CC Compact Cleaning GmbH All-inclusive solution from the A1 data center with Univention Corporate Server for CC Compact Cleaning GmbH, with support of Siedl Networks

Starting Point

The existing IT infrastructure had become slightly outdated and was mainly missing a central point of administration. On top of that, the company was looking for a professional service provider that would take care of administration and support.

Requirements

CC Compact Cleaning was looking for a modern and flexible solution, location-independent, failsafe, and scalable. The company wanted to connect three different locations in Austria and outsource the entire administration. All company data was to be transferred from an existing server to a server in the A1 data center without disrupting ongoing operations. It was also necessary to replace the hardware in Graz, Vienna and Linz, including notebooks, printers, and network components (firewalls, switches and WLAN).
The new solution required a central identity management as well as a central file server for the employees’ data and a file sharing solution. Also, the company wanted to connect the existing Office365 via single sign-on (SSO), include a virus scanner, a backup and a monitoring software. CC Compact Cleaning was looking for an IT service provider who would install and configure the new IT infrastructure in the data centers as well as on-premises. Finally, they decided to go with A1 – IT in a Box.

Solution: A1 – IT in a Box with Univention Corporate Server in the A1 Data Center

A1 – IT in a Box was designed by the Austrian telecommunications provider A1 as an “all-inclusive package” for small and medium-sized companies. In addition to simple data management and backup solutions, the offer includes enterprise business server software including e-mail and collaboration as well as the integration of Windows servers. Also available are geo-redundant data center services such as virtual data center and cloud storage.
Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is the underlying technical platform. As identity and access management, UCS takes care of the central administration of users and their access rights to resources and applications. The integrated Univention App Center connects numerous apps such as Kopano, Nextcloud, OnlyOffice etc. The cloud services are GDPR-compliant as the data gets stored in Austria (in the A1 data center). Local IT partners provide a “single point of contact” for migration, operation and hotline.

Project Course

The experts from Siedl Networks and A1 developed a plan for the acquisition of new hardware and the data transfer to the new server. The main challenge was the tight schedule: everything had to be completed within four months. After a rather short planning phase in March 2019, CC Compact Cleaning GmbH placed the order in mid-April, and the technicians had until the end of April to prepare the setup in the A1 data center. In mid-May, the employees’ notebooks were set up and the roll-out began at the beginning of June, first in Graz, then in Vienna and Linz. The data migration took place in mid-June, and productive operations started the following week.
Univention Corporate Server with its integrated OpenLDAP directory service and the Univention App Center is the main component in the A1 data center. Around 40 notebooks at various locations have been integrated. A central file sharing solution with Nextcloud and a Windows server for e-banking are available for all users in the UCS domain. SEP sesam handles the backups and Checkmk is implemented as a monitoring solution. Additionally, there is a central virus protection with IKARUS anti.virus. Office365 is available via single sign-on for all users in the UCS domain.

Conclusion

Despite the tight schedule, the data transfer to the A1 computer centre and the provision of new hardware in Graz, Vienna and Linz was successful. Thanks to A1 ­ IT in a Box, CC Compact Cleaning GmbH did not have to pay for the server infrastructure itself. If necessary, the available resources can easily be expanded. All employees benefit from the single sign-on mechanism – users simply authenticate once and then have access to all apps and data in the UCS domain. The cooperation with Siedl Networks and A1 has been successful and CC Compact Cleaning is ready to connect further branches in Austria.

About Siedl Networks GmbH

Siedl Networks is a technology company based in Krems an der Donau, Austria, and has been providing IT services for companies, schools and non-profit organizations since 2002. The company specializes in Enterprise Open Source systems, including installation, configuration and maintenance/administration.