Palma Group a.s. – Migration to MS Exchange and AD Services

Example

PALMA Group a.s. used a Qmail-based e-mail solution run for the Linux operating system. This solution did not cover the entire scope of required services and functionalities for employee communication or business communication within a group. Operating systems and application updates were performed individually, according to the requirements of individual devices. Another reason why the e-mail solution was replaced was the need to unify the applications and operating systems using a Microsoft products platform. Part of the implementation is hardware infrastructure, intended to fulfil future requirements as well.
Business goals (500 characters maximum)
The goal of MS Exchange 2007 and MS Active Directory implementation was to increase productivity by introducing calendar services, e-mail access from anywhere, including PDA access. Another significant improvement of the implementation was the increase of application security thanks to application firewall implementation. The customer also required the ability to update the operating systems and applications periodically, which would make the whole system more secure and system management more efficient.

Business goals

Solution

MS Exchange 2007 implementation in PALMA Group a.s. consisted of the following steps:

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) are necessary for Microsoft Exchange functionality. Since the company had not implemented them, the project also consisted of installing appropriate domain controllers and creating a new AD forest. From the point of view of redundancy, two domain controllers, providing the basic infrastructure services, were installed – DNS, DHCO and WINS.
All affiliated companies have a copy of Active Directory database, set to read only (RODC). This reduced the need for bandwidth between the affiliated and the central offices. All authentication requirements of the users from the affiliate company are serviced by the local domain controller. In case of its failure, requests are automatically redirected to one of the central servers. Operations that need to be written into Active Directory database (e.g., password changes) are automatically redirected to domain controllers in the central company, from where they are replicated to all AD databases within the domain.

Another AD DS implementation advantages are:

• Single Sign On – the user signs on to a computer only once. Access to other resources is automatically enabled by resending sign-on credentials in the background
• Group policies – group policies can be used to automatically and repeatedly request required computer and user account settings.
• Automatic programme and updates installation – another group policy functionality that can be applied to a computer or a user

One of the most important IT administrator tasks in a business environment is to regularly update the operating systems and applications and to install security patches or new versions. Microsoft WSUS greatly simplifies this process and adds automation, together with a clear and simple status report functionality.

MS ISA 2006 firewall secures the internal network and fulfils the following tasks:

• Protection against external and internal web threats
• Secure internal content publishing for remote access
• Secure Exchange services publishing

Advantages

Microsoft Exchange 2007 and AD service implementation has brought, apart from product unification on a Microsoft platform, the following advantages:

• Universal inbox access
• Outlook Web Access – access through web interface
• Outlook Anywhere – access from MS Outlook client via RPC over HTTPS protocol
• ActiveSync – access via compatible mobile devices (PDA, 3G phones, iPhone, etc.)
• Calendar functions – fully functional calendar with the ability to share, universal access, shared calendar services for different tasks (e.g., rooms calendar, vehicle calendar, etc.)
• More efficient operating systems and application management
• Higher security

Products and Technologies

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
• Microsoft ISA Server 2006
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Case study can be downloaded from HERE