Case Studies

A selection from our portfolio...

Retail

Force 4 Chandlery were one of Richard's first customers back in 2003 and are now being managed by IT Protocol.

From humble beginnings Force 4 are now a leading distributor in the Marine Industry with over 10 sites across England and Wales. The challenge for ITP has been to manage the rapid growth which has lead to pressure on the IT resources.

With the company's operations running out of a rural location with poor comms links the warehouse systems were moved to a data centre in 2015 to improve business continuity and host a new stock and order management suite.

Lawrence Parr - Force 4's managing director is one of the driving forces behind the changes - "In 2015 we were looking to expand our distribution business but were held back by our IT systems. We have always had a strong partnership with ITP and Richard delivered the hosting platform we required to move our operations"

Microsoft Azure

One of our clients, a software company in the Westcountry, were faced with the challenge of moving their hosted web services to a new provider. With server 2012 R2 going 'End of life' and the hosting company unable to offer a package to meet the demands for future growth, IT Protocol were brought in to consult.

Following an in depth case study we presented two feasible solutions. Microsoft Azure was selected for a seamless upgrade into AAD and the option to host SQL on Azure VM for a 'lift and shift' migration.

Azure pricing can be a bit daunting so it was important to bring some fixed cost options to the table with budgetary controls to avoid unexpected surprises. We achieved this using reserved instances and Azure Hybrid benefits and then calculated the storage and backup costs. With fewer servers on the new subscription they now have more capacity to grow the business.

The servers are accessed by the technical team using a custom RDS solution with MFA. The project is well under way and the old servers are due to be retired over the summer. ITP continues to provide support with help from our channel partners and Microsoft.

Hospitality

Syon Park, in West london, host events and weddings across their 200 acre estate. The house is a listed building, built in the 16th Century.

IT Protocol were tasked with updating the internet and comms links to improve the speed and reliability with future growth in mind.

A complete overhaul was required and the project was split into 4 or 5 phases. As well as managing the contractors, external service providers and liaising with the management team we brought in new fibre links and a redundant network solution within the grounds to improve performance and reliability.

The end result is a fully operational 1Gb Fibre service available to the business with scope to extend internet and WiFi anywhere on the estate.

Update: Since the project was signed off in 2017 the 1Gb leased line has provided reliable connectivity for numerous events, small and large. In 2024 we are still extending the coverage across the site.

Sharepoint

Our London based client have a mobile workforce and required a storage solution for their office staff and project managers to access data from anywhere 24/7. The old server was approaching 'End of Life' so it was agreed to migrate all the corporate data into OneDrive and SharePoint. SharePoint is the perfect partner for the project team, allowing them to communicate with each other and directly with customers whilst maintaining control over the content.

Of course the data and email still needs to be backed using Veeam 365 and our reliable storage provider.

Hardware

IT Protocol are always happy to source and install hardware solutions for our customers. In 2022 we were asked to supply a pair of Dell Poweredge servers and an EMC storage array by an overseas client. The hardware was sourced, built and tested in our Woking office in preparation for delivery to Barcelona.

It was decided that due to the high value of goods we would arrange all the customs procedures ourselves (with a little help from a broker) and deliver the kit directly to Spain.

Manufacturing

In 2017 our Oxfordshire based client needed to roll out a program of infrastructure changes to modernise and improve business continuity for a mobile workforce. One of the key objectives set out by the client was to bring a hosted Citrix platform back "in-house" using a secure remote access platform.

IT Protocol set about the task of moving the infrastructure from Microsoft Hyper V to VMWare on 2 new hosts with a 3rd host providing backup in a data centre.

With the network platform secured and easier to manage the IT department were able to quickly deploy new servers and extend the infrastructure into all areas of the business.

Since the initial engagement ITP have helped the company to deploy a new network infrastructure, set up an RDS solution, provided new high availability firewalls to 2 sites, set up a secure data vault, improved the wireless network services and integrated other sites within the business.

Who we work with