New data center and back-up infrastructure for the Municipality of Wermelskirchen

"We now have a secure, mirrored solution that integrates perfectly into our operating concept and can manage all of the demands of our service-oriented civic center."

Lutz Betke, IT technician for the administrative and HR departments, Stadt Wermelskirchen

The customer

The city of Wermelskirchen is located in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, approximately 35km from Cologne. It is part of the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis district and the Bergisches Land nature reserve. Once famous as the heart of Germany’s shoe trade, the city is now home to 34,500 inhabitants and is considered an important center for the metalworking, mechanical engineering and tool making industries.

The challenge

Replacing and updating the entire IT infrastructure including all software and hardware
Implementing a highly available solution with automatic failover
Carrying out a wide range of tasks on the Windows platform
Migrating the Microsoft Exchange environment from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2013
Setting up a second server location to increase reliability

The solution

New server and storage infrastructure consisting of four ESX servers and two DataCore servers, each with a SAN storage system. The systems are installed at two separate locations.