Downloads | Church Finds IT Solution in the Cloud
Case Study
In 2006 the South Pacific Division of the Seventh Day Adventist Church decided to introduce major changes to its information systems (IS) infrastructure. The Church’s IS group wanted to create a cloud computing environment to better service 14 separate administrative entities within the organisation. Its vision was to link each of the groups via a wide area network [WAN] that would deliver hosted managed services and provide more efficient network management, security and backup.
The move would increase consistency across sites, provide a greater depth of service to each arm of the organisation, and enable the offices to only pay for the services they used. However, it also required purchasing new hardware and creating a data centre environment, and success was dependent on obtaining the support of each management or board.
Keeping Close
For close to three years now the Church has been providing IS services to its administrative entities via the private cloud. The arrangement has helped to create a much more standardised and centralised environment and has made it much easier to deliver high-quality support. For the IS group, the solution has also brought more visibility to its services.
The different arms of the Church are charged for the services they use, providing more clarity on their IT costs and what services are most required. This in turn is helping to inform future IS purchasing decisions.
Tecala remains closely involved with the Church, with Pannekoek continuing to call upon the company for periodic mentoring, advice and supplementary IS skills. “The people at Tecala are very approachable. We meet with them occasionally to review ideas and opportunities,†Pannekoek concludes.
Highlights
Challenge
To create a cloud computing environment to better service 14 separate administrative entities within the organisation. Its vision was to link each of the groups via a wide area network [WAN] that would deliver hosted managed services and provide more efficient network management, security and backup.
Solution
EMC storage area network (SAN) in the data centre
IBM hosts
Smaller servers for management consoles and backups.
Switches to connect it all together
The environment is fully virtualised using VMware ESX
About SDA
The Seventh-day Adventists Church is a non-for-profit organization that can be regarded as a worldwide family of Christian believers.
The Adventist presence manifests itself in nearly every country of the globe. Administratively, the church is served through its 13 regional areas of the world.
The South Pacific Division is one of the 13 regional areas, with 55k members and 700+ separate location.
“Working in the faith-based not-for-profit space comes with unique challenges but Tecala were willing to work with us and they were capable of delivering good results. We don’t have unlimited resources and they came with an understanding of that.â€
Luke Pannekoek
