Their biggest security risk ran the whole business. Retiring it took under an hour of downtime.
A Campbellfield sign manufacturer, moved from one ageing server to cloud sign-ins and fast local CAD storage, with nothing left to be on edge about.
One server, every file, no safety net.
Citywide Signs and Neon are sign writers and manufacturers in Campbellfield, in Melbourne's north: 15 staff on a single site. Every sign they make starts life as a CAD file. And every one of those files, along with staff sign-ins and the plumbing of the network itself, lived on one ageing small-business server in the corner of the office.
That server was past its supported life, which made it a genuine security risk. There was no safe way for anyone to get to their files from outside the building. And it was a single point of failure for the whole company: every time the power went out, or the server needed a reboot, the office held its breath waiting to see if it would come back.
It was a disaster waiting to happen. The question wasn't if, but when.
Not a newer server. No server.
The fix wasn't a replacement server. It was no server at all, with each job moved to the tool built for it:
- Sign-ins moved to the cloud (Microsoft Entra ID), so workstations no longer depend on an in-office server to log in and be managed
- Each person's documents moved to Microsoft 365 (SharePoint and OneDrive), available securely on any device
- A dedicated Synology NAS now hosts the CAD files: purpose-built storage that keeps the big production files fast on the local network, with far less to attack than a full ageing server
- Remote access through OneDrive and Synology Drive, so staff reach what they need securely from anywhere
- Real protection: the NAS keeps duplicate copies of everything across separate drives (RAID 10), and the whole thing is backed up to the cloud on top
- Then we switched the old server off. For good. Total downtime for the entire cutover: under one hour
Switched off for good. Nothing to hold your breath for.
- The old server is gone, decommissioned with under an hour of downtime for the whole changeover
- Staff can now work remotely and securely, which was impossible before
- Files are faster, with the heavy CAD work on dedicated local storage instead of a struggling old server
- CAD files are double-protected: duplicate copies across drives on-site, plus cloud backup, so a failed drive doesn't lose a file or stop production
- Sign-ins and workstations are managed in the cloud with modern security
- And nobody holds their breath when the power flickers any more
Every time the power went out, we were on edge wondering if the server would come back. We don't think about it any more.
Got an old server in the corner that everything depends on?
The answer isn't always a new server. Sometimes it's no server at all. Book a free assessment and in about 30 minutes we'll show you what your options really look like.