Expert IT back up and Microsoft services

The project at a glance

Who: UAP Ltd – a locksmith and leading UK door hardware supplier
Where: Manchester headquarters with sites in several geographical locations including Newcastle, Birmingham and China
The team: 73 staff across 4 offices with a combination of on site and remote workers
Turnover: 13 million

Requirement:

  • Off-site back up through the 101 Digital Solutions, ultra-secure data centre
  • Two high-performance rack servers
  • Refurbished, enterprise-grade hardware (HPE 3PAR SAN All-Flash)
  • 200 MB dedicated leased line for ultra-fast internet speeds

UAP’s IT need

UAP are a successful and fast-growing small-business retailer. The business acquired several new sites when expanding their locksmith services and the company needed to update its IT infrastructure to support its ongoing growth.

Over a two-year period the team went from 30 staff to more than 70. The business needed more disk space and bandwidth to cope with the amount of traffic on the network. Servers were maxed out with the amount of data stored for processing orders. It became clear that UAP needed a safe pair of hands to advise on the best IT options to support its ambitious expansion plans and small business budget.

Why they chose 101 Digital Solutions

We have an ongoing relationship to provide IT support to UAP. Like many of our customers, they choose 101 Digital Solutions because they can trust us to keep their systems up and running and they value the knowledge of our team of 101 engineers.

The 101 solution

We were able to provide UAP with the robust and highly cost-effective solution they needed with a combination of three on and off-site back up servers. These enable the business to handle vast amounts of data efficiently and securely from their accounting and order processing systems, Sage and Order Wise. Our solution features:

  • Off-site back-up through 101 Digital Solutions’ own data centre. This gives UAP peace of mind that their customer data is always secure yet easily accessible to authorised personnel.
  • Two new high-performance rack servers ensure a reliable, always-on resource to run programmes and cope with network demand.
  • Refurbished, enterprise-grade hardware (HPE 3PAR SAN All-Flash) enables us to offer a cost-effective, small-business solution normally only available to for large corporate environments and includes the same three-year warrantee.
  • 200 MB lease line internet connection provides a dedicated, ultra-fast internet connection which is ideal for a growing, bandwidth-hungry business sending and receiving large amounts of data.
  • Our solution means that UAP’s office, travelling sales staff and a growing network of remote home workers alike can log in to the back-office and order processing systems from anywhere in the world including their different sites in the UK and China

Next steps and successes

Following the success of this project, we have continued to provide ongoing regular maintenance services to UAP. This includes supplying:

  • The complete Microsoft suite: Windows Server, Remote Desktop Client Access Licenses (CALS) and Microsoft 365.
  • VEEAM for best-in-class back-up
  • Security software and services including patch management, anti-virus and hardware firewalls

Having completed the job in February 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic, the project enabled sales staff to process orders and to carry on operating during this challenging period. It has also given them the future proofed infrastructure they need as they continue to expand in the UK and beyond.