The Client
The Occupational Health and Safety Agency for Healthcare in BC (OHSAH) was conceived in early 1998 in an Accord between management and union representatives. The Accord resulted in the creation of OHSAH, an agency with the goal of reducing workplace injuries and illness in healthcare workers and returning injured workers back to the job quickly and safely.

BITS has acted as a technical consultant for OHSAH’s in-house IT team on a number of projects over the course of a working relationship that spans almost a decade.

At a Glance:

• A 10 year working relationship
• Multiple projects to support OHSAH’s in-house IT team
• Advanced planning and consultation for all aspects of IT infrastructure

The Situation
OHSAH was looking to achieve the performance of a mid-sized server farm, but with a smaller hardware footprint and lower overall maintenance cost. The solution needed to be setup quickly and within strict deadlines as OHSAH moved into their new location. Ultimately, the solution needed to be implemented with minimal downtime, maximum performance, the ability to scale to future needs, and a price point that beat all alternatives.

What We Did
BITS architected a virtualized server setup that allowed a handful of physical servers to deliver the same performance as a setup requiring quadruple the number of machines. One of the servers was configured with 5 virtual machines running Microsoft Sharepoint, Microsoft Exchange, a Domain Controller, a RAS Firewall, and a development environment. This freed up other servers for a few entirely new initiatives that were ramping up and provided OHSAH with plenty of room to grow.

The Result
BITS was able to deliver the desired performance using a minimal number of servers, saving OHSAH from buying into expensive, hardware-heavy alternatives. This smaller server footprint has translated directly into cost savings on overhead and maintenance. Through clever optimization, the new system actually runs faster than the previous setup while adding plenty of room to scale to growing needs. Ultimately, the system was implemented exactly as planned - a seamless transition implemented on time and within budget.

“For over 8 years, BITS has acted as the experts to our own IT department. Their knowledge and foresight have been indispensable, allowing our IT team to concentrate on the day-to-day tasks.”