Customer Solution Case Study
/ Tax Agency Saves Senior IT Staff an Hour a Day, Plans to Increase Users’ Mailbox Size
Overview
Country or Region: Slovenia
Industry: Government—Tax, revenue, and finance
Customer Profile
The Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (DURS) collects taxes and investigates violations of tax law. Based in Ljubljana, the agency employs about 2,500 people.
Business Situation
DURS was using Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 but needed better options for availability and disaster recovery, larger mailboxes, and the ability to more easily administer its messaging solution.
Solution
DURS deployed Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 to take advantage of high-availability architecture, expanded storage options, and improved management and security tools.
Benefits
· Larger mailboxes
· Improved availability
· Easier administration
· Expanded security and compliance tools / “By helping us delegate simple tasks to junior administrators and users, Role Based Access Control in Exchange Server 2010 will save at least an hour a day for the two IT administrators in our head office.”
Breda Hudej, Lead System Engineer, DURS
The Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (DURS), which collects taxes and enforces the nation’s tax laws and regulations, used Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 for its enterprise messaging solution. Users wanted larger mailboxes, but this was too costly. DURS also sought to simplify administration and improve availability. Working with Microsoft Services, DURS deployed Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. The new solution has lower disk input/output, so DURS can use inexpensive Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) disks for storage and provide users with larger mailboxes while lowering storage costs. The new Database Availability Group feature provides automatic failover to minimize user disruptions. Expanded security and compliance tools help DURS protect confidential information, and simpler administration saves each senior IT worker an hour a day.
Situation
The Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (Davčna uprava Republike Slovenije, or DURS) is responsible for collecting taxes, enforcing tax laws and regulations, and investigating tax-related criminal offenses. DURS cooperates with tax agencies and professional organizations around the world to assist with the implementation of international tax and trade agreements. The agency also performs research and data analysis to improve the operation of Slovenia’s tax system.
With 2,500 employees working in the agency’s headquarters and 16 branch offices, DURS relies heavily on messaging for communication and collaboration. DURS had deployed Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 but wanted to improve its enterprise messaging infrastructure. On the IT side, DURS sought to reduce the number of mailbox servers in its environment. The agency also wanted better options for availability and disaster recovery. In addition, as a government agency in possession of confidential information, DURS wanted updated security tools to help it protect this sensitive data.
DURS senior administrators at the agency’s headquarters were also spending too much time on routine mailbox maintenance for users at branch offices. DURS wanted to delegate these tasks to branch-office IT administrators. However, it was not possible to grant them sufficient permissions for these tasks without giving them too much access to the overall network, which would have created security problems.
For users, one problem was that storage costs limited the size of their mailboxes to 100 MB. As a result, users had to either quickly delete messages or store them in Outlook Data Files (PST files), an unstable storage option that hurt mailbox performance and made it difficult for the IT department to protect the stored data. To further conserve storage space, DURS imposed short time limits before deleted messages were purged from the server, resulting in many calls to the DURS IT department for assistance recovering deleted messages. Also, some employees had difficulty locating messages stored in PST files and made additional help-desk calls for assistance.
DURS wanted a new messaging solution that would require fewer mailbox servers and provide advanced availability and security options. The solution also needed to make it possible for DURS to increase users’ mailbox size without increasing storage costs.
Solution
DURS decided to deploy a solution based on Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. “We have always been very happy with Microsoft technology, so moving to Exchange Server 2010 was the natural next step for us,” says Breda Hudej, Lead System Engineer for DURS. The agency selected Microsoft Services consultants to assist with the deployment, which began in September 2009. By October 2009, DURS had rolled out the new solution to an initial group of 150 users.
Exchange Server 2010 delivers a 90 percent reduction in disk input/output (I/O) compared with Exchange Server 2003, so DURS can now deploy more mailboxes per disk and has the option of using less expensive Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) disks for storage. In addition, DURS can rely on a Database Availability Group which combines on-site and off-site data replication—for automatic recovery from failures at the disk, server, or data center level. DURS has replicated its databases on two mailbox servers in its primary data center and plans to add a third server in another location to achieve site resiliency. For additional protection of vital data, DURS has deployed a prerelease version of Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010.
The solution eases management tasks for DURS administrators. With the Online Move Mailbox feature, the agency can move mailboxes from one database to another without taking users offline. As a result, DURS can complete maintenance tasks during business hours instead of at night. Also, the Exchange Management Console, the graphical user interface for administrators, provides the DURS IT department with simpler navigation and integrated management and troubleshooting tools. Role Based Access Control (RBAC) in Exchange Server 2010 gives DURS the option of granting detailed permissions to classes of end users and IT workers. With RBAC, users can update their own contact and location information, and branch-office administrators can manage their mailbox users without being authorized to make changes that are outside their areas of responsibility.
In addition, Exchange Server 2010 gives DURS powerful new security and compliance tools. Transport Protection Rules, used with Active Directory® Rights Management Services, help DURS apply Information Rights Management (IRM) protection to e-mail messages—including Microsoft Office and XML Paper Specification (XPS) attachments—after they have been sent. Administrators can also automatically save or delete specific categories of message information by imposing retention settings at the user, department, or agency levels. And with multi-mailbox search, DURS compliance workers can easily search multiple mailboxes for e-mail messages, attachments, calendar items, tasks, and contacts during audits or for legal discovery. Finally, to help protect against viruses and spam, DURS is using Microsoft Forefront™ Protection 2010 for Exchange Server.
DURS is steadily expanding the number of users on Exchange Server 2010 and expects to complete the deployment by the end of 2009. Hudej credits the smooth, trouble-free deployment to the expertise of the Microsoft Services consultants. “The collaboration with Microsoft Services was very important to the success of this project,” says Hudej. “We are extremely pleased with the support the consultants provided and the performance of the new solution. We haven’t heard a single complaint or problem from any of the users who have upgraded to Exchange Server 2010.”
Benefits
By deploying Exchange Server 2010, DURS expects to provide users with larger mailboxes, increase system availability, and reduce the number of mailbox servers it uses. Enhanced management tools are saving senior IT administrators an hour a day, and expanded security and compliance tools helps DURS better protect confidential information in e-mail messages.
Larger Mailboxes
Because of the expanded storage options made possible by the performance improvements in Exchange Server 2010, DURS can increase users’ mailbox size without increasing storage costs. And with less need to conserve mailbox space, says Hudej, DURS can set longer time limits before deleted messages are purged from the database. “With a longer retention time and larger mailboxes, users won’t have to rely on PST files to save important messages outside their mailboxes,” she says. “Many of our users found PST files confusing to access and manage, so eliminating them with Exchange Server 2010 will reduce frustration for our users and save time for more important tasks.”
Longer retention time for messages will also reduce the workload of DURS administrators. “In the past, we often received requests for help restoring messages that had been purged,” says Sebastjan Videc, a System Engineer at DURS. “Because we can have a longer retention time using Exchange Server 2010, we expect to see a significant reduction in these calls.”
Improved Availability
By using a Database Availability Group with Exchange Server 2010, DURS can maintain high availability in the event of database, server, or site-level failures. “With multiple copies of our databases and faster failover times, we can rely on the Exchange Server 2010 high-availability architecture to help us recover quickly from failures, instead of having to restore from backups,” says Hudej. “If one server goes down, there will be two more to support our mailboxes, so we expect no downtime.”
The availability improvements will ease the pressure on IT administrators, according to Hudej. “With Exchange Server 2010, I don’t have to worry about users not being able to access their mailboxes if a server fails,” she says. “The IT department simply receives a notification of the problem and can begin repairing it, but users are able to keep working as if nothing had happened.”
DURS will be able to provide this high availability while reducing its mailbox servers from five to three. Because the agency can replicate databases to other mailbox servers in a Database Availability Group, it no longer needs a dedicated secondary node for each primary mailbox server.
Easier Administration
More flexible permissions management and expanded administration tools make Exchange Server 2010 easier for DURS IT staff to administer. With RBAC, DURS administrators can authorize classes of users to perform specific tasks that used to require assistance from the central IT department. “For example, we can give IT workers in our branch offices the necessary permissions to manage their own mailbox users,” says Hudej. “By helping us delegate simpler tasks to junior administrators and users, Role Based Access Control in Exchange Server 2010 will save at least an hour a day for the two IT administrators in our head office.”
Hudej also likes how tasks that previously were completed using the Active Directory service can be automated from the Exchange Management Console. “Now we can perform tasks—such as managing user details—directly in the Exchange Management Console that we used to have to make in Active Directory,” she says. “With the expanded management tools in Exchange Server 2010, it’s much easier and faster to manage our mailbox users.”
The ability to move mailboxes from one database to another without taking users offline is an additional convenience, says Videc. “In the past, we either had to coordinate ahead of time with users or wait until after business hours to complete routine mailbox maintenance. With Exchange Server 2010 and the Online Move Mailbox feature, we can just go ahead with the work we need to accomplish whenever it is convenient for us, without worrying about disrupting users.”
Expanded Security and Compliance Tools
Using the information protection technologies in Exchange Server 2010, DURS can more easily protect the personal financial information stored on its network. “Some of our employees have access to very sensitive information, so it’s important that we are able to control who they can send it to and who can access it,” says Videc. “Exchange Server 2010 transport protection and encryption tools make it much easier for us to protect confidential data in e-mails.”
In addition, with the ability to impose detailed archiving policies and to perform multi-mailbox searches, DURS can more easily demonstrate compliance with applicable laws and regulations. “Multi-mailbox search in Exchange Server 2010 makes it much easier to check users’ communications during audits,” says Hudej. “Our initial evaluation of this feature in the test environment suggests that it will offer significant timesavings once the new solution is fully rolled out.”
Hudej couldn’t be happier with the new solution. “Exchange Server 2010 just works,” she says. “It’s easy to manage, and the more we explore it, the more tools we discover to help our end users and administrators save time and increase productivity.”
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 can help you achieve better business outcomes while controlling the costs of deployment, administration, and compliance. Exchange Server 2010 delivers the widest range of deployment options, integrated information leakage protection, and advanced compliance capabilities, which combine to form the best messaging and collaboration solution available.
For more information about Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, go to:
www.microsoft.com/exchange
For more information about Microsoft unified communications, go to:
www.microsoft.com/uc