Merger
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Company A and company B have merged and the want to become company C in few months.
Company A 80 users – virtualised esxi and with scope to accommodate a lot more infrasrtructure has a domain – exchange in house – accounts package – 4 branch offices and other key apps
Company B 60 users virtualised hiperv ( no much scope for expansion ) has the same as company A but only 3 branch offices and they are in a separate location.
Now a decision has been made that company B will move in to the same premise of company A and company B will adopt some application that company A uses for key function like accounts etc.
Now the two companies have separate AD – exchange - domains – DHCP remote desktops etc and I am thinking on the best way of getting them working causing last disruption as possible.
In normal circumstances I would have created a trust between the two domains, create a new domain and migrate the AD to the new domain, gradually move the remote desktop , connect the branch offices and get them migrated in stages.
This is not feasible, as they want to move and work as the new company in two months. I need to start get things sorted so that they are ready for when they move company B in to company A ?
Any pointers on where to start?
Ie what can I do with the AD ? will it be wise to move both company to a new domain so then when we move the workstation they can login to the new domain.
Is there a way to get the two exchange server and mailboxes ready so that we can redirects emails to a single exchange and point the mx records to that server ?
Company A points to remote desktop for some offices, Company b point to remote desktop for some other offices, i woud need to create a new remote desktop server ( but that implies that all the apps and services have been moved. )
Is there a way of running two domains from the same office ( ie keeping the company A - and company B separate ) but in the same building ?Thanks
Stef -
A single, new AD and moving everyone to it is painful but likely prudent. And get Office 365 and get their email and other stuff off premises ASAP. Sounds like two outdated IT departments that weren't being watched over too carefully spending money a bit recklessly.
If they have experience with Hyper-V already, that's the likely better choice for them to be moving towards for their infrastructure consolidation.
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@StefUk said:
Is there a way of running two domains from the same office ( ie keeping the company A - and company B separate ) but in the same building ?
Yes, AD Domains are not related to networking. You can have unlimited AD on a single LAN.
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@aaronstuder said:
@scottalanmiller said:
You can have unlimited AD on a single LAN.
Not that you should, but you can
Domain all the things!
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o365 not an option as DMS ( document management systems core application ) dont integrate with this too well so not an option at present.
o365 will only address the email side and still need to address the issue about moving premise and domain - AD - remote desktop - local computers, apps migration to company B etc ...
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@StefUk said:
Is there a way to get the two exchange server and mailboxes ready so that we can redirects emails to a single exchange and point the mx records to that server ?
That's actually quite easy, just set up the new Exchange (hopefully not on prem) and get it all ready. Point each MX there when ready. You don't have to do both at once, do one at a time.
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We do merger's all the time. as a very large company and we are always buying up little guys doing neat stuff.
#1 thing, is don't go to fast with the transitions. You never no what you are going to break do it in stages. Setup a domain trust first to get things going (after initial inspection to check for virus production, security etc). Also if you have a legal department check with them. In many cases they will want DATA separation for 1-3 years for legal reasons.
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Are remote apps in use currently? What about VPNs?
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if we could i would have suggested to do it slower but they made all the pre arrangement and I need to try and make it happen in two months . They are actually legal firms merging so no need to call the lawyers
they want to merge the data from company B to company A and work as company C , that's not a big deal as I can get this sorted. It's the integration of all the other infrastructure - services that is making me twitch ..
i m thinking on "mirroring" the two as best as I can then do the big switch over a long week end .. -
@scottalanmiller said
Sounds like two outdated IT departments that weren't being watched over too carefully spending money a bit recklessly.
How did you reach that conclusion?
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@scottalanmiller
remote app you mean cloud based ?yea each office has a VPN to connect the branch offices.
company A has 4 branch office connected via VPN
company B has 3 branch office connected via VPNthey access the main apps and services via RDP
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@scottalanmiller said
Sounds like two outdated IT departments that weren't being watched over too carefully spending money a bit recklessly.
How did you reach that conclusion?
ESXi for one... spending money or lacking capabilities in an SMB. We know the size of these companies, they are not big enough to even thing about getting the advantages that VMware can offer at scale. The cost of VMware licensing to be useful would be larger than we would expect the entire budget for IT for a company of this size to be. It's an order or magnitude off in this case. We don't know every detail, but this one is extreme. Sure it might be lingering from long ago, but that means that either people have not been overseeing the spending for years, investing in technical debt and/or just letting things age.
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@StefUk said:
@scottalanmiller
remote app you mean cloud based ?No, just remote apps in the general sense.
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@StefUk said:
they access the main apps and services via RDP
Then what is the purpose of the VPN? Why have a LANless design around app handling but then extend the LAN anyway? What's the goal and reason behind each?
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@StefUk said:
o365 not an option as DMS ( document management systems core application ) dont integrate with this too well so not an option at present.
have you checked into this? What's causing this problem? is this an outdated core dependency?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
How did you reach that conclusion?
Dependencies on on premises email for another. The dependency is possibly real, but how did it happen?
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@scottalanmiller
let's not start this .. this is not a character assassination on what could have been done better and why company use certain technologies nor other.. you can create an other post on best practices .. ( i m sure we have a few) -
yes the legal industry is what it is ... no option to change the DMS systems
