Active Directory in the Cloud for Agribusiness – Canagri case study

From the very first conversations, we realized that MAIN is truly more than just good infrastructure and software.

Their engineers are ready to discuss specific business needs and implement comprehensive solutions tailored to our company’s profile.

Paweł Miller Application and IT Systems Administrator, Canagri

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This case study answers the following questions:

• What were Canagri’s needs regarding enterprise resource management?
• What benefits did the client gain from using MAIN’s cloud services?
• How is Canagri further developing its IT environment with MAIN?

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About the client

Canagri is a Polish family-owned company with more than 24 years of experience in the agro industry. It offers products and equipment essential for livestock farming, horticulture, professional equestrian sports, and hobby farming. Canagri is the official distributor of brands such as Kerbl, Covalliero, and Magic Brush. In addition, it produces its own range of products at three manufacturing facilities.

The company also provides comprehensive solutions tailored to businesses in the agro sector, including a wide range of products as well as support in merchandising, marketing, e-commerce, and logistics.

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MAIN and Canagri – The beginning of the partnership

The collaboration with MAIN began when Canagri was seeking support in optimizing its corporate network. As part of this project, we:

• Performed a full network diagnosis,
• Configured the main office network with additional (redundant) firewalls and switches,
• Set up the warehouse network,
• Integrated the existing WiFi with the new network infrastructure,
• Continuously monitor and maintain the entire network.

During this time, we familiarized ourselves with the client’s environment and their needs regarding the development of corporate IT. In our discussions, the topic of IdM emerged, referring to the management of identities and access to company resources.

We therefore proposed leveraging the cloud to implement a solution that would enable centralized management of accounts and endpoint devices across the entire company.

Łukasz Studziński Infrastructure Lead Engineer, MAIN

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Client’s needs – centralized identity management

Implementing centralized management of accounts, configuration, and security on employee computers was crucial for Canagri. This solution offers numerous benefits related to enhanced security, including:

• Enabling account creation and blocking across various systems and services,
• Allowing password strength enforcement,
• Improving configuration consistency and streamlining its distribution to endpoint devices.

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Proposed solution – Active Directory in MAIN cloud

Following consultations, Canagri chose our recommended solution, which involved implementing the Active Directory (AD) service along with a CA server for the domain. The setup also allows users to change their domain passwords through a web interface.

Active Directory, developed by Microsoft, enables centralized management of users, devices, and resources, providing secure access via a single, unified interface. This service not only simplifies the administration of corporate IT assets but also enhances their security.

Key features of Active Directory:

• Creation, editing, and deletion of user accounts, groups, endpoint devices, and other network resources,
• Assigning different levels of permissions to users, ensuring specific resources are accessible only to the employees and applications that require them,
• Automatic configuration of OS settings, applications, and device security across the network through group policies.

Cloud implementation for IdM

We deployed the Active Directory service for Canagri in a private cloud (Virtual Private Cloud) based on MAIN Data Center infrastructure, fully managed by our engineers. The environment at MAIN is connected to the client’s office via a secure site-to-site tunnel, linking their local company servers and employee computers.

The new environment also enables a ‘single identity’ for additional services such as M365 (formerly Office 365), VPN access, NAS file servers, and employee computers.

Initially, we launched the cloud environment solely for the Active Directory service, but over time we added additional virtual machines and services.

We carried out integration with M365, the NAS file server, and Fortigate devices for the VPN service, both at the client’s office and within the client’s managed environment at MAIN.

We continue to support Canagri’s growth, providing maintenance not only for the physical infrastructure but also for the services running on it.

Wojciech Lewandowski Head of Cloud Engineering & Operations, MAIN

The corporate network and Active Directory implementation are just the beginning of MAIN and Canagri’s partnership—the next steps include hosting the IFS Cloud system in MAIN’s cloud.

You can read more about the IFS Cloud hosting service at MAIN in a separate case study.

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Active Directory in MAIN’s cloud – benefits

The choice of Active Directory service hosted on MAIN’s infrastructure brought Canagri numerous benefits:

• Centralized management of employee accounts and computers via Active Directory greatly simplifies administrators’ work and enhances security,
• Hosting AD outside the client’s local infrastructure provides flexibility, simplifies user management, and shifts responsibility for continuous solution availability to a professional provider,
• Migration to the Virtual Private Cloud and MAIN engineers’ management support relieves the client’s server room, reduces maintenance costs, and allows the company to focus on its core business,
• Support and consulting from MAIN engineers on planned implementations of additional services and applications accelerate the client’s IT development,
• The Virtual Private Cloud based on VMware virtualization ensures flexibility and ease of resource expansion

While searching for the right provider, we heard positive opinions about MAIN — especially regarding their professional approach and the trust they have earned from their clients.

From the very first conversations, we realized that MAIN is truly Imore than just good infrastructure and software. Their engineers are ready to discuss specific business needs and implement comprehensive solutions tailored to our company’s profile.

MAIN fully deserves its reputation as a trusted partner you can rely on for the implementation, maintenance, and development of corporate IT. In every interaction with them, we feel there are real people on the other side—professionals who are ready to help at any time.

Paweł Miller Application and IT Systems Administrator, Canagri