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Having decided to upgrade their in-house server, Graham Kidd, IT Manager at Wilden Services Ltd contacted Netmetix, as their long-standing IT partner, to ask for advice.
Wilden Services have been established for 47 years and specialise in the design and installation of heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water service, cold water down service, gas service and above ground drainage for the leisure and associated industries in the UK and Europe. They have worked with many big names including Champneys, Odeon Cinemas, Cineworld Cinemas, VUE cinemas as well as London theatres, restaurants and retail units.
Wilden Services Ltd had been using a Windows Small Business Server for a long time. They were storing files and emails locally and running AutoCAD on local PCs. Paul Blore, Managing Director of Netmetix, suggested that they remove the local servers that they currently had and move to the Cloud.
Because of their long-term experience of AutoCAD, Graham was extremely sceptical whether it would, or could, work on a cloud-based system. AutoCAD is a power-hungry programme and is susceptible to hardware related issue, causing freezing and crashing periodically, even when used on a specially modified computer. Graham’s worry was whether the Cloud could provide the power of a high spec local PC and if the interface would still run smoothly without any lag. Netmetix needed to fully convince them that this would work before committing to go down the cloud route.
To show that the Cloud could support CAD software, the team at Netmetix built a demo cloud system with AutoCAD installed for their first meeting with Wilden Services Ltd so they could test out the application before deciding if it was the way forward. Graham and the team at Wilden Services Ltd put the app through its paces in the expectation of replicating the issues they had on the local PCs but were unable to do so as it worked so well! After being so impressed with this and allaying any other worries they had, Graham and the team decided to jump from their on-premises server into the Cloud! The old server was decommissioned, emails were moved to Office365, and the entire desktop estate was moved to Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure.
The ability to work from anywhere with just a laptop and internet connection has to be one of the greatest features of switching to a cloud-based system. Now, having used our new system for the past few months, we can say we are extremely happy with the decision we made.
Thanks to Paul and everyone at Netmetix, we have been very happy as a Company to have switched over to Cloud computing. Graham KiddIT Manager, Wilden Services Ltd
As fate would have it, Netmetix were able to have Wilden Services Ltd’s new system up and running just days before the UK went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This gave the company the newfound flexibility to be able to work from home when the need arose, something they would not have previously been able to do easily with their on-premise server.
Now they have used Netmetix’s system and Microsoft Azure for a few months, Graham and Wilden Services Ltd are thrilled they decided to move to the Cloud and AutoCAD does not feel any different to working on an expensive high-powered local PC connected to their office-based server, which is a high accolade.
If you would like to find out more about switching your on-premise server to the Cloud, contact us now.