Grünenfelder breaks away from its old provider. And builds its own hybrid cloud.
How the Graubünden-based engineering company built a hybrid cloud infrastructure for four sites together with Baggenstos in just a few months – on schedule, under budget and without any operational downtime.
Customer profile
The long-established engineering and planning company Grünenfelder & Partner was founded in 1921. Guided by the principle "Precision in all dimensions", tailor-made, high-quality solutions are developed for clients. The company's headquarters are located in Donath/Ems in the canton of Graubünden. Two further branches are located in Cazis and Lenzerheide. The group employs 60 people. Its main areas of work include geomatics, civil engineering, engineering surveying, 3D mapping, monitoring, infrastructure management and GIS, spatial planning and land management as well as mountain railway surveying.
Hybrid cloud solution for backend services
Grünenfelder & Partner AG sourced its IT services, infrastructure and managed GIS services from its IT partner Geocloud. Since Geocloud was going to focus on GIS services in the future, a new solution had to be found for its IT backend services. Together with Grünenfelder & Partner, we designed an innovative hybrid cloud concept with the goal of replacing, by an explicit deadline, all the backend services previously sourced from Geocloud.
Successful migration during ongoing operations
In the course of the project, servers, network, clients and business applications were migrated to the new hybrid cloud solution without disrupting ongoing operations. Our managed service Operation Care ensures worry-free operation and the continuous further development of the new IT infrastructure at a fixed price. Grünenfelder & Partner now has a lean, efficient and scalable cloud architecture and, thanks to Operation Care, can focus entirely on its core business.
Ivo Schätti, head of the engineering surveying and land management department and chair of the management board, gives consistently positive feedback: "With the new solution we have become considerably more flexible and independent. Our applications and data are now available everywhere, which greatly simplifies the daily collaboration between employees, clients and business partners. What impressed me most was the tight scheduling and cost management by project lead Sven Heeb and his team throughout the project phase."
Facts and Figures
Starting point and objective
Grünenfelder & Partner AG sourced its IT services, infrastructure and managed GIS services from its IT partner Geocloud. Since Geocloud was going to focus on GIS services in the future, a new solution had to be found for its IT backend services. Together with Grünenfelder & Partner, we designed an innovative hybrid cloud concept with the goal of replacing, by an explicit deadline, all the backend services previously sourced from Geocloud.
Solution
In a service analysis, all the services used by Grünenfelder & Partner and its Ticino subsidiary Studio Meier were analysed. The goal was to deliver the existing backend services in the cloud wherever possible via SaaS, PaaS or IaaS . The existing workplace was also part of the new solution.
Almost all existing services could be replaced by a cloud solution. The exceptions were the existing Synology NAS and the recently purchased telephone system. The volumes of data processed on the NAS would have caused unnecessary costs compared to a cloud storage approach. However, by migrating part of the data to Microsoft Teams and OneDrive, the dependency on the NAS could be significantly reduced. Since the telephony solution had only been purchased a year earlier, management decided to keep the existing system for the time being. The groundwork for telephony with Microsoft Teams and Direct Routing has, however, already been laid.
The backup and services such as Active Directory, print as well as application and licence servers could be mapped and successfully migrated via IaaS in Microsoft Azure.
Likewise, the network components for WAN, WLAN, VLAN and LAN were replaced with the latest products from HPE and Aruba.
Finally, as part of the client project, the existing workplaces were migrated towards a Modern Workplace and are now managed and monitored with Microsoft Intune for maximum security and reliability.
Results
The migrations of tenants, network, clients as well as business applications and infrastructure were carried out practically without any disruption to ongoing operations, at lower costs than budgeted and on the required date. The feedback from management and employees was consistently positive, and everyone regards the new solution as genuine progress.
Grünenfelder & Partner now has a lean, efficient and optimised hybrid cloud infrastructure that runs reliably thanks to our managed service Operation Care and is continuously developed further.
Challenges
The project involved a number of challenges to overcome:
- Complexity due to the integration of Geocloud's managed GIS service and existing dependencies on the managed GIS service and the licence server from BSF SwissFoto
- Network switchover with a "big bang" across all sites
- Departure of the IT manager during the project
But thanks to dedicated effort and the strong expertise of everyone involved in the project, these hurdles could be cleared and the project successfully completed.
Key figures and products used
- 4 sites (Ems, Cazis, Lenzerheide, Minusio), 60 employees
- Microsoft Teams as the collaboration platform, OneDrive as a personal drive, SharePoint for the intranet, Microsoft 365
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for secure access to applications and data
- Skykick as the Microsoft 365 backup solution
- Intune for endpoint management
- Azure File Storage as a drive-mapping solution for data
- Azure VPN for secure and fast remote access to all services
Many thanks for the great collaboration
We would like to express our sincere thanks for the excellent collaboration with everyone involved in the project.
We are delighted that, with the hybrid cloud solution and our Operation Care managed service, we were able to contribute to the business success of Grünenfelder & Partner, and we look forward to a successful and partnership-based collaboration in the future.
With the new solution, we have become significantly more flexible and independent. Our applications and data are now available everywhere, which greatly simplifies day-to-day collaboration between employees, customers and business partners. I was particularly impressed by the tight scheduling and cost management by project manager Sven Heeb and his team during the project phase.
Ivo Schätti
Head of Engineering Surveying and Land Management, Chair of the Executive Board, Grünenfelder & Partner AG
About
Industry & size
The long-established engineering and planning company Grünenfelder & Partner was founded in 1921. Guided by the principle «Precision in all dimensions», 60 employees at four sites in the canton of Graubünden and in Ticino develop tailor-made solutions in geomatics, civil engineering and spatial planning.
Core business
Geomatics, engineering surveying, 3D mapping, monitoring, infrastructure management, GIS, spatial planning, land management and mountain railway surveying. This also includes the Ticino subsidiary Studio Meier, which is integrated into the IT infrastructure.
Special feature
Grünenfelder sourced its IT services, infrastructure and managed GIS services from Geocloud. When Geocloud focused on GIS services, a new solution had to be found for all IT backend services – with a fixed deadline of 1 July 2021.
IT environment
Four sites with 60 employees, Microsoft Teams and OneDrive as the collaboration platform, Azure File Storage for project data, Intune for endpoint management and Azure VPN for secure remote access. The telephony solution was kept for the time being – but the groundwork for Teams Direct Routing has already been laid.
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