Project Name
AWS accelerate – Configuration of business services to allow staff to operate from home where necessary.
Client
A Client requires staff to have remote working capacity should the need arise. This requires moving the phone systems to VOIP and migrating computers and servers to the cloud. Once complete the staff now have the capacity to work from anywhere via Amazon workspaces.
ILB staff arrived after hours, picked up servers and took offsite ready for fast migration. Another staff member installed the workspaces client on all workstations ready for the morning of working in the cloud. The next morning, Staff could login to workspaces accessing the data that was on the server (including a SQL server based application that was migrated to an EC2 instance). They can then, after some basic training, work from anywhere with the same access to the data and systems that they had in the office. Some took their workstations home to work on and others started to use thin clients we provided.
Phones were moved to soft phones inside workspaces, and simple diversions on the phone line allowed immediate access to phones while working remotely. We will schedule the number ports to save the company the diversion costs shortly.
Future work could include moving to RDS for better fault tolerance, however the main requirement was to allow staff to work from remote locations.
Cloud solution
- By moving the server to AWS EC2, and all workstations to AWS Workspaces, we create a far more robust and flexible infrastructure that can be operated from home if and when required.
- The server size is instantly scaleable to suit the changing needs of the business in the current challenging environment.
- Each workspace is accessible via the users current workstations so there is no outlay for new equipment.
- With a simple VPN solution, printing to either location is simple.
Cost breakdown
- Server Move – $1100 including setting up SQL server express on EC2 and doing a database migration. Included AD replication from old server.
- Server hosting & workspace cost per month $118 per workspace approx
- VOIP phone costs per month – $11 per extension
- Workspace setup $165 per workspace approx
- VPN setup $220
- Misc configuration and setting up apps $220
Total time to complete migration
3 days including training
AWS Services used
VPC, EC2, Route53, Workspaces, Directory services