Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Centralized Management of IT Infrastructure Gives Bank Freedom to Grow
Overview
Country or Region:Romania
Industry:Utilities
Customer Profile
Romgaz is a government-owned utility that researches and produces natural gas, and provides storage for reserves.
Business Situation
Romgaz SA requires continuous information exchange with its regional subsidiaries and workstations located at various locations for proper operation of the company.
Solution
To resolve these problems, Romgaz SA implemented a Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003–based infrastructure, which ensures a secure and flexible IT environment as well as easy management of workstations, remote user security controls, and remote installation of applications.
Benefits
Infrastructure centralized management
Securing the infrastructure
Easy management based on object groups using Group Policy
Reduction of management costs
Subsequent application can benefit from security through Active Directory / "Although during the implementation of the IT infrastructure centralized management project, other open-source platforms were assessed, a Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory–based solution was preferred for efficiency reasons."
Dorel Tarnu, IT Manager
SNGN Romgaz(Romgaz SA) is a Romanian state-owned company that produces and stores natural gas. The main activities carried out by the national company are geological investigation for new gas reserves, production and provision of natural gas, and underground storage.
Currently, natural gas accounts for 40 percent of all energy resources consumed by Romania, due to the many economic, social, and ecological benefits that using its own natural resources offers the country.
Situation
SNGN Romgaz SA (Romgaz SA) is a Romanian state-owned company of national interest, its main business being natural gas production and storage. The central office of Romgaz SA is located in Mediaş, SibiuCounty, and consists of five subsidiaries distributed throughout the country: three for production and two for auxiliary services.
The main activities carried out by the national company are geological investigation for new gas reserves, production and provision of natural gas, and underground storage.
Natural gas production started in Transylvania once natural gas was discovered for the first time in Europe, in Sărmăşel in 1909. Until the 1960's, the gas production and transport development network did not have a significant economic impact; however, they have developed since 1960, once significant reserves of natural gas were discovered, with a maximum production of 30 billion cubic meters in 1976.
Currently, natural gas accounts for 40 percent of all energy resources consumed by Romania, due to the many economic, social, and ecological benefits that using its own natural resources offers the country.
Romgaz SA uses an information technology (IT) infrastructure for data exchange between the central office and its five subsidiaries, as well as with other locations equipped with computers that collect and process data on gas production.
To facilitate this information exchange among various locations, Romgaz SA decided to implement a modern IT infrastructure that provides the centralized management of the existing database, as well as to strengthen information security and provide for the remote installation of business applications.
In addition to the implementation of these up-to-date capabilities, Romgaz SA has also started the implementation of a management information system that collects in a single database all information related to current gas production and provides comprehensive reports to corporate management.
A new information system for Romgaz SA was sought to provide centralized IT management, secure and controlled access for users to stored information, and facilitate communication between various locations of the company. The new solution also had to scale in size as the number of Romgaz SA users and locations grew.
Solution
In order to meet these needs, Romgaz SA decided to implement an infrastructure based on the Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 operating system (part of Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software) and Active Directory® service, which can define a unique corporate user security policy and provide centralized management of workstations.
The implementation project was carried out by Microsoft Romania together with its partners and consisted of several steps. Experts from the Romgaz SA IT department were involved in each step of its implementation, providing an information exchange between the Microsoft Romania team and the IT management team.
The project implementation team consisted of consultants from Microsoft Services and the account team: Noni Zota, Account Manager, and Ionuţ Lopătan, Account Technology Specialist. This team was joined by professionals from partner companies Net Consulting and Gama Computers and professionals from the Romgaz SA IT department.
The main activities carried out were:
Analysis of existing infrastructure
Active Directory design
Designing security policies
Defining the procedures of server installation
Defining the maintenance procedures for Active Directory
Defining backup and restore operations
Defining the procedures of workstation installation
Installing and setting up servers and workstations as part of a pilot project
Benefits
Although during the implementation of this project, other open-source platforms were assessed, a Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory–based solution was preferred for efficiency reasons. Other reasons were facilities provided by the Windows Server platform and reduced costs:
Simple and flexible access to information and sharing information with subsidiaries.
Secure access to information through Active Directory infrastructure and access rights established by the network manager.
Infrastructure providing global access, from any location, to services provided by the information system and checking access rights.
The Romgaz SA management can make better decisions based upon accurate and up-to-date information.
Simple and affordable centralized management of workstations as well as their automatic software updates.
Subsequent implementation of the applications available, which benefit from the built-in security of Windows Server 2003.
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server infrastructure software is designed to support end-to-end solutions built on the Windows Server operating system. Windows Server System creates an infrastructure based on integrated innovation, Microsoft's holistic approach to building products and solutions that are intrinsically designed to work together and interact seamlessly with other data and applications across your IT environment. This helps you reduce the costs of ongoing operations, deliver a more secure and reliable IT infrastructure, and drive valuable new capabilities for the future growth of your business.
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