Case Study: Johnson Matthey consolidates Active Directory with Dell

Chemicals manufacturer Johnson Matthey has used tools from Dell to simplify a complex, multinational Active Directory infrastructure.
The company has evolved from autonomous business units. The organisation used to run Novell servers with Novell directory services across 120 sites, all of which were administered by separate IT teams.

As part of a re-organisation of IT – from regional organisation to a centralised structure – Johnson Matthey found it had over 30 Active Directories. Stephen Way, divisional IT director of Johnson Matthey, said: "We had a very devolved structure with every site using its own Active Directory. We recognised we needed a single directory."

There was no incentive for Johnson Matthey to simplify its Active Directory infrastructure, but Way said: "We had plans to move off Novell and we wanted to deploy SharePoint across the company."

He also wanted to prepare Johnson Matthey for using cloud service. The company was also considering cloud email. A single Active Directory was a prerequisite to these intentions.

Way looked at the native Microsoft Active Directory migration manager tool, along with identity management software, but found the tools had a heavy overhead. "We did not want to impose extra administration on the network."

Johnson Matthey selected Dell Migration Manager for Active Directory to move the regional Active Directories into a single Active Directory and used Dell's Active Role Server to support devolved administration rights.

Way explained: "We chose this solution as the benefits were threefold. It allowed us to deliver the Active Directory migration within our tight deadline without data loss and disruption to the majority of users; improve security levels and comply with industry regulations; and provide ongoing management. Because it manages some of the administration, ActiveRoles Server has also delivered significant time savings for IT staff, giving them more time to focus on value-added activities. Support calls have dropped by 98%."
The consolidation of Active Directories was relatively straightforward. He said: “We needed to set two-way traffic between host and target Active Directory forests with full rights. We asked sites to clean up their Active Directory to remove users who had left the company."

The migration team needed to visit each site to change the login domain of each PC and server, so the user would use the new Active Directory domain when they next logged in.

"The project took eight and a half months and a lot of air miles, because we had to touch every machine," Way added.

"A site would have a long list of machines on its Active Directory. Some of these machines were not being used and some needed different configurations. In a well-run site we would need to visit 15% of the machines, but in a less well-run site we would have to check 99% of the machines."
In parallel to the Active Directory project, the company upgraded its network to MPLS and deployed network acceleration appliances.

The project took eight and a half months and a lot of air miles, because we had to touch every machine
Stephen Way, divisional IT director, Johnson Matthey

He said the biggest problem was with users who noticed their domain had changed, and who would alter the settings to attempt to log into the old domain and then call the helpdesk to say they could no longer login. All the work on the servers was done in the background but each one needed rebooting to access the new Active Directory.

The team also needed to ensure that domain name services (DNS) for each site had the correct entries, he added. "Active Directory is very reliant on a clean DNS to work. We had 30 domains and around over 100 DNS servers which needed to be cleaned up."

As in any major project, preparation was key. Way said the biggest part of preparation was in winning the hearts and minds of the administrators in the other Johnson Way office, who had previously managed their own domains. "We did not impose global naming standards for user names and device naming, but the Dell tool enabled us bring in everything." Any duplications or discrepancies were cleared up, he said.

Microsoft consolidates startup support activities with Microsoft Ventures

As its annual Build development conference gets underway, Microsoft is announcing that it has shuffled and revamped the way it handles its startup support activities. A number of disparate programs have been tied together under a single, unified division within the company, called Microsoft Ventures.

 

Tech veteran Rahul Sood, who joined Microsoft in 2010 from Hewlett-Packard, announced the launch in a blog post that outlines the numerous changes the company is making to the way it supports entrepreneurs. He calls the new unified division "a coordinated global effort that offers the tools, resources, expertise and routes to market by providing mentorship, technology guidance, seed funding, joint selling opportunities and other benefits." Whew!

The three pillars of Redmond.

What's changing? The updates focus on three major areas.

 

First is the long-running BizSpark program, which was established in 2008 and is now being folded into Microsoft Ventures. BizSpark provides free access to Microsoft software design and development products, as well as training services, for a period of three years to relevant startups and other partners. To date, 45,000 companies have taken advantage of the offer. Under Microsoft Ventures, this program isn't significantly changing, but it will be now managed by Ventures directly.

 

Next, the new Microsoft Ventures Accelerators is an expansion of the company's current international accelerator program, bringing locations in Germany, Russia, and Brazil into the fold. This "immersive" program, which lasts for up to six months, is available to full-time tech startups that have less than $1 million in total capital raised. Those selected into the program get mentoring from Microsoft, tech development and design help, and various tools and resources to help them get underway. 114 companies to date have graduated from the accelerator program, and, per Sood, nearly all have received funding subsequently. The new announcement brings the total number of accelerator offices worldwide to eight.

 

Lastly it comes down to cold, hard cash. Less than a year ago, Microsoft launched the Bing Fund as a way to provide early-stage venture capital to very new companies, offering (for Microsoft, anyway) chump change in the amount of $50,000 to $100,000 to the startups it took an interest in. Bing Fund recipients also got access to design and development aid and could even take office space on the Microsoft campus. Now the Bing Fund is getting an upgrade (and the name itself has been retired). It's unclear how much additional money is being funneled into the VC program, or if a formal cap has even been set. (The Bing Fund, according to its CrunchBase profile, invested in only about a half dozen startups in its first year of operation), but The Next Web reports that Sood might be looking for slightly more mature companies to receive investments going forward.

 

This expansion of its startup-focused efforts is a smart move for Microsoft and a solid lead for tech startups seeking financing. The company notes that recipients need not be focused on Microsoft or its technologies, though it's clear that incorporating something out of Redmond into your business plan won't hurt your chances of being selected.