Internet Watch Foundation by Lydia Hill

Case Study Synopsis Vertical: Charity Core activity:

Combating online child sexual abuse

Employees: 20 Challenge:

Delivering reliable affordable mail service on-premise

Solution:

Hosted Exchange Email service and Advanced Back Up

Internet Watch Foundation www.iwf.org.uk

Watchdog policing the misuse of the internet moves mission critical email service to a hosted Cloud Service The Internet Watch Foundation was established in 1996 as a Hotline to combat the growing threat of the Internet being used as a means of distributing child abuse images and other criminal activity. As the leading independent authority it has built a trusted reputation in government, law enforcement and industry driving standards through industry self regulation. The challenge

The Solution

As an organisation working in the online environment email is a mission critical service to ensure suspicious and criminal activity is able to be reported, investigated thoroughly and resolved on a timely basis.

Softwerx worked with the IWF to understand the critical needs of their hotline operations and the levels of traffic being generated. Due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, Softwerx partnered with Rise, a leading UK based Cloud Service Provider to design and provision a hosted email service on the Microsoft Exchange platform to enhance the range of features and capabilities available to the IWF. In addition the new service was enhanced through the addition of an Advanced Backup solution to ensure that the IWF had a means of guaranteeing he availability of their critical email history and could protect their service availability at a cost that could not be achieved on premise.

Due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, the IWF had been running an on-premise server to deliver email services using Microsoft Exchange 2003. It had become time consuming and costly to support and did not take advantage of many of the benefits that had been implemented in the Exchange platform since. The IWFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Director of Operations, Technology and Content, Fred Langford, has overall responsibility for delivering the technical services that IWF rely on to operate. Concerned with the costs to upgrade and deliver email services from their on-premise server room, he enlisted the services of Softwerx as a local trusted technology partner to scope and implement an email service that could be delivered at a predictable, affordable costs and provide higher levels of security, resilience and recovery than could afford to be delivered on site.

With the Rise commitment to guaranteeing data sovereignty, high security and resilient operations, and the application and customer environment knowledge established by Softwerx, the solution was provisioned within 2 days of order and has operated efficiently since its launch.

Email is the life blood of our organisation and we are delighted with the solution provided by Softwerx, our trusted technology provider, which has overnight reduced our costs base and simultaneously improved our operational resilience enabling us to focus more effort and funds into our core mission of combating online child sexual abuse Fred Langford - Director, IWF

The Outcome The project was delivered on time, in budget and required no additional communications infrastructure to support the new hosted operation. The IWF now has all employees and their critical Helpline service email operating on a highly resilient platform reducing the administrative and maintenance workloads on the IWF, removing the need for any capital expenditure and delivering an effective solution at a predictable affordable cost.

About Softwerx Softwerx is a dynamic IT Services company based in Cambridge specialising in the design, migration and support of hosted and cloud solutions. With strategic partnerships with vendors such as Microsoft and Rise, Softwerx offers its customers an unparalleled level of support and service in delivering IT solutions, on-premise or as hosted or cloud services. With extensive experience, an enviable reputation and a solid track record in supporting organisations in the Not For Profit and Legal and Service Industries, Softwerx is well positioned to assist organisations in the expansion of their IT services to include hosted and cloud services to deliver flexibility and agility whilst containing cost and enhancing security and resilience.

To learn more contact Softwerx on 08458 450567 or by email to info@Softwerx.com