Rotor & Drums is Australia's
second largest distributor of brake components to the auto repair
industry.They have experience rapid growth in the last year
to expand their Melbourne operations to Sydney and Brisbane.
THE CHALLENGE
Les wanted all the remote staff
to access the company's sales and inventory system in Melbourne.
The solution had to be easy for non-technical staff to using,
safe and reliable. It also had to enable to staff to print their
invoices from printers installed at each remote site.
THE SOLUTION
Network Overdrive proposed a Linux
base internet server in each warehouse with the Secure Shell
(ssh) application to connect to the Melbourne office. Remote
printing was enabled through terminal emulation control strings.
The remote server will also provide a graphical logon to diskless
workstations in the warehouse so staff can check inventory from
a number of different places.(www.ltsp.org)
The site would have dialup capabilities to the internet with
the central office being permanently connected.
The central office would also have a firewall installed to protect
the mission-critical server from malicious attacks.
BENEFITS
Connecting to the Melbourne office
via the internet saved Rotor & Drums money by not needing
to buy dedicated leased lines.
The ssh application ensured that sensitive data could not be
read in transit and the firewall protected the central database.
Using the internet also has enable Rotor & Drum's staff
to have permanent access to web and email as an added bonus.
Network Overdrive has been able to reduce the cost of remote
administration of Sydney's and Brisbane's server through the
stability and nature of Linux.
IN SUMMARY
Network Overdrive used standard
internet tools and security techniques to enable Rotor &
Drums to roll out a nation-wide business cheaply and reliably.
