The Company

Nice Technology Limited create Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) with unparalleled realistic graphics and simulations using their in- house AliceServer Technology.

They have successfully developed their own game “Time of Defiance” as well as being commissioned to provide systems for military and security personnel training systems. More recently they have  been involved in developing “Tronji” in association with the BBC and Ragdoll. This            MMOG encourages children to participate and collaborate in an online world.

The Challenge

The key challenge that Nice Technology faced, was that they had to deliver a combination of highly creative skills with programming and development knowledge to bring their games and simulations to life. However, there were still some gaps in their technical knowledge which they needed external help delivering. These included;

• Infrastructure design
• Security
• Resilience
• Operations

The Solution  

Initially we assessed Nice Technology’s current infrastructure and their development requirements so that we could understand where the gaps existed. We also took into account the expected growth for the business for the next three years so we could plan how we could help them.

From this review we worked with the team to develop an infrastructure design that had appropriate levels of resilience that also included a disaster recovery strategy and backup plan.

Then, by working in partnership with the IT manager we were able to clearly identify the missing skill sets and provide mentoring to key individuals to transfer the essential knowledge they needed to develop their infrastructure and gaming solutions. As well as providing IT mentoring services, we also worked with the IT team to source key technologies and vendors to assist with the implementation of technologies that were required to build a robust infrastructure.

In addition, we made sure that there was full operational documentation and procedures in place that could be used by the team once we had completed the project to ensure the successful running of the environment.

 

The Quote

I can honestly say that WAXTiE do a fantastic job! We’ve been very impressed with their service and solutions. They are highly professional and a pleasure to work with. Our project was on time, on budget and a big success thanks to them.

Gary Wood,

IT Manager

 

The Organisation

Cloud2 is a dedicated healthcare solutions provider with a strong focus on providing Microsoft SharePoint solutions to the NHS and the broader health sector. They are Sharepoint consultants to the healthcare sector but they also provide the project management, the expertise, the design, the implementation, the management and the development of Sharepoint and other healthcare related services.

They have experience working with both private and public companies in this arena and are considered one of the leading authorities on implementing Microsoft SharePoint solutions for healthcare.

The Challenge

Cloud2 were experienced in delivering SharePoint implementations for their clients across the NHS and broader UK medical arena. However their clients were looking for additional services that would allow them to proactively monitor and manage the systems that had been installed to ensure they continued to run successfully.

Therefore they were looking for a partner with experience of this type of support and who understood and could meet the challenges of working within the regulations of the governmental systems. Their core challenges were:

• To provide proactive monitoring of the system that was available locally but could post the results to a central location
• To ensure that the data contained no user or patient identifiable data, was secure in transit and could not be compromised.
• To allow remote support should it be necessary if engineers were unable to make a site visit.
• To provide a standard view of each system or service to their support engineers so they could rectify any problems as quickly as possible
• That is must be easily repeatable across multiple sites

The Solution

At the start of the project we worked with Cloud2 to develop a full set of requirements and project plan to ensure that we had all the information we needed to ensure that implementation would be successful. Using this information we then developed a prototype system that could be tested fully before it was rolled out to each of the sites.

In addition, to maximise the budget available we decided to use a number of proven, open source components, including:

Nagios – An industry-standard in IT infrastructure monitoring that can provide enterprise-class monitoring of hosts, services and applications.

Cacti – A complete network graphing solution that can display data and information for complex networks with hundreds of users

OpenVPN – An open source virtual private network (VPN) program for keeping information data transfer secure between sites

Once the design was agreed, a test environment was created on a virtual server platform to simulate the connectivity, firewalling, local components, Microsoft SharePoint Server, Microsoft SQL server and Microsoft Active Directory. This was an important part of the process as it ensured that before the system was implemented at the client’s site it was running effectively and any issues had been dealt with in the test environment.  More importantly the whole process was documented so that there was a “manual” developed as the system was being built.

Once the testing was completed the support system was implemented “live” on the client’s site enabling them to monitor their systems much more effectively both locally and from a central point. More importantly it ensured that the data contained no user or patient identifiable information, was secure while being transferred and could not be compromised.

Most importantly now that the concept has been proven it has allowed Cloud2 to have a standard mechanism that they can repeat for a number of clients.

The Quote

“Martin and I worked on many projects around health sector infrastructure and N3 hosting. He has proved himself to be an outstanding engineer, forward thinking and flexible in his approach to architecting complex technical solutions and always willing to go the extra mile to deliver on time, to revisit proposals and to ensure that we could meet our client’s needs. I’m delighted to be able to forge a partnership between Cloud2 and WAXTiE” 

Simon Hudson

 

The Company

Bliss-Systems are an award winning software development and web-technology consultancy many years experience in professional software development services. Their knowledge covers the entire software development lifecycle from inception and business analysis to deployment and maintenance.

They deliver quality online-solutions, web-applications, database-solutions, desktop applications and automation software. They typically work with clients from research companies, procurement companies, laser control systems and cam systems, including Transport for London.

The Challenge

Bliss-systems is a software development house with a highly creative approach to developing solutions for their clients. Business has increased as they maximise the benefits available by integrating with the latest application servers. But the need to support legacy deployments alongside cutting edge software techniques is causing inefficiency with increased underutilised resources along with compatibly issues as multiple versions are running side by side.

An additional requirement was introduced by the necessity to provide access to the systems to contractors and staff working remotely for long periods.

The Solution

By clearly identifying changes in working practice and development requirements made possible by working in partnership with Bliss we were able to utilise virtual desktop computing as part of an overall virtualisation strategy aimed to provide improved utilisation and application compatibility through segregation.

After evaluating several manufacturers virtualisation solutions it was decided that the Microsoft platform was the most cost effective on both price/performance and supportability with their current skill set. Once all the equipment was delivered we then constructed the infrastructure using industry best practice and ensured that the platform was fully secure.

The result was the production of a resilient virtual platform that was secure, flexible and easily scalable and could be used to develop client sites and solutions. We also provided full documentation, monitoring and alerting systems so that the technical team could troubleshoot any problems or issues in the future.

Finally we have maintained a third line support contract to ensure assistance is available when required and provide additional consultancy with on going projects.

The Quote

Martin has provided high quality consultancy and technical service for us on a great number of systems. His attention to detail and unbiased approach to technology is both refreshing and cost saving. I would recommend Martin and his company to anyone looking to improve their IT systems and infrastructure whether you are small or enterprise level.

Dr Dan Donnelly

The Architecture

The infrastructure is based on a 5 node Microsoft Hyper-V R2 cluster using a Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 iSCSI SAN for shared storage and Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Services as the broker for RemoteApp and Remote desktops.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager is used to manage virtual guest commissioning, placement and operations.

External access is granted utilising Microsoft Windows Server Remote Desktop Services Web Access portal and Gateway services.

The Technology

• Microsoft Hyper-V R2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2
• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows 7
• Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Services
• Microsoft Windows Internet Information Server 6.0
• Microsoft Windows Internet Information Server 7.0
• Microsoft Windows Internet Information Server 7.5
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008
• Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
• Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 R2
• Microsoft Office 2003
• Microsoft Office 2007
• Microsoft Office 2010
• Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008