Case Study: Victorian Department of Justice
Victorian Department of Justice
The Victorian Department of Justice brings together Government activities concerned with reform, administration and enforcement of the law in Victoria. For the Departments 4,000 staff members, these activities include enforcement management functions, administration of courts and tribunals, provision of correctional services, consumer and business affairs services, drafting of legislation and provision of legal advice to government.
The Challenge: Fast, Centralised Deployment of Lotus Notes
With 1,300 staff working across 100 sites throughout metropolitan Melbourne and country Victoria, the State Governments preference for using Lotus Notes for mail and scheduling presented the Department with a number of challenges. The most prominent of these was cost. If Lotus Notes servers were to be deployed under the Departments distributed IT model, they would need to be purchased and commissioned at each site. Under this model, data replication - an underlying principal of Lotus Notes - would cause undue strain on bandwidth and support across the entire network.
According to Caesar Formica, the Department of Justices General Manager, IT, there were really only two alternatives. The first option would have been an expensive distributive computer environment including a significant increase of bandwidth and higher support right across the WAN, he stated. The second option was centralising deployment of Lotus Notes using Citrix MetaFrame. Simple economics showed us that Citrix presented a much more viable solution over the long-term.
Implementing Citrix MetaFrame Application Server Software
The Department of Justice worked with MicroHelp, a Gold-level member of the Citrix Solutions Network, to implement the MetaFrame solution. With 22 Compaq DL360 servers running Citrix MetaFrame software on Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition, the Departments project resulted in the largest Citrix installation within the Australian Government sector.
Weve achieved many benefits over traditional Notes solutions by centralising our Lotus Notes servers in the one Load Balanced MetaFrame server farm, stated Formica. Rather than having Notes database replication across the entire network, its restricted to high-speed connections within the MetaFrame server farm; and because we dont have to worry about bandwidth, we can schedule replication as often as we like.
Room For Growth
By implementing MetaFrame, the Department has created a firm foundation upon which to build additional server-based computing solutions apart from Lotus Notes. Applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat are installed on the MetaFrame servers and accessed via any device connected to the system. We used to run all these applications on the client PCs, said Formica. By running them on the MetaFrame servers, we have saved on bandwidth every time a file is opened or saved, and dramatically increased application performance, particularly for those users whose PCs may not be overly powerful.
For those business units looking to roll out applications that may otherwise require additional servers at each site or increasing network bandwidth, the MetaFrame server-based model is seen as a cost-effective solution. It also supports very rapid deployment of their applications. Now, whenever business units within the Department approach us with the need to roll out new applications, were able to present them with the MetaFrame alternative, said Formica. Its an incredibly flexible architecture.
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Solution Overview
Key Benefits
Centralised WAN-wide Lotus Notes implementation
Improved desktop application performance
Reduced WAN-wide bandwidth consumption
Applications Deployed
Lotus Notes
Microsoft Office
Adobe Acrobat
Networking Environment
Citrix MetaFrame software running on 22 Compaq DL360 servers; dual P3 700MHz processors and 1GB RAM
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition
ISDN WAN links ranging from 64K to 512K
1000+ clients: mix of IBM and Compaq PCs running Microsoft Windows NT Workstation
About Citrix MetaFrame
Citrix MetaFrame application server software is enabling organizations to extend the virtual workplace everywhere by providing secure, reliable access to applications and information on any device or network connection from any location. MetaFrame extends the functionality of Microsoft Windows 2000 Servers and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, as well as UNIX Operating Systems. It provides enterprise management and Web-enablement of applications via Citrix NFuse, and flexible access to applications via the full Net - LANs, WANs, Internet, intranets and extranets.
The Victorian Department of Justice brings together Government activities concerned with reform, administration and enforcement of the law in Victoria. For the Departments 4,000 staff members, these activities include enforcement management functions, administration of courts and tribunals, provision of correctional services, consumer and business affairs services, drafting of legislation and provision of legal advice to government.
The Challenge: Fast, Centralised Deployment of Lotus Notes
With 1,300 staff working across 100 sites throughout metropolitan Melbourne and country Victoria, the State Governments preference for using Lotus Notes for mail and scheduling presented the Department with a number of challenges. The most prominent of these was cost. If Lotus Notes servers were to be deployed under the Departments distributed IT model, they would need to be purchased and commissioned at each site. Under this model, data replication - an underlying principal of Lotus Notes - would cause undue strain on bandwidth and support across the entire network.
According to Caesar Formica, the Department of Justices General Manager, IT, there were really only two alternatives. The first option would have been an expensive distributive computer environment including a significant increase of bandwidth and higher support right across the WAN, he stated. The second option was centralising deployment of Lotus Notes using Citrix MetaFrame. Simple economics showed us that Citrix presented a much more viable solution over the long-term.
Implementing Citrix MetaFrame Application Server Software
The Department of Justice worked with MicroHelp, a Gold-level member of the Citrix Solutions Network, to implement the MetaFrame solution. With 22 Compaq DL360 servers running Citrix MetaFrame software on Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition, the Departments project resulted in the largest Citrix installation within the Australian Government sector.
Weve achieved many benefits over traditional Notes solutions by centralising our Lotus Notes servers in the one Load Balanced MetaFrame server farm, stated Formica. Rather than having Notes database replication across the entire network, its restricted to high-speed connections within the MetaFrame server farm; and because we dont have to worry about bandwidth, we can schedule replication as often as we like.
Room For Growth
By implementing MetaFrame, the Department has created a firm foundation upon which to build additional server-based computing solutions apart from Lotus Notes. Applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat are installed on the MetaFrame servers and accessed via any device connected to the system. We used to run all these applications on the client PCs, said Formica. By running them on the MetaFrame servers, we have saved on bandwidth every time a file is opened or saved, and dramatically increased application performance, particularly for those users whose PCs may not be overly powerful.
For those business units looking to roll out applications that may otherwise require additional servers at each site or increasing network bandwidth, the MetaFrame server-based model is seen as a cost-effective solution. It also supports very rapid deployment of their applications. Now, whenever business units within the Department approach us with the need to roll out new applications, were able to present them with the MetaFrame alternative, said Formica. Its an incredibly flexible architecture.
- ends -
Solution Overview
Key Benefits
Centralised WAN-wide Lotus Notes implementation
Improved desktop application performance
Reduced WAN-wide bandwidth consumption
Applications Deployed
Lotus Notes
Microsoft Office
Adobe Acrobat
Networking Environment
Citrix MetaFrame software running on 22 Compaq DL360 servers; dual P3 700MHz processors and 1GB RAM
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition
ISDN WAN links ranging from 64K to 512K
1000+ clients: mix of IBM and Compaq PCs running Microsoft Windows NT Workstation
About Citrix MetaFrame
Citrix MetaFrame application server software is enabling organizations to extend the virtual workplace everywhere by providing secure, reliable access to applications and information on any device or network connection from any location. MetaFrame extends the functionality of Microsoft Windows 2000 Servers and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, as well as UNIX Operating Systems. It provides enterprise management and Web-enablement of applications via Citrix NFuse, and flexible access to applications via the full Net - LANs, WANs, Internet, intranets and extranets.
