Mercury Engineering - SSCM

IT Force delivers “forefront fortress” for Mercury Engineering
Innovative deployment method across EMEA slashes installation time and costs

Mercury Engineering, one of the leading electrical and mechanical service providers to the construction industry, has bolstered its IT security system across the EMEA region with Microsoft Forefront.  The solution, scoped and deployed by Dublin-based IT Force, provides comprehensive anti-virus and anti-spyware protection for Mercury’s 600 users and 75 servers spread across EMEA.  Uniquely, the solution also included a rollout and ongoing protection for disparate remote workers around the globe who are not even connected to the Mercury network.

“Our existing anti-virus solution was due to expire and following an evaluation of the market offerings and a pilot deployment, Microsoft Forefront met our requirements” explains, Adam Hoffman, Systems Analyst, Mercury Engineering.    “The project plan involved the removal of the existing solution around EMEA.  This included laptop users and dispersed IT systems spread from the Corrib site in Mayo to the golden sands of the Arabian Peninsula.  From a licensing perspective, we already benefitted from having a Microsoft Open Value Subscription so we wanted a clever solution to keep this complex removal and roll-out to a minimum” adds Hoffman.

To this end, IT Force advised Mercury on the rollout and management capabilities of System Centre Configuration Manager (SSCM) 2007, one of which is centralised application removal and deployment to dispersed and mobile environments.   This enabled IT Force to quickly and more cost effectively conduct an EMEA-wide swap-out of the old, expired software for Microsoft Forefront.  “Normally, a project of this scale, geography and magnitude would take weeks to complete”, explains Joe O’Reilly, director, IT Force.   “We had Microsoft Forefront up and running on all server and desktops within days, cutting down on traditional installation costs and time.  Configuration Manager is an extremely powerful delivery and system management mechanism.”

The SSCM software was also used to roll out the security software to remote users not connected to the network.  By using an “Internet Based Client Management” (IBCM) protocol, as configured by SSCM expert and technical lead on the project, Ivan Barry, Mercury can now also manage non-networked devices as if they are resident on the network.   “IBCM uses secure technology to connect internet based PCs to the SSCM infrastructure to allow them to be managed as if they resided on the intranet”, explains Barry.

With SSCM 2007 and IBCM in place, IT Force successfully rolled out Microsoft Forefront and its management capabilities to protect servers, desktops and laptops, including remote users not connected to the network.   As well as providing up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware protection for all Mercury servers and PCs, Forefront also provides security for applications including SharePoint, Citrix and System Centre Operations Manager console.

“Mercury has a comprehensive IT security fortress and our IT department have full control over our dispersed IT environment”, adds Hoffman.   “Forefront includes comprehensive security scans, security updates, excellent administrator controls and reporting functionality for the entire IT infrastructure.  And with SSCM 2007 and Internet Based Client Management, the virtual rollout was more seamless, cost effective and less time consuming than relying on physical installations.  We are in a unique position where we have computers managing computers, dramatically increasing efficiencies and lowering operating costs of the IT function”, adds Hoffman.

CASE STUDY: System Center Operations Manager - Irish Life & Permanent