About The Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services
The Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS) provides statewide leadership and services that facilitate cost-effective information processing and telecommunication solutions for agencies and institutions.
ITS facilitates effective planning, deployment and operation of information technologies for Mississippi State Government. ITS seeks to form dynamic partnerships with our customers and the private sector to optimize the use of available resources for enhanced delivery of government services.
Development Goals
ITS discovered that their current email solution was lacking in some of its capabilities, requiring some updates to their messaging and communications infrastructure. There were three major tasks that ITS needed ExchangeHub to implement in order to improve overall organizational efficiencies.
First, we had to automate processes such as ISP style billing and server tasks through PowerShell. When using Microsoft Exchange 2010, PowerShell technology is extremely convenient and effective in creating an interface that facilitates the automation of several manual tasks, saving the organization valuable time and unnecessary efforts. Our next project involved simplifying Exchange 2010 organizational architecture and improving archiving capacity while supporting implementation of SEV as the replacement archiving solution. Lastly, ExchangeHub improved and maintained higher level of support while creating Standard Operating Procedures documentation and redesigned diagrams.
Development Details
90% of the planned PowerShell scripts were written and scheduled as daily or end-of-month server tasks. The Exchange organization was finely restructured to reflect the simplification of State departments. We also streamlined the Active Directory in preparation for SAP IDentity Management enterprise system. ExchangeHub consultants collaborated with Symantec personnel during the planning and implementation of SEV. And finally, we wrote new procedures or modified them to match daily IT operations.
Technologies Used
- Exchange Server 2010
- Windows Server 2008 R2
- Mimosa Nearpoint 4.2
- Symantec Enterprise Vault 10.4
- Postfix (mail relay for Linux)
- Sophos PureMessage for Linux
- RedHat Enterprise Linux
- Avaya Communicator
The Result
The ExchangeHub consultants completed organizational restructuring impeccably. The majority of the vital automation of tasks were accomplished in addition to general journaling/archiving setup for SEV also was finalized. Migration from Nearpoint to SEV and custom journaling solution is pending approval. AD organization is prepared for SAP integration. Finally, Sophos PureMessage/RedHat Enterprise servers were upgraded.