TEXPO

Data Centre Expansion & System Installation for AK Design

AK Design is a professional architectural design services organisation that seeks to provide international standard services its client base in Dubai. As part of its growth plans, AK Design needed to relocate their data centre from the existing premises to the new office location as part of its initiatives to separate their IT services from the principle company AL MOJIL. One of the key objectives was to have a completely new and independent data centre to serve the business with scalable services that included in-house emails, domain controllers, file & print facilities, etc. 

With the expansion of the business, investing in the right IT infrastructure became very critical for AKD. Since TEXPO was already working with AKD to manage the server and desktop environment, the partnership was leveraged to perform a seamless relocation of the data centre for their existing premise to the new location, with minimum downtime. 

“TEXPO is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and holds the major competencies in the domain of Advanced Infrastructure Solution, Network Solution & Security Solution. Companies today are concerned about cutting down capital expenditure (CAPEX) and focus on operational expenditure (OPEX). By working with us, AKD was able to plan ahead and focus on their key business areas and expertise. The company was able to save on resources required to manage their IT infrastructure,” said Dr Sarfaraz Alam, CEO, TEXPO. 

Business requirements:

After detailed discussions with the AKD team, TEXPO mapped out the complete requirements for IT equipment and services necessary to perform a seamless relocation of their data centre to the new location which included the following steps:

• Seamless relocation of their data centre from existing office premises to the new location
• Complete utilisation of the existing IT network equipment mounted in the server room
• Creating new arrangements for Fibre-to-the-office (FTO) at the new location Investing in the right IT equipment 
• Reducing the high cost of maintaining and running Microsoft Exchange within premises
• IT network being able to handle the increasing number of employees 

Services delivered:

As part of the data centre project, TEXPO provided the following services for AKD: 

• Re-configuration of servers
• Re-sequencing of IP’s as per the new IP conventions
• Re-configuration of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 implementation
• Prepare Active Directory for MS Exchange 2007 as per new setup
• Deploy Exchange 2007 hub transport and client access server 
• Deploy Exchange 2007 CCR mailbox
• Re-configuration of networking equipment
• Client side user desktops/laptops migration
• Migration of clients onto the new infrastructure
• IT hardware and network equipment locations
• Dismantling and packing of IT equipment from racks including servers and packing them in carton boxes
• Packing of individual desktops/ laptops/ PABX  in carton boxes
• Relocation & unpacking of the boxes from the existing location to the new office onto the users desks