StatoilHydro

Oil Company Supports Mobile Workforce with Operating System and Server Upgrade

StatoilHydro, an international energy company based in Stavanger, Norway, wanted to make sure that workers in its increasingly global operations could fully collaborate with their colleagues. Operating in a fiercely competitive market, StatoilHydro recognizes that delivering the information that employees need to do their jobs helps give the company an edge. To address remote access issues that could hinder employee productivity and collaboration, the oil company is implementing the Windows® 7 operating system and the Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating system, which together offer features such as BranchCache™ to improve data access at branch offices and DirectAccess to simplify remote connectivity. As a result of the upgrade, StatoilHydro will deliver seamless access to the corporate network for traveling employees, improve information access at branch offices, and enhance IT security.

Situation

StatoilHydro is a diversified energy company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. The company is primarily focused on upstream oil and gas operations and is one of the largest offshore oil and gas companies in the world. Formed by the 2007 merger of Statoil and the oil and gas division of Norsk Hydro, it produces more than 1.7 million barrels of oil-equivalent a day. With more than 30 years of experience on the Norwegian continental shelf, StatoilHydro has ambitions for international growth, with 30,000 employees and 10,000 consultants working in 40 countries.

Using Windows 7 [and Windows Server 2008], we’ll be able to better support our strategy as a global company and more easily share information no matter where our employees and consultants reside. Petter Wersland Leading Advisor for IT Infrastructure, StatoilHydro

StatoilHydro uses the Windows® XP operating system and the Windows Server® 2003 operating system to support its growing business operations, but its increasingly mobile and geographically dispersed workforce has driven new requirements for remote connectivity to the corporate network. “We have a growing international presence, and not all of our global locations have a good communications infrastructure,” says Petter Wersland, Leading Advisor for IT Infrastructure at StatoilHydro. “A couple of our offices in Africa, for example, have real challenges with Internet access.” 

Employees at StatoilHydro frequently collaborate, sharing documents with Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and the Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 messaging and collaboration client. However, the company’s client and server infrastructure was not optimized for a seamless experience for users while they remotely accessed collaboration applications. For instance, many remote workers had to first manually connect to the corporate network using a virtual private network (VPN) in order to access collaboration tools. “We wanted all of our employees, regardless of location, to be able to seamlessly use our collaboration tools,” says Wersland. “Whether they were sending or receiving e-mail, or accessing documents on the SharePoint site, we wanted them to be able to use all of these services without a VPN.”

Management at StatoilHydro also worried about safeguarding data on its Internet-connected computers, especially because the company intended to dramatically expand its number of portable computers. “With Windows XP, the standard user configuration was not easy to implement in our environment, with so many applications and user scenarios,” Wersland says. “Consequently, nearly all users had local administrator rights, which enabled them to download unauthorized programs.”

The IT staff also wanted easier ways to apply security updates to Internet-connected computers and to generally gain better control over this vital corporate asset.

Solution

By late 2008, most client computers at StatoilHydro were due for a hardware upgrade, which provided a perfect opportunity to design a new platform based on the 64-bit version of the Windows 7 operating system. In April 2009, StatoilHydro joined the early adopter program for Windows 7 and deployed it to 100 computers. At the same time, the company decided to implement the prerelease version of Windows Server 2008 R2, which not only has many features designed specifically to work with Windows 7, but also supports 64-bit technology.

The IT staff at StatoilHydro worked with Microsoft Services throughout the project. Together, StatoilHydro and Microsoft Services used Windows Deployment Services for image loading, enabling them to migrate the Windows XP–based computers to the Windows 7 environment quickly. For its companywide deployment in 2010, the company will rely on Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to automate deployment for 30 percent of its computer fleet. As part of its scheduled hardware refresh, the operating system will be preloaded on the remaining 70 percent of its 40,000 computers.

StatoilHydro is taking advantage of features in Windows 7 that help enable information access and productivity. Using the Windows 7 search capability, employees can extend the company’s Microsoft FAST ESP–based enterprise search engine to the client computer. With Windows 7 offline files, users can access files stored on a central server when not connected to the corporate network. “The offline file feature has been greatly enhanced in Windows 7 to reduce wait times,” says Knut Tungland, Chief Engineer at StatoilHydro. “Windows 7 detects whether the user has a high-latency communications line and automatically uses the offline cache to retrieve documents.”

The offline file feature has been greatly enhanced in Windows 7 to reduce wait times. Windows 7 detects whether the user has a high-latency communications line and automatically uses the offline cache to retrieve documents. Knut Tungland Chief Engineer, StatoilHydro

For enhanced security, the company is implementing BitLocker™ for full-volume drive encryption and BitLocker To Go™ to help safeguard information in removable storage devices, such as USB thumb drives. Because the BitLocker technologies are built into Windows 7, StatoilHydro can eliminate third-party encryption software.

Because Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are designed to work better together, StatoilHydro is able to implement several features that support greater efficiency for the company’s mobile workforce, such as DirectAccess and BranchCache™.

With DirectAccess, employees can connect directly to the corporate network with any Internet connection. IT administrators can also update remote computers any time they are connected to the Internet. Plus, using the expanded Group Policy settings in Windows 7, the IT staff has many more options for managing client-computer elements. “From a security perspective, it’s far easier to implement the standard user configuration in Windows 7, which will enable us to selectively assign administrator rights,” Wersland says. “Furthermore, the IT department can use Internet Protocol version 6 capabilities in Windows Server 2008 R2 to update remote computers that are connected via DirectAccess. These computers can be managed as if they were located in the office, simplifying the overall management of business-critical remote systems.”

The company is using BranchCache, which speeds up file access across wide area network (WAN) links and reduces WAN utilization by caching content in branch locations. The feature locally caches frequently used content on a branch office’s network. Subsequently, users from the same branch are able to access the file from the local cache, rather than the main corporate network, helping to speed information access.

Also, to support its “green IT” strategy and reduce energy consumption, the company is implementing Hyper-V™ virtualization technology in Windows Server 2008 R2. 

Benefits

By using Windows 7 together with Windows Server 2008 R2, StatoilHydro is able to better support its growing business and increasingly mobile workforce. The company will improve network connectivity for its remote workforce, improve information access at branch offices, and enhance IT security.

Improved Remote Connectivity

By using DirectAccess, traveling StatoilHydro employees will have easy access to the corporate network. “We can expose our internal services to mobile users,” says Wersland. “Whether they are connected internally or through the Internet, or roaming from one to the other, our users will have a seamless experience with DirectAccess.”

Furthermore, because of the direct connection, as well as enhanced protocols in Windows Server 2008 R2, traveling employees will no longer suffer from drops in network performance. With better

Windows Server 2008 R2, together with Windows 7, we will improve network performance, especially over slow connections. Petter Wersland Leading Advisor for IT Infrastructure, StatoilHydro

connections and more flexibility, these employees will become more productive. Employees’ mobility is no longer limited by their need for a VPN connection. With DirectAccess, employees can go where they need in order to do their jobs, yet still be able to collaborate with colleagues.

“Using Windows 7 [and Windows Server 2008], we’ll be able to better support our strategy as a global company and more easily share information no matter where our employees and consultants reside,” Wersland says. “With enhanced connectivity and a seamless experience in using corporate collaboration tools in a mobile environment, users are empowered to make our company more successful. We are a knowledge company, and human capital is critical to our success.”

Improved Information Access at Branch Offices

In addition to traveling workers, workers based in remote StatoilHydro branches will improve their productivity through faster access to resources. With BranchCache, employees at remote offices can access files more quickly than before. “In some of our locations where sufficient bandwidth is not easily available, being able to access a file locally using BranchCache will save our workers time,” says Wersland. “Employees gain fuller, quicker access to a wide range of internal resources, so they can more fully participate in collaborative initiatives with colleagues worldwide.”

Also, workers in international locations will benefit from several features that were not available before. “Windows Server 2008 R2, together with Windows 7, will improve network performance, especially over slow connections,” Wersland says. “And we will really benefit from a 64-bit Windows environment, because some of our core business applications related to oil exploration and production are very computer-intensive. Using 64-bit versions of these applications will help our employees do their jobs more effectively.”

Enhanced Security

With DirectAccess, the IT staff also can document that it has installed the latest security updates on all 40,000 computers, and with BitLocker technologies, it can help protect data transported on portable computers. “With the security improvements in Windows 7, we’re now able to reduce the risk of having sensitive data exposed to unauthorized users, which helps us protect confidential information,” Wersland says.

StatoilHydro will also use DirectAccess to better manage its client computers and keep them updated with the latest security updates wherever they are connected. “Also, we can now easily implement standard user privileges, which will prevent our users from inadvertently installing malicious software,” explains Wersland. “We’ll also be able to eliminate the third-party encryption software we currently use, a [U.S.]$330,000 annual savings based on our current number of portable computers.”

 

 

Windows 7
Works the way you want: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anywhere. You will be able to support your mobile workforce with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows 7, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 
 
Windows Server 2008
The Windows Server 2008 family helps organizations do more with less. Now you can run your IT infrastructure more efficiently, build better applications faster, and deliver the best infrastructure for enhancing user productivity. And you can do all this faster, more securely, and at lower cost.

For more information about Windows Server 2008, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008

 

For More Information

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www.microsoft.com

For more information about Microsoft Services products and services, call (800) 936-3500 or visit the Web site at:
www.microsoft.com/services

For more information about StatoilHydro products and services, call +47 51 99 00 00 or visit the Web site at:
www.statoilhydro.com