Puffin Produce
Puffin had a number of IT infrastructure issues that needed resolving during an initial project in early 2016. We now provide system maintenance and upgrades via a IT Support contract.
Requirements: IP remap, Improve Server Stability & Performance, Email Security and Disaster Recovery
Location: Puffin Produce Ltd, Withybush, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, SA62 4BS
Website: www.puffinproduce.com
“Puffin is a growing business supplying fresh produce to the major retailers in Wales, with an ever increasing reliance on IT to carry out daily operations from receipt of raw material through to the dispatching of finished products. It is vitally important that we have the highest level of support from our IT provider to ensure we meet our customer’s orders everyday as non-supply is quite simply not an option! Mike and the team at 5C services have become an integral part of the continued growth of the Puffin business, providing the IT advice and expertise to meet the every changing needs of the company. We are extremely grateful for their guidance from an IT perspective and would not hesitate to recommend them to someone else.”
Brief
- Resolve initial infrastructure issues
- Lack of IP addressing for the site
- Unsuitable ranges
- Slow performance
- Unstable virtual servers
- Provide email continuity and site wide security
- Provide on-going IT Support
Our Solution
After initial discussions with Puffin Produce it was evident they were not seeing the benefits of recent IT upgrades and were frustrated with an ongoing list of issues preventing the IT infrastructure to grow with the vision of the company.
We broke the list down into projects identifying the most critical requirements and then presented solutions, costing’s and benefits for each.
With full planning, including a requirement for out of hours work, their IP range was extended from their existing limited range to an expandable future proof subnet. All devices, 3rd Parties and Infrastructure was re-configured with temporary route sets, ensuring minimal downtime for office staff and production.
The frequently crashing SAN and Hyper-V setup was upgraded, new Servers configured and roles applied. Their emergency support calls had gone from almost every weekend to none seeing a real ROI.
As part of the upgrade process it was identified that the current WatchGuard firewall was misconfigured. Incorrect & contradicting rules were removed and tidied, improving perimeter security. Server and endpoint antivirus was installed and configured providing a centrally managed system. Hosted Email Security was put in place providing another layer of defence and a continuity setup was put in place in the event of email server/connectivity loss.
We now provide Puffin Produce’s ongoing IT support with the response time they require as well as calling upon us as a strategic partner to assist driving the business forward.