Riverside Vineyard Church - a client case study

Riverside Vineyard is a community-based church in West London which currently provides many services to the local community from it's own redeveloped site in Feltham. From the start it has sought to respond to the social as well as spiritual needs of the local area providing food and clothing for families unable to afford even the most basic items.

Overview

Since its beginning, Riverside Vineyard Church has experienced growth in terms of membership and has increased the services it provides to the community. From a single room office in 1990, through two other sites, to the current purpose built auditorium with offices, the ongoing challenge has been to enable the IT infrastructure to grow in such a way as to always facilitate this growth. Each new office has required network installation, management and upgrading as the technology has become available and the installation of additional workstations as staff numbers grew.

Telephone Systems

I was involved in the procurement and installation of a Panasonic analogue switch which I subsequently upgraded internally to increase the number of exchange lines and extensions. More recently I sourced and oversaw the installation of a Siemens digital telephone system including remote door entry.

Networking

As the number of staff and volunteers increased, the networking of workstations was required to share facilities. The first network infrastructure was a Windows for Workgroups peer network utilizing 10Base2 cabling. Through time and site relocation this was upgraded through a Windows 2000 domain to 20 workstations on a Windows 2008 domain running on 100BaseT. More recently staff working away from the main offices have required remote access which has been enabled via an SSL VPN appliance. Plans are being considered to further upgrade parts of the internal network to Gigabit Ethernet.

Email

Initially this was a single POP3 account which was delivered to a single email client. This was changed to a simple email sorting program which enabled personally addressed emails to be delivered to individual desks. When the Windows 2000 domain was running, I also installed and managed an Exchange 2000 server attached to the domain. Currently emails have been migrated to Google Apps for Business to utilize the numerous advantages of that platform.

Office Software

Throughout the history of the organization various versions of Microsoft Office and Office Pro have been used subsequent to the initial use of Word Perfect.

Database

From an early point there has been a requirement to keep data easily available to staff, initially using Paradox, then Microsoft Access and currently a custom-built, Ubuntu based MySQL platform running on a standalone internal LAMP installation.

Internet Connection

Having had a dialup connection to begin with, a proxy server was installed to enable Internet access from each desktop. With the advent of universally affordable broadband, I researched a suitable provider and installed a wires-only ADSL line subsequently upgrading both the routers and wiring to the current up to 20Mbps service. During this time I have had to deal with connectivity issues, troubleshooting the problems and holding those responsable to account. This has ranged from intermittent faults to complete failure of exchange lines requiring 'intense' communication with the provider in question.

Throughout my association with Riverside Vineyard Church I have needed to find a balance between making the best use of available resources whilst incorporating advances in technology. I was able to source second-user servers and other equipment which could be upgraded to a suitable specification to run recent operating systems at a significant cost saving to Riverside. I believe that I understand and can work within the necessary limitations of organizations seeking to make the best use of their resources at a time of financial constraint, but at the same time not limiting them to outdated and expensive technologies.