Customer Overview
The Department of State Development and Infrastructure Planning (DSDIP) plays a critical role in leading a state-wide, coordinated approach to infrastructure, planning and development whilst ensuring a sustainable future for Queensland communities.
The Department of Local Government, Community Recovery and Resilience (DLGCRR) is responsible for overseeing the legislative framework in which local governments operate and enhance community recovery and future resilience.
Business Situation
The Department of State Development and Infrastructure Planning was using an externally hosted Microsoft Exchange 2003 environment for their email. This environment was built on aging physical hardware and had approached Microsoft’s end of life support.
Aside from the need to provide a supported environment for departmental email, strategies defined in the Queensland Government ICT Strategy 2013-17 and the Queensland Commission of Audit (2013), required the department to adopt a new approach to ICT, with key examples including cloud computing, cloud email and ICT-as-a-service.
The integration of Microsoft Exchange Online as the new email platform addressed some of the Agency and Government programs and strategies, as a result.
Solution
Kloud provided the department with a hybrid Exchange 2010/Office 365 environment, which enabled mailboxes to be moved from Exchange 2003, via Exchange 2010 onto Office 365. Proper planning of mailbox moves allowed for minimal interruption to the business and end users.
Using the hybrid setup with Exchange 2010 also enabled Kloud to implement a process for merging existing PSTs into the centralised email solution. By doing this not only was the organisation’s PST footprint significantly reduced, but the content of the PSTs were now open for new features like eDiscovery. Any additional remediation activities were also performed or coordinated by Kloud.
Benefits
- Provide a full-featured enterprise messaging platform.
- Delivery of email services in the cloud, creating an easier to manage environment with improved reliability and availability.
- New features and capabilities can be added without the need to physically upgrade on-premises infrastructure.
- Easy email delivery across PC, phone, and browser.
- Reduce IT administration burden as there is no longer a requirement for server maintenance.
- PST migrations allowed for freeing up disk space and eliminating support calls for PST related issues.
I was very impressed with the professionalism, expertise and responsiveness which Kloud provided during our complex yet successful transition from Exchange 2003 to Office 365. The overall transition was delivered with minimal impact to daily business operations, which is a credit to all involved on the email migration project. – Mark Cushing, Chief Information Officer, Department of State Development and Infrastructure Planning