Updated: Dec 31, 2020
Simply Wireless, Inc.
Services used: Private Cloud, Professional Services.
Prior to becoming one of the largest retailers of cellphones and cellphone plans in the Mid-Atlantic, Simply Wireless was facing a mounting cost running its IT operations. They had a disparate network of equipment, point-of-sales equipment, and a herculean task of integrating several acquisitions into one cohesive network. Their operating costs starting spiraling out of control, and they needed help to get their IT house in order.
The Solution:
Zephyr Cloud was brought in, and virtualized Simply Wireless' infrastructure into a private cloud, fully owned by Simply Wireless in a data center of their choosing. Zephyr Cloud's team helped manage the process to procure the data center space, power, electrical, and Internet connection, and then started on the task to standardize all technology deployments to manage their current needs, and manage future growth.
Zephyr Cloud's team setup templates for use in point-of-sales terminals, user desktops, and built a fully redundant server infrastructure to run all back-end, and front-end tools, websites and accounting infrastructure.
Zephyr Cloud also helped manage Simply Wireless' telephony environment, by migrating phone systems, phone numbers, and extensions to an IP/PBX that saved them tens of thousands of dollars a month in recurring telephony costs, all the while integrating all their stores, warehouses, and corporate office under a system, where anyone can dial anyone else with a simple system of phone extensions, saving costs over normal phone lines.
In addition to phone systems, Zephyr Cloud's team built a fully integrated IVR to help route calls from customers to server infrastructure to automatically activate new phone users on the network, all without needing human intervention, and with a near perfect success rate.
Zephyr Cloud's work at Simply Wireless enabled the company to save millions of dollars in annual infrastructure costs, all the while opening the door for future expansion at a fraction of their original costs.
UNited States DEpartment of Agriculture - Food Safety Inspection.
Services used: Professional Services
With their heavy load of managing outdated laptops and un-patched operating systems, the FSIS IT team needed a solution to help them manage their users, while getting their work environment up to date to the latest operating systems and security patches.
The proposed solution, involved an investment by the USDA in new infrastructure, along with licensing, to build and manage over 1500 virtual desktops that would enable the FSIS IT team the ability to manage and update a template profile of their operating system of choice, and manage patches and updates of productivity software used by their users in a highly effecient manner.
Unfortunately, due to issues with their chosen contractor, the installation and deployment of the infrastructure and solution was halted, leaving the FSIS team without the means to complete the mission.
The Solution:
This is where Zephyr Cloud was able to help. Zephyr Cloud's team was hired because of their expertise in building private cloud solutions, and were able to hit the ground running at the USDA.
Zephyr Cloud's project managers and engineers quickly took the lead on the project and worked closely with FSIS' IT department to implement their intended solution.
What had been a long multi-year delay in completing the project and mission, was quickly turned around, and within 6 months of being involved, the USDA's FSIS team had a fully functional virtual desktop solution with the ability to deploy over 1500 virtual desktops to its users.
Updated: Dec 31, 2020
DMY Engineering Consultants, Inc.
Services used: Virtual Private Cloud, Virtual Desktop, Hosted Infrastructure, Unified Communications, Voice over IP.
DMY Engineering Consultants, a minority-owned, small business, specializing in geo-technical and civil engineering projects, needed an IT partner to help manage their sudden growth from winning several large projects. Because the owner of the company was managing all IT needs, as well as the growth of his business, he needed help, but also had several requirements critical to his business operations, including:
The ability to run civil-engineering specific applications from anywhere his teams were deployed
The ability to securely save and access files related to projects in a secure way, with rights and permissions granted to specific users
The ability to add or remove users as the company's needs changed.
THE SOLUTION:
Zephyr Cloud built DMY Engineering Consultants a Virtual Private Cloud to manage their environment, including a secured file server with secured access granted to named users.
Virtual Desktops were deployed to all employees in a standard deployment, which included Microsoft Office Professional plus, and all unified communications applications such as Outlook, Skype for Business, and SharePoint.
DMY's engineering applications were also setup with special access granted to specific users, and the ability to launch those applications directly from any html 5 compatible browser, through their login on Zephyr Cloud's website.
Today, DMY users are able to access all their files from anywhere, at any time, including from their home, office, or in the field. Engineers in the field can access company resources directly from smartphones, or tablets with Internet access, providing them the ability to view and manage files in a highly secured way.
In addition, with unified communications applications included in their deployment, emailing, chatting, video conferencing, and file sharing, is as easy as a click away from within their Virtual Desktops.
With DMY migrating all their voice needs to Zephyr Cloud, DMY's capabilities have expanded through the use of virtual-extensions, allowing users to direct dial anyone in the company, from anywhere, as if they were all locally connected, all the while saving DMY substantial voice costs from their previous provider.
Since managing all of DMY's IT needs, DMY's owner has been able to focus on growing DMY into the mid-Atlantic's premier civil engineering firm, knowing full well that adding or removing users is as simple contacting Zephyr Cloud.
