Dunes Properties Systems Moves to Co-Location Facility with Minimal Downtime

Dunes Properties, a leading real estate and property management firm with offices in Isle of Palms, Mount Pleasant, Folly Beach, Johns Island, and Seabrook Island, and soon in downtown Charleston, has survived many coastal hurricane seasons with their IT systems remaining intact.

But with the prediction of more difficult weather seasons approaching and implementation of a new network/telecommunications infrastructure with Spirit Telecommunications planned, Dunes Properties accepted a recommendation from eGroup to move their systems away from their Isle of Palms location, which just over the dunes from the Atlantic Ocean, into a hardened co-location facility in Charleston.

The co-location facility, owned by SCANA, provides the ability to maintain systems above flood levels experienced during hurricane Hugo and other previous storms, as well as constant generator provided power in the event of power failure. Dunes Properties has utilized eGroup for many years as their sole IT provider, and again trusted eGroup to handle the design and move to the co-location facility.

Thorough planning sessions involving Dunes Properties' management, eGroup, Spirit Telecommunications and SCANA were conducted to ensure a smooth transition. With a new data circuit pre-installed and tested in the co-location facility, eGroup was able to shutdown and disassemble the entire core IT systems infrastructure beginning on a Sunday morning, moving it to the co-location facility, reassembling and reconfiguring the systems to be functional for the Dunes staff to return to work on Monday morning.

eGroup also swarmed the Dunes Properties remote sites to reconfigure and test network devices and user interfaces. eGroup engineers were in place on Monday to assist with any bumps in operation, which as it turned out, were minimal. The results are obvious. In the case of a power outage, hurricane, or other potential disaster, having all systems at the co-location facility will allow Dunes Properties to more quickly return to business with the confidence that their IT infrastructure will be available.

Reflecting on the transition, VP of Finance, Nina McCurdy said, "eGroup has once again helped put Dunes Properties in an ideal position for optimal productivity and business continuity. Thank you so much for supporting us. I hope you realize you have been the biggest contributor to our success over the years. I look forward to our future as business partners."

Past experience and the drive to obtain every advantage for success is why Dunes Properties treats IT as an investment rather than an expense. This is also why they choose eGroup and their expertise in creating technology solutions for serious competitors.

About eGroup: eGroup provides technology solutions for serious competitors. Specifically, eGroup specializes in IT infrastructure design, Enterprise storage and backup strategies including Disaster Preparedness, data centralization and secure access solutions, network security, and secure LAN/WAN/Wireless architectures. eGroup's solutions combine robust high-availability and performance with secure information access. These solutions enable customers to efficiently execute revenue-driving roles, and achieve the goal of cutting the organization's acquisition and on-going support costs. eGroup understands that investment-oriented professionals must focus on making sound business decisions that provide significant returns.

eGroup provides the thought leadership and expertise for customers to ensure that their technology investments continue to strengthen their competitive advantage in the marketplace. After all, a company's success hinges on making critical business decisions that must be supported by its IT systems. By architecting high performance networking and computing platforms, and delivering the industry-proven systems engineering and application development expertise, eGroup helps companies make confident decisions.

Media Contact: Chris Hogan