Case Studies

Situation

The Prague 4 City District is a state administration authority operating in the public sector and being fully responsible for administration and public domains management within the Prague 4 city district. When performing its functions it also uses computers and information technologies. The computer equipment is located in 8 different localities, the IT infrastructure is used by approximately 450 users. Since 1996 MS Exchange 4.0 was used there, later it was migrated to MS Exchange 5.5 installed on a domain control unit with the Windows NT 4.0 OS. Users worked with MS Outlook 2003 and 97. A POPcorn software was used for transporting electronic mail - it collected the incoming messages using POP3 from the storage on a Linux server. Once in a time the messages were sent to MS Exchange. Further there were independent Siemens Hicom 300 telephone centrals that handled voice communication.
Conceptually not very well made e-mailing solution installed on the domain control unit was already showing problems caused by the ageing - the software was about 8 years old and the hardware was also obsolete. E-mailing suffered from insufficient performance, limited mailbox sizes and complicated e-mail delivery configuration.

Business goals

Within the framework of improving services and processes a need for fast and efficient communication both internally and with external subjects arose. The aim was to unify the available communication means, i.e. mobile and landline phones and electronic mail. Introducing Internet communication technologies was aiming to bring the office closer to the citizens of Prague 4 by using their favorite means of communication.
Due to critical situation in the e-mailing service operability an urgent need arose to solve the problems with an e-mailing database the size of which exceeded the technical possibilities of the existing solution and to provide users with bigger mailboxes.

Solution

The Prague 4 City District has had a long-time experience in working with MS Exchange and MS Outlook and it needed an integrated communication environment consisting of electronic mail, voice mail, VoIP and instant messaging. That is why they decided to implement the Microsoft Unified Communications platform including MS Exchange Server 2007 and MS Office Communications Server 2007.
By implementing this solution the users gained the possibility of secure voice communication using PC - either with another PC or with a standard telephone in the public phone network. Further there is the possibility of instant messaging (chat) that is protected against potential information leak caused by the flow of messages among internal users through public Internet, the possibility to save voice messages and to send them using e-mail and to collect those messages using the MS Office Communicator 2007, mobile phone or MS Outlook. When calling from PC, users can either "dial" the phone number in a way they are used to or use the address book. The attendance service monitors whether a particular user is online, using the phone or has an appointment while taking into consideration the known items from his or her MS Outlook calendar.
The solution implementation took place in several phases. First of all, an e-mail migration for about 450 users was performed from MS Exchange 5.5 to MS Exchange 2003 and subsequently to MS Exchange 2007, for which contact synchronization with other Prague city districts was enabled using the MS Identity Integration Server (MIIS). Still within this phase, a Windows NT 4.0 domain control unit, on which the MS Exchange 5.5 was installed, was removed from the Active Directory domain. In the next phase, MS Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging and pilot implementation of the MS Office Communications Sever 2007 Front-End server were installed. Audiovisual devices, MS Office Communicator 2007 and MS LiveMeeting 2007 were installed to the first 50 user PCs.
Further the VoIP telephony and voice mail (Unified Messaging) integration was performed. At present the project is in its final phase that realizes the internal VoIP telephony connection to the public phone network using an OCS 2007 Medation server and the mediagate and VoIP telephony available on the Internet including implementation of the instant messaging communication into the Internet using OCS 2007 - 4 - Edge server. User transition to MS Office 2007 is planned as a follow-up activity.

Benefits

The implementation of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and MS Exchange Server 2007 provided users with more efficient administrative and decision-making communication possibilities and it also improved the efficiency of communicating with public. It leads the way to higher efficiency of administrative processes. MS Exchange 2007 implementation has an immediate impact – it provides users with bigger mailboxes and higher computing performance for e-mail processing. Prague 4 City District obtained a robust communication system based on the newest technologies.

Quotation

"Microsoft Office Communications Sever 2007 will improve the office’s Internet accessibility and our communication with the public using their favorite Internet technologies. Through its implementation we have verified that it works very well as a internal means of communication within a common company infrastructure."
Ing. Miroslav Urban
Head of the Prague 4 City District IT department

Situation

The Ministry of agriculture of the Czech Republic manages the agricultural branch within the Czech Republic and in relation to the EU. Headquarters of the organization is located in Prague Těšnov where about one third of the users work. Another two thirds of workers are located in many Agencies for agriculture and countryside and Land offices all over the Czech Republic.
Electronic mail plays a crucial role in the ministry's organization. The MoA has been historically using products of the Microsoft company for the mail and domain infrastructure implementation. In the past, the electronic mail migrated from Microsoft Exchange 5.5 to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 that was implemented by the HP company in a form of two two-nod geoclusters in the Těšnov and Slezská localities. Two HP Enterprise Virtual Arrays served as a replicated disc storage facilities. The Active Directory is configured as an empty root model with three subdomains. The environment is stable, the MoA has its management contractually covered by the Telefónica O2 Czech Republic a.s. system integrator.

Business goals

Since e-mail is of vital importance for functioning of the Czech Ministry of agriculture, is was necessary for the system to be built on the best means and technologies available. The aim of the project was creating a robust centralized mailing infrastructure with above-average performance, functional equipment and comfortable mailbox sizes. The infrastructure was supposed to be resistant against a total shut-down of an entire hosting center.

Solution

The final solution can be seen in the picture - it consists of 15 servers in total. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 has been installed in a way so that each of the implemented roles, i.e. mailbox, hub transport, client access and edge transport is installed on separate servers - at least one server of each role has been installed in either of both hosting centers - Nagano and Chodov. 7 Microsoft Exchange 2007 Servers a are in NC Nagano, another 7 are in HC Chodov. The remaining server is used as a central console for Microsoft ForeFront security. Exchange 2007 Mailbox has been installed on two Single Copy clusters (SCC), each of them having four nods and two active Clustered Mailbox Server (CMS) instances. In total, the mailbox role consists of 8 servers and 4 active CMS. Each of the clusters has two nods installed in NC Nagano and two in HC Chodov - in regular operation one is always active on HC Nagano and one in HC Chodov. The databases have been saved in HP XP disc arrays on discs that are synchronously replicated between the hosting centers. In case a server with an active CMS shuts-down, a back-up node in the same hosting center is launched automatically, if an entire center shuts-down, the operation as a whole is transferred to the other center.
All the other Microsoft Exchange 2007 roles have been installed on two servers, one in each hosting center, with the servers having a balanced network load, which contributes to high accessibility. The Microsoft Exchange 2007 Client Access role has been published into the Internet using two Microsoft ISA 2006 Enterprise servers. Each of the roles has its own VLAN network defined in both hosting centers. Among those VLAN networks (and also between them and other networks) only communication on ports necessary for the Microsoft Exchange operation has been enabled. The project is in its final stage, it has been granted a top-quality cooperation from the Telefónica O2 Czech Republic a.s. integrator and the MoA ICT operators.

Benefits

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 implementation has brought a new top-quality technology in a form of a x64 platform to the Ministry of agriculture and has lifted the performance and technological ceiling especially by transferring the computing into the working memory and by reducing the load on the weakest segment of Microsoft Exchange - disc subsystem. The clustered implementation into two independent hosting centers guarantees uninterruptible email system operation even in a case of a catastrophic event, such as a fire in the building. Implementation into a network with strictly defined communication ensures a high level of network security. Microsoft ForeFront Security for Exchange antivirus system has been integrated very closely into the MS Exchange Server 2007 environment.

Quotation

„Without the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 robust implementation the communication of the Ministry of agriculture of the Czech Republic would be unthinkable.“
Pavel Sůva, Head of the ICT MoA operation