For 35 years, PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia) has been supporting individuals and families to recover from perinatal anxiety, depression and postnatal psychosis. PANDA is a non-profit organisation operating Australia’s only free, national Helpline through a combination of paid and volunteer staff.
PANDA were operating in an aged infrastructure environment no longer under manufacturer’s support. The server and file storage were running Microsoft Windows that officially went end-of-life in January 2020. In addition, the offsite data-backup platform was considered redundant should a cybersecurity threat occur. Ensuring patient records and confidential data remained secure was top of mind.
M2K and Telstra designed a solution that not only met the needs of PANDA but also incorporated cost saving measures and funds to achieve maximum technology value. The existing aged server was replaced and virtual servers with required file storage and backup hardware/software were provisioned. Amazon Web Services Cloud Storage was introduced as an offsite storage destination providing great cost savings accessing AWS annual credits available to non-profit organisations. Advanced Unified Threat Management (UTM) firewalls were included utilising Telstra Technology Funds to help offset overall costs. The firewall solution added redundancy, VPN access capabilities and additional layers of security, that allowed staff to move freely and work remotely from virtually anywhere, while ensuring tight security measures in place to protect PANDA’s most valuable data.
The designed solution does more than address PANDA’s business requirements and potential risks, it provides world-class innovative technology now and into the future. Being a non-profit organisation and living the True Partnership with M2K and Telstra, PANDA enjoys a modern solution at minimum costs. True ‘value for money’ was realised and business objectives were met. The delivery of this solution was perfectly timed right before the global pandemic of COVID-19. M2K as the IT Managed Services provider, was able to transition all staff including the Helpline team, to work remotely in matter of 2 business days. With the new infrastructure, PANDA are now well equipped with the agility and speed to respond to change.
Ericom acquired M2K in January 2020
