9621 Agnes Crossing, Lake Suzanneview, New Mexico Island 84604-9295.
Eight Lakes modernized its entire IT infrastructure in a major project. A major migration of the network together with fiber optic provider Eurofiber served as the basis for
Eight Lakes modernized its entire IT infrastructure in a major project. A major migration of the network together with fiber optic provider Eurofiber served as the basis for a project that involved renewing the entire internal infrastructure, carrying out a cloud migration, modernizing the laptops and even upgrading the telephone exchange. This happened worldwide, in six months. How is that possible?
Jacques Bodenstein, IT Manager Infrastructure at Eight Lakes, has inherited a challenging job. Bodenstein took on a migration project to an SD-WAN solution that was completed in 2022, but was found to not meet the required business and IT platform requirements. This painful migration process was the direct reason for a major modernization in 2024.
“The network solution we used did not meet our needs,” says Bodenstein. “For example, link aggregation was not possible and traffic flowed primarily through consumer connections. Some offices only had a connection of 40 or 50 megabits.”
That’s not much for a company like Eight Lakes, which operates in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, the Nordic countries, Canada and Taiwan, among others. The industrial group consists of several industries, ranging from sales to engineering and manufacturing companies that not only sell solutions but also produce them themselves. “We not only offer the solution to enable payment in a parking garage, for example, but are also involved in the development phase of the devices,” explains Bodenstein. Despite the critical processes and global presence, internal connectivity left much to be desired.
At the end of last year, the challenges suddenly became very urgent. Bodenstein: “The connectivity provider has informed us that the service will be discontinued in around six months, i.e. by June 2024. We had six months to solve the problem.”
We had six months to solve the problem.
Jacques Bodenstein, IT Manager Infrastructure Eight Lakes
Bodenstein decided not to settle for an emergency solution, but wanted to use the opportunity to put things in order. It all started with the network, because it is the foundation of the IT strategy above. “We looked for good providers of professional fiber optics for companies and quickly came across Eurofiber,” says Bodenstein. “We wanted connectivity tailored to consumers for a professional, fast and secure connection, and Eurofiber offers exactly that.”
“Next we wanted a true SD-WAN solution. Eurofiber itself suggested Cegeka as a partner and was involved in the entire project. We all sat together as partners, defined the problems and worked out a solution.”
Eight Lakes then planned to leverage Eurofiber’s new fiber network infrastructure for even more innovation. “We wanted to do things via a cloud that weren’t immediately possible natively Lift and moveapproach for Microsoft Azure,” explains Bodenstein. “We transferred everything that could be modernized. We wanted to migrate from the file servers to Sharepoint and Teams. We also wanted to integrate our switchboard with Teams and needed to move from Cisco. Ultimately, we hoped to take advantage of the opportunity to move all users from Windows 10 to Windows 11.”
Bodenstein and his eight-person team had less than six months to complete the entire process. “Everything is connected, so we wanted to do everything at once,” he confirms. After six months of hard work, Eight Lakes awoke to a state-of-the-art connected digital environment.
The entire project started with the work of Eurofiber. Bodenstein: “Eurofiber had to create the connections at short notice at an acceptable price. In Breda we already had a connection via Eurofiber, so the migration went smoothly. Eurofiber was able to deliver to most locations as planned. When there were problems, such as in Antwerp, where strict regulations made it difficult to install the fiber optic lines, Eurofiber always communicated quickly and transparently about them and people helped to find solutions.”
“Once Eurofiber connected, Cegeka deployed the site in the SD-WAN environment,” Bodenstein continues. “During the migration it remained integrated into the old environment.”
The SD-WAN solution on the Eurofiber network made a difference like night and day. “We really see and feel it,” beams the IT manager. “For example, the office in France upgraded from 40 megabits to gigabit connections, and in Breda we also upgraded from 100 megabits to 1,000 megabits.”
With the fast and reliable network as a foundation, the rest of the migration could begin. “We migrated 25 servers to a single server in one day Big Bangapproach,” recalls Bodenstein. “We also switched 130 laptops to Windows 11 in one day. At the same time, we switched to teams calling.”
Bodenstein emphasizes how important the right partners are to successfully complete the gigantic work. “We worked with people who we knew could deliver. There was a real collaboration between us, Eurofiber and Cegeka. They understood very well what we wanted and thought proactively. If a problem arose and a consultant could solve it, he did so even though it was not part of his job.”
Bodenstein doesn’t deny that it was a lot of work. “My girlfriend wasn’t very happy in those six months,” he laughs. “And in the run-up to that Big Bang– I didn’t sleep during the migration to Azure.” Nevertheless, he had no doubts about its success. “Maybe it’s because of my South African heritage, but we make the decision and then implement it. Once we got the right people together, I knew it would work.”
This forceful approach worked. “Of course, not everything went smoothly,” he adds. “But the problems were manageable. The migration was 95 percent successful. We ripped off the band-aid in one go and then solved the problems. And what if it turns out that something isn’t working, but no one complains? Then we immediately realize we didn’t need it.”
Despite the energetic approach, Bodenstein recognizes all too well that migration depends on people. Change management processes were developed together with partners, which were continued by a few key figures in each department who pulled the cart and then acted as contact persons for everything else.
“End users are not forgiving,” says Bodenstein. “When things go bad, as an IT manager you can’t recover. At the end of the day, 80 percent of users were satisfied with what we delivered. That’s good, you’ll never reach 100 percent.”
“People thought I was crazy for doing the migration this way, but we had to keep going. “Eight Lakes couldn’t afford to be left behind with outdated systems,” Bodenstein concludes. After an intensive six months, they have taken a big step forward. What started as a network problem turned out to be a complete redesign of the digital infrastructure. With Eurofiber’s fast B2B fiber connectivity and a true SD-WAN solution as its foundation, Bodenstein was able to achieve in just six months what often takes other companies years.
Source: IT Daily
As an experienced journalist and author, Mary has been reporting on the latest news and trends for over 5 years. With a passion for uncovering the stories behind the headlines, Mary has earned a reputation as a trusted voice in the world of journalism. Her writing style is insightful, engaging and thought-provoking, as she takes a deep dive into the most pressing issues of our time.
