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Client
Upper Hunter Shire Council
Scope of work
Managed Services
Industry
Local Government
Location
Scone, NSW, Australia.
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Overview

Upper Hunter Shire Council is located in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, about 250 kilometres north of Sydney, Australia. The Shire is a predominantly rural area encompassing about 8,000 square kilometres, of which a large proportion is National Park and nature reserves. The council delivers localised infrastructure, environment and community services to approximately 14,000 residents.

The council’s vision is for citizens to live a quality rural lifestyle in a vibrant, caring, sustainable community.

Fast Facts

  • Project-based services focusing on networking and infrastructure
  • Assisted with management and troubleshooting of 40 plus sites.
  • Internet access across Wide Area Network (WAN)
  • Firewalling services and security, significant assistance with email security
  • Offsite backup storage for recovery purposes in our private cloud
  • Major refresh of core & edge switches
  • Upgrade of VMware ESXi hosts

Problem

As a regional council with a limited budget and resources, Upper Hunter Shire Council needed to find a reliable and long-term IT solutions partner to meet its needs efficiently and appropriately.

While the council has a small in-house Information Services team, they have regularly outsourced additional technical expertise to Atturra over the years, including a major Storage Area Network (SAN) upgrade in 2016. More recently, the council’s growth meant running on single server technology was no longer viable, and global cyber security volatility required greater levels of cyber maturity that were beyond the resources of the internal team.

Solution

Atturra was the only vendor who could provide a satisfactory networking solution for the council’s SAN upgrade. At the same time, the council moved fibre services to the main site, a centralised managed firewall in the datacentre, and secure SD-WAN to remote sites to streamline their outsourcing and create efficiencies for the business.

After a couple of security breaches, Atturra worked closely with the Upper Hunter Shire Information Services team to perform timely investigations into the occurrences and implemented Veeam software and a disaster recovery plan to improve its cyber security posture. This included splitting the IT systems across two supplier WANs, with some sites also utilising 4G for failover where appropriate.

To meet the council’s growing data storage requirements and to reduce the risk of outages, Atturra drove and supported a series of upgrades and iterations, including building capacity, replacing out-of-warranty technology and implementing those changes while keeping the council online and available to its citizens 24/7.

Delivery is provided to Upper Hunter Shire Council through a mixture of onsite and remote support.

“Whether we need a technical resolution or a sounding board for a new IT initiative, Atturra are always willing to help, and they provide solutions at a level and cost appropriate for our organisation. Having a collaborative relationship that allows us to access Atturra’s skills and knowledge, and where they deeply know us, our processes, systems and people, gives our team confidence we can stay operational and secure to serve our citizens.”

David O’Brien,
Manager Information Services, Upper Hunter Shire Council

Outcomes achieved

Working with Atturra as a trusted and reliable IT solutions partner has enabled the Information Services team to remain lean, whilst being able to consistently deliver on their target to ensure technology is sourced and maintained to meet increasing requirements.

The initiatives Atturra and the council undertake together reflect a commitment to leveraging modern technology to improve service delivery, embodying the strategic directions of Responsible Governance. They signify a forward-thinking approach aimed at innovation and continuous improvement, which not only enhances accessibility but also fosters open communication with its stakeholders and citizens. The relationship has contributed to the council achieving the strategic objectives of its community priorities around quality infrastructure and responsible governance.

Technologies

  • Microsoft (Office 365 and Windows Server)
  • Cisco
  • Dell
  • VMware
  • Veeam
  • HPE
  • Citrix
  • Microtik
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