminal Services Gateway, through which authorized remote users can connect to the company’s network. Terminal Services Gateway uses Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) over HTTPS to form an encrypted connection between remote users and the Qbranch network.

Additionally, Qbranch is now able to perform configuration and other tasks through Windows Server 2008 Server Manager, a new administrative tool. Qbranch uses Windows Server 2008 Network Policy Server (NPS) and Network Access Protection (NAP) to help its administrators perform centralized authentication and authorization for the company’s remote wireless users. Qbranch is also taking advantage of Windows Server 2008 Distributed File System (DFS) technologies, such as DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication. Using DFS Namespaces, Qbranch IT employees can maximize the number of file folders in the namespace. With DFS Replication, IT employees can schedule replication and control the amount of data being transmitted.

In mid-2007, Qbranch deployed Windows Server 2008 on 32 server computers throughout its IT infrastructure, including two RODC servers. The company implemented the new technology on HP servers that run on Intel processors. As it rolls out the technology across the remainder of its environment, Qbranch plans to implement IBM blade servers as well.

Following the initial deployment, Qbranch began to create new applications based on its Windows Server 2008 environment.

Benefits

Because of the new features in Windows Server 2008, Qbranch has been able to streamline its IT infrastructure, which will result in centralized applications and timesavings for IT administrators. The company will also be able to consolidate some of its critical systems, save money, improve system security and stability, and boost its business opportunities.

With Windows Server 2008, we will have a more mature IT environment that helps us take our Software as a Service concept even further for our customers.  Ken Petersen IT Development Manager Qbranch

Streamlined Management

With the Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008, Qbranch has been able to streamline its IT infrastructure. Because a Server Core installation includes only those files required to run select server roles, IT administration is easier. “We can install fewer components using Windows Server 2008 Server Core, which makes system management less complex,” says Dahlin. “We do not have to spend as much time managing and maintaining our systems.”

Additionally, Qbranch administrators can use Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services to centrally manage applications. “That saves time, too,” says Dahlin. “As a result, we can spend more of our time focusing on managing servers running Exchange Server 2003, for example.”

Consolidated Server Capabilities

By using Windows Server 2008, Qbranch IT managers can consolidate multiple server roles. “As we roll out our Windows Server 2008 infrastructure, we will be able to bring together different server roles into one physical server through separate virtual machines,” says Dahlin. “That consolidation will help us minimize our overhead while still providing our services to our customers.”

Specifically, with Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008, Qbranch plans to virtualize important systems such as its DNS and RODC servers. “With the virtualization features in Windows Server 2008, we will also be able to easily virtualize all of the functionality that Server Core delivers,” says Dahlin.

Reduced Costs

Because of the streamlined server environment made possible by a Server Core installation and virtualization, Qbranch will be able to reduce costs related to system management. “The Windows Server 2008 Server Core installation option provides us with a streamlined operating system that doesn’t require many resources,” says Dahlin. “Our IT infrastructure will cost less to operate and maintain than it did previously with the other solution we had in place.”

Qbranch also expects to see cost savings due to the fact that Hyper-V virtualization technology is built directly into the Windows Server 2008 operating system. “The virtualization piece is already integrated into Windows Server 2008, which means we will not have to spend money on an outside virtualization solution,” Dahlin says. “Once we are running virtual servers, we will have lower costs related to hardware and overall system management.”

Improved Security and Stability

The Server Core installation option will also help Qbranch improve system security. “With Windows Server 2008 Server Core, we will use fewer applications and services on the server, and that will lower the overall security attack potential,” says Dahlin. He adds that Qbranch will take advantage of Windows Firewall, which has been expanded in Windows Server 2008. “The new firewall features in Windows Server 2008 will help us better monitor incoming and outgoing traffic,” he says.

Dahlin also anticipates that Qbranch will improve its security by using the RODC feature at branch locations. “The Windows Server 2008 RODC gives us functionality that we didn’t have before regarding remote security of domain controllers,” he says. Additionally, the new DFS technologies give Qbranch an easy way to replicate users’ files and corporate documents without allocating too much bandwidth. “Since the implementation of Windows Server 2008 DFS, it is much easier for Qbranch employees to work at remote offices and still access important documents,” Dahlin says.

Dahlin believes that system stability, too, will be improved with the help of Windows Server 2008. “It is important that our solutions have 99.9 percent uptime,” he says. “I have worked on Microsoft servers for many years, and I can definitely say that Windows Server 2008 is a very stable solution that will help us provide highly available managed services and hosted solutions. That will translate into much shorter downtimes for our customers.”

Increased Business Opportunities

The ability to provide more secure and stable solutions means that Qbranch can increase its future business opportunities. “With Windows Server 2008, we will have a more mature IT environment that helps us take our Software as a Service concept even further for our customers,” says Petersen. “We will be able to deploy larger, more integrated solutions and manage them more effectively, while using fewer resources.”

In fact, Petersen sees the new solution as a key component of the Qbranch business strategy. “Windows Server 2008 will play a major role in our plan to grow our business,” he says. “For example, we will now be able to offer small and midsize businesses customer relationship management applications, video conferencing capabilities, and other technical advantages usually associated with much larger organizations. We will be able to do that because of Windows Server 2008.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about Qbranch products and services, visit the Web site at:
www.qbranch.se

Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008, with built-in Web and virtualization technologies, enables you to increase the reliability and flexibility of your server infrastructure. New virtualization tools, Web resources, and security enhancements help you save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and optimized datacenter. Powerful new tools like IIS 7.0, Server Manager, and Windows PowerShell™, allow you to have more control over your servers and streamline Web, configuration, and management tasks. Advanced security and reliability enhancements like Network Access Protection and the Read-Only Domain Controller option for Active Directory Domain Services harden the operating system and help protect your server environment to ensure you have a solid foundation on which to build your business.

For more information, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published January 2008