Customer Solution Case Study
/ Gas Transporter Increases System Performance, Simplifies IT Management with Upgrade
“We’ve seen examples of reduced logon times from minutes to seconds—it’s a dream. Now, instead of getting a cup of coffee while they wait, employees can get to work right away and are more productive.”
Sigmund Pedersen, IT Manager, Gassco
Gassco is responsible for operating the Norwegian gas transport system on behalf of joint ventures and companies in Europe.In an effort to improve employee productivity and simplify management of its aging IT infrastructure, the company upgraded to the Windows® 7 operating system. As a result of the upgrade, Gassco has increased employee productivity with improved system performance, enhanced IT security, and simplified IT management.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published October 2009
Business Needs
Headquartered in Karmøy, Norway, Gassco is responsible for transporting all of the gas produced on the Norwegian continental shelf to the rest of Europe. Equipped with 5,000 miles of high-pressure pipelines, and both onshore and offshore operations, Gassco delivers almost 18 percent of all the gas in Europe.The company has receiving terminals in Belgium, France, and Germany.
When Gassco took over all gas transportation operations for Norway in 2002, the company had only 50 computers running the Windows® XP operating system. Since then, Gassco has grown to more than 300 employees and has 300 desktop computers and 100 portable computers in its IT infrastructure. The company primarily uses the Windows Server® 2003 operating system, but it is gradually upgrading to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
As the company grew, its IT infrastructure became more complex and time-consuming to maintain. For instance, its client computing environment was not standardized, resulting in IT efficiency challenges. In addition, the time it took employees to simply log on to their computers increased to almost 90 seconds. In some cases, it could take up to 10 minutes to open the operating system and launch Lotus Notes. “Logon times were unacceptable and a significant drain on employee productivity,” says Sigmund Pedersen, IT Manager at Gassco. “Employees expect to get to work right away, and that’s something we want to deliver to them.”
In addition to upgrading to Windows Server 2008, Gassco also wanted to upgrade its operating system in an effort to improve IT management and increase user productivity.
Solution
In July 2009, Gassco teamed with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner ErgoGroup and began an upgrade to the Windows 7 Release Candidate operating system, Microsoft Office Professional 2007, and Windows Internet Explorer® 8 Internet browser. The upgrade started with a pilot deployment to 25 employees. By the end of October 2009, the company plans to upgrade all of its computers.
Gassco uses Windows Deployment Services and the Windows Automated Installation Kit to capture and deploy its operating system image to the organization. With Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, the company can automate deployment and manage its client and server environment, both physical and virtual. The company also uses Group Policy for centralized management of operating system and user settings.
Although Gassco plans to upgrade its client hardware environment as part of its normal refresh cycle, the company has seen positive results running Windows 7 on low-specification machines.
In an effort to improve IT efficiency, Gassco has a policy to virtualize as much of its IT infrastructure as possible. “Virtualization is an important component to help us standardize and improve efficiency,” explains Christian Augestat, Engineer at Gassco. The company is taking advantage of Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, to virtualize two-thirds of its applications to the desktop. Only applications that are part of its core image are scripted and run locally.
As part of the upgrade, the company is implementing BitLocker® drive encryption for enhanced security in the event of a lost or stolen laptop. It is also evaluating BranchCache™ to help improve application response time and reduce network bandwidth use at its receiving terminals.
Benefits
As a result of upgrading to Windows 7, Gassco has increased employee productivity, enhanced IT security, and simplified IT maintenance with a scalable solution.
Increased Employee Productivity with Improved System Performance
Gassco has seen a dramatic improvement with logon times as a result of upgrading to Windows 7, helping to improve employee productivity. “Logon times were a complaint from users in the past,” says Pedersen. “We’ve seen examples of reduced logon times from minutes to seconds—it’s a dream. Now, instead of getting a cup of coffee while they wait, employees can get to work right away and are more productive.”
In addition, with BranchCache, Gassco looks forward to faster application response time at its receiving terminals away from corporate headquarters. With content cached at local offices from file and Web servers running Windows Server 2008 R2, employees will have faster access to corporate resources. In addition, network bandwidth is freed for other tasks.
Enhanced IT Security
Though Gassco had not previously had any security breaches, the company wanted to take more proactive steps to enhance its security with full-volume disk encryption, especially as it continues to grow. With BitLocker implemented on each of its computers, and mandated with Group Policy, Gassco is able to protect sensitive company information in the event of a lost or stolen computer.
Easier IT Maintenance
With its up-to-date IT infrastructure, including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Group Policy, and App-V, Gassco has a scalable solution that helps manage IT more efficiently. “Compared to our previous solution that was growing more and more complex and difficult to manage, we’re now in a position to easily scale up our environment as we add new locations, while still simplifying maintenance,” says Augestat.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published October 2009