NBRS & Partners

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“Huon IT took our IT problems right out of our hands. They provided a highly functional, stable and robust system and implemented it perfectly, with no interruption to our operations. Why on earth didn’t we do this sooner?”

Trevor Eveleigh

Associate Director at NBRS & Partners

Industry:

NBRS & Partners is a Sydney based architectural and design firm internationally recognised for designing contemporary, functional spaces that enrich their clients’ lives. However, NBRS & Partners IT required attention as it was hindering workflow efficiency – their operating systems simply weren’t keeping up. Huon IT provided a highly successful overhaul of their entire IT infrastructure, with no disruption to the day-to-day operations of the firm.

Challenge:

The firm’s operating system was unreliable and nearing end-of-life, creating critical workflow bottlenecks—particularly within their vital Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems. The risk was compounded by a lack of unified backups and a reliance on standalone physical servers with no failover protection. Furthermore, the burden of troubleshooting these issues fell upon a senior architect, distracting key talent from their core design responsibilities.

Solution:

Huon IT executed a seamless, on-premise infrastructure overhaul with zero unplanned downtime. They transitioned the firm to a virtualised environment using HP Host Servers and VMware vSphere for high availability. To tackle speed issues, a hybrid flash Nimble Storage SAN and Extreme Network switches were deployed, slashing file transaction times by over 90%. The solution was secured with a unified Veeam backup strategy and is now maintained through a fixed-fee managed service partnership.

Key Results

30%

improvement in project loading times

>90%

reduction in file transaction times thanks to the new network switches

IT Systems For a New Era

Engaging expert technology firm, Huon IT, NBRS & Partners reviewed both Cloud and on-premise solutions, and decided that on-premise would be the best fit. Huon refreshed the firm’s entire infrastructure, implementing a more resilient and efficient operating system. NBRS & Partners were also operating on outdated software, so Huon IT brought their licensing up to the current standard. And throughout, Huon handled quality assurance across the entire project.

Their story

Long established and highly respected design practice, NBRS & Partners were in need of an IT upgrade. The operating system was slow, unreliable and ‘beginning to limit what we could do’ according to Associate Compliance & Sustainability Manager, Trevor Eveleigh.

The challenges

The operating system was slow, unreliable and ‘beginning to limit what we could do’ according to Associate Compliance & Sustainability Manager, Trevor Eveleigh. Particularly critical was a bottleneck workflow issue in their vital CAD (Computer Aided Design) system.

To make matters worse, the burden of IT support fell on the firm’s architect in charge of IT, Desmond Chu. ‘We needed a complete systems upgrade and to radically improve our data transfer and information storage.’

So began the search for a system that enhanced, not hindered, NBRS & Partners work flow and productivity as well as a partner to provide ongoing expert IT support into the future.

The solution

HP DL360 Host Servers. NBRS & Partners had been operating on individual physical servers with little protection against failure. After the update, this HP server became the ‘brains’ to run the virtualised environment, allowing for resiliency in the structure. It also meant a major gain in server capacity, whilst reducing it’s physical foot-print on-site.
VMware vSphere 5.5 provided the virtualisation layer, allowing ease of management & greater fault tolerance.
Nimble Storage CS215. Nimble was chosen to resolve the issue of a bottleneck in the disc speed performance. This hybrid flash SAN provided the right balance of performance versus budget.
Upgrade to Windows Server 2012. The Windows server was coming to end of life so the upgrade addressed compliance issues and allowed greater flexibility & features to service their demanding data set & workload requirements.
Extreme Network Switches. Huon IT recommended ‘Summit’ switches by Extreme Networks to increase performance and security. This resulted in a >90% reduction in file transaction times, as well as security enhancements with advanced features and the segregation of NBRS & Partners guest and staff networks.
Veeam Backup Essentials Enterprise solution unified the back-up platform, providing both on-site & off-site back-up and ensured NBRS & Partners can quickly restore in the event of data loss.
Synology NAS provided additional value in the form of cost effective, high speed access to archived data & on-site back-ups.
UniFi Wireless Access Points. This enterprise grade wireless solution provides secure segregation between staff and guest access.

Seamless IT Strategy Planning and Implementation

From start to finish, Trevor, Desmond and the team at NBRS & Partners couldn’t have been happier with the whole upgrade process. ‘Huon IT really know what they’re doing,’ said Trevor. ‘They were very focused and proactive in coming up with the right system for us. And when it came to installation, their consultants shared their knowledge and walked with us each step of the way. Above all, the implementation was smooth without a second of unplanned downtime.

Ongoing, Dependable IT Support

Now the infrastructure has been upgraded, a continuing partnership with Huon on a predictable monthly fixed-fee basis enables NBRS & Partners IT team to focus solely on supporting their staff while Huon IT handles the back-end systems. The IT support service has also significantly reduced pressure on in-house IT at NBRS & Partners.

Huon continues to monitor, maintain and remediate any issues on an ongoing basis. ‘They’re great at ongoing maintenance,’ Desmond said. ‘I can sleep soundly at night knowing our systems are monitored around the clock and maintained proactively.

Conclusion: A Workplace Transformed

‘It’s such a huge relief,’ said Trevor, ‘to finally have an efficient system to cope with where we’re going. We now have business-grade vital infrastructure to support our BIM (Building Integration Model) software. And there’s been a 30% improvement in our project loading times. We now feel free to refine our structure and work flow, knowing that we’re backed by a stable, fully functioning IT system that can cope.’ Internal IT complaints have dropped to zero – Trevor and Desmond are only half joking when they say there’s been a big improvement in staff mental health!

In Trevor’s words: ‘Thanks to Huon IT we now have a highly robust, functional, efficient system heading into our business future.’

The results

No unplanned downtime during installation.
30% improvement in project loading times.
Reduced pressure for in-house IT.
Stable, fully functioning IT system.
Internal IT complaints have dropped to zero.
Unified back-up, ensuring quick restores in the event of data loss.

“I’ve already recommended Huon IT to clients. They’ve designed and implemented the ideal IT capabilities for us to continually grow in the direction we planned.”

Trevor Eveleigh

Associate Director – NBRS & Partners

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