Client: PFU

OVERVIEW

PFU (EMEA) chose Sota as their IT partner following an extensive review of their production IT environment. The company established that outsourcing to a quality provider of IT managed services would provide the peace of mind required to deliver business-critical projects, including migration to a new cloud platform. As a result of the review, PFU (EMEA) decided to migrate to SotaCloud with the objective of achieving enhanced performance, reliability and security.

BACKGROUND

PFU is a specialist company that’s dedicated to information management solutions. Offering advanced technology, intelligent software and consultancy services; that has made PFU the partner of choice for the world’s most ambitious organisations. So, whether it’s document management solutions, bringing galleries online, or small format keyboards for coders, we are committed to enabling the world’s flow of knowledge.

Placing significant importance on advanced, modern technology, PFU (EMEA) upheld the same values and standards when selecting an information technology business to partner with. Establishing a strong business relationship with Sota was a natural result of this philosophy.

CHALLENGE

PFU (EMEA) were looking to improve their back-end infrastructure by implementing a VMware-based private cloud environment. It was decided that an externally sourced professional consultancy service was the best approach to identifying and resolving the issues with the VMware build. Sota Infrastructure Consultants were deployed to carry out this task, and successfully rose to the challenge, resulting in the desired outcome on time and within budget.

A review of the PFU (EMEA) production IT environment, linked to a wider office relocation project, was also required, and Sota was also appointed to this task. This was embraced as a due diligence professional services project associated with the transition of on premise infrastructure to a new hosted environment.

SOLUTION

After the initial problem-solving consultancy engagement, PFU (EMEA) appointed Sota to deliver this complex migration project. Delivery of this project, and subsequent projects, required close collaboration between PFU (EMEA), Sota and numerous third parties to ensure a successful outcome.

A fast, dedicated, Ethernet service was implemented between the PFU (EMEA) network and the Sota 810 datacentre, and a planned, and carefully orchestrated, migration to SotaCloud was executed ahead of schedule, overcoming the challenges of the Covid-19 lockdown.

PFU (EMEA) hardware was subsequently relocated to the datacentre, and the infrastructure transitioned from loan equipment provided by Sota. During this transition, PFU (EMEA) identified quantifiable improvements in system performance and stability, leading to an acceleration in plans to migrate more PFU (EMEA) infrastructure to the SotaCloud platform.

Sota was appointed to provide 24/7 technical support of the PFU (EMEA) local area network infrastructure, and as long-standing issues were resolved by the Sota technical team, the footprint of the SotaSupport managed service was soon extended to include the EMEA WAN.

The methodology deployed meant that PFU (EMEA) and Sota always defined and agreed the key objectives and success criteria required before progressing to each stage of a project. For each stage of engagement a formal project process was employed, including:

  • Project initiation documentation
  • Risk assessment and management
  • Professional project management and resource planning
  • Information security framework with full ISO-27001 compliance

RESULT

A productive and professional working partnership between PFU (EMEA) and Sota led to a challenging VMware platform becoming more stable and performant, with a subsequent successful migration to SotaCloud. Legacy hardware was also decommissioned in compliance with ISO-27001 equipment disposal procedures, ISO-14001 environmental processes, and WEEE recycling requirements.