Northamptonshire County Council explains how the Transformational Government Accelerator is helping them improve citizen services and become more efficient.

To resolve critical data-center cooling issues and provide more efficient disaster recovery, the College of Family Physicians of Canada deployed Windows Server® 2008 R2 and tools such as Microsoft® System Center Data Protection Manager 2007. As a result, the college has reduced its server footprint and cut data-center energy costs by about 65 percent. It has also sped backups by 50 percent and increased IT reliability, efficiency, and agility.

Shree Chanakya Education Society (SCES), Pune, was established in 1994, with the explicit vision to provide sustainable impetus to the corporate and entrepreneurial abilities in the youth. But the existing e-mail service at SCES was not user friendly, and the administration wanted to provide a better solution to help students stay in touch with peers and communicate with faculty. They chose Microsoft® Live@edu, a set of Web-based communication and collaboration services. Students are excited about the new solution’s reliability. It provides them more storage space per e-mail account and access to online storage with Windows Live™ SkyDrive. Students are using Live@edu to get better organized, improve communications with their professors, and create online study groups so they are better prepared for class.

Located in the heart of India's premier educational centre, the city of Pune, Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL) is a centre of excellence, offering quality distance education. But the institute’s hosted e-mail service was not user friendly, and took too much time and money to manage. To reduce spending, it decided to replace its aging, in-house student e-mail solution with a hosted solution. SCDL chose Microsoft® Live@edu, a set of free Web-based communication and collaboration services. Students are excited about the new solution’s reliability, as well as the ability to organize their communications in one place. The solution offers online storage with Windows Live™ SkyDrive. Students are using Live@edu to get better organized, and improve communications with their faculty.

Before installation of Windows Server 2008, the City Government of Sławno used two servers: Novell Netware and SUSE Linux. Forty stationery computers functioned in the office, running different versions of Windows XP system. The diversity of software and lack of a unified platform created disadvantages in the IT structure. The IT department planned to replace the Novell Netware server and eliminate the necessity of purchasing an additional server to manage the circulation of documents. This was to be accomplished with the installation of the newest Microsoft server software. It was important to workers to unify the workstation login system with on-site server authentication. The test installation fulfilled all expectations and showed how the IT network could work after installing Microsoft server software.

The school had three computer classrooms controlled by Novell Netware 6, Microsoft Windows 2003 Serwer and Linux servers. Maintenance of the classroom served by the Linux system required lots of time to effectively manage. Installation of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 simplified network infrastructure management. The classroom also gained a stable, effective and modern IT system. This allowed the staff to concentrate on teaching IT and not on the constant servicing of the configuration and searching for solutions to server infrastructure problems.

The hospital in Rybnik has at its disposal a large and varied IT structure. The hospital uses Novell Netware 5.1 system, has a few servers with Windows 2003, Linux servers, around 180 computers working on Windows 98SE, and 176 computers on Windows XP Professional and Home Edition. Also 170 packages of Microsoft Office are used. The extended structure had weak points. One of them was a weak security policy. Installation of Windows Server 2008 in Rybnik hospital made the network administrator's work easier and saved the time previously dedicated to servicing the firm's computers. Now there is more effective and safer use of the system by terminal work stations.

The University of Natural Sciences' IT structure lacked tools to centrally manage equipment and software. This influenced negatively the operation of the university's network. Administrators did not have control over software installed by instructors and students. The IT system was not immune to malicious operations of users and too much time was dedicated to the maintenance of the existing solution. The task of the new solution was to change this situation. The University of Natural Sciences used Windows Server 2008 RC1 before it officially went on sale.

The Marshall's Office of Warmia-Masuria Province for many years used Microsoft server products. The experiences connected with using them are positive. An invitation to take part in a test program and to acquaint the Marshall's Office with Windows Server 2008 RC1 and its new functions was greeted with enthusiasm. This allowed the Marshall's Office to check the software, before purchasing, in a production environment. IT engineers from the Marshall's Office of Warmia-Masuria Province expected that installation will facilitate their daily work connected with network security and its resources. They were not disappointed. Windows Server 2008 RC1 enabled additional work thanks to securtiy prevention and automating typical operations. The same should be expected of the final version of the server.