Key Technologies:

• Avaya Unified Communications
• Data Centre Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure
• Office 365 Cloud Services

3Bridges Community is a community services organisation located in Carss Park, Penshurst, Arncliffe and Menai. 3Bridges provides services to the local community through their team of staff as well as their locations in the South of Sydney.

The Merger

The 3Bridges Community was founded in 2014 through a merger of three community services organisations: Keystone Community Solutions, Pole Depot and Menai Community Services. The merger resulted in the need for a significant overhaul of the IT infrastructure to provide interoperability between the offices as well as room for future growth.

The Solution

3Bridges commissioned Apek to design and implement a cloud based IT infrastructure solution to suit the needs of the newly merged organisation. This solution needed to provide a reliable, cost effective, scalable and consistent system for users throughout 3Bridges’ eight sites. A custom Hybrid Private Cloud solution was designed and engineered for 3Bridges which involved server hosting at Apek’s Tier III datacentre facility in Sydney’s CBD and Pubic cloud email hosting from Microsoft’s Office 365 Hosted Exchange.

3Bridges uses Microsoft’s Windows Remote Desktop Services (RDS) for organisation-wide computing which provides users a centralised virtual desktop session through an internet connection. This model is well suited to 3Bridges as it allows multiple sites to connect to a centralised shared IT resource thereby increasing local PC autonomy, reducing hardware investment costs, promoting mobility, standardise software versions, and increase productivity.

Conclusion

The project was successfully completed with over 120 users utilising the new shared IT infrastructure daily. It has allowed for greater efficiencies by allowing users to access a consistent desktop environment regardless of the 3Bridges office they are at.