HALCO

HALCO is a prominent European manufacturer and supplier specialising in hook & loop, machinery, and workroom accessories to textile manufacturing industries.

HALCO is a family-run company, which is serious about quality, and with strong growth year on year, HALCO needed an IT Support company to elevate their current IT infrastructure and support their expansion.

Geeks partnered with HALCO in August 2023, introducing our Geeks Protect solution. The ensuing project kicked off in September 2023, aiming to address some crucial changes necessary within HALCO’s IT infrastructure.

The project need – aging IT infrastructure

HALCO faced challenges with an aging IT infrastructure, particularly the imminent end-of-life status of the operating system running on their virtual machines (VMs). The need for an upgrade was pressing, as Microsoft would soon stop providing security updates, exposing HALCO to potential security risks.

Furthermore, their growth meant that they needed upgrades to their IT infrastructure, such as an upgrade from a Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) connection to a gigabit leased line for enhanced internet connectivity.

Spanning from September 2023 to March 2024, the project encompassed a complete overhaul of HALCO’s IT infrastructure. This involved transitioning from FTTC to a leased line, updating virtual machines (VMs), installing Access Points, upgrading broadband connections and more.

Completing the project – IT infrastructure overhaul

This project commenced with a kick-off call between Geek’s Project Engineer, Kieran, and our primary contact at HALCO, Reuben.

Kieran then conducted a site visit to HALCO’s head office, installing the new leased line, host, firewall, switches, and UPS.

Once that was completed, Kieran built their brand-new virtual machines to replace their aging VMs and began migrating the systems across. During this, Kieran had a lot of correspondence with third parties to allow access to the new system and assist with any application updates that were necessary for the smooth switchover to the new infrastructure.

Collaboration with HALCO was pivotal throughout, we worked closely with HALCO to setup all accounts and passwords ready for the install of the new router. This ensured a seamless switchover, due to a new VPN rollout for all users.

During the project, Kieran had weekly calls with Reuben, as well as ongoing Microsoft Teams chats open to provide updates, answer any questions, and give any assistance required in relation to the project.

Kieran meticulously migrated systems in stages, ensuring thorough testing at each stage, so that any issues could be resolved. Noticing a struggling internet connection, Kieran installed Access Points to bolster connectivity.

As part of this project, two additional HALCO sites had a new broadband line and router installed, streamlining their IT services through a single provider. Kieran configured the routers before heading to the sites in Swansea and Hereford to set them up.

The benefits of a modern, new IT infrastructure

HALCO now benefit from a modern new IT infrastructure, featuring VMs running the more recent Windows operating system, with security patches and updates from Microsoft, vastly improving their security.

Their transition to a new leased line from a FTTC connection shows a significant enhancement in the internet connectivity, and a new Draytek router adds to the overall improvements in HALCO’s network architecture.

All three sites are connected via a site-to-site VPN connection which allows all staff in these locations to access the new server and systems within the head office with ease.

 

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