Managed IT for Able Electrical LTD: On-Site Storage, Microsoft 365, and Secure Remote Access
Able Electrical LTD - Electrical Contractor, Surrey BC
Managed IT for Able Electrical LTD in Surrey and the Lower Mainland: what we found, what we put in place, and what they run on now.
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The Problem
Able Electrical LTD was taking on more job sites across Surrey and the Lower Mainland, and the crew's IT had not kept up. Business data was scattered across personal devices. There was no centralized file storage, no backup system, and field staff had no way to securely reach office files from a job site. This page is that IT work. The website rebuild is a separate case study.
Our Solution
Custom NAS Server with RAIDZ1 Storage
We designed and deployed a custom 1U rack server running TrueNAS Community Edition as Able Electrical LTD's on-premise network attached storage. It holds three WD Red Pro 6TB drives in a RAIDZ1 array, which gives about 12TB of usable storage and keeps working if one drive fails. Able Electrical LTD owns the server and controls it, with no monthly cloud storage fees.
MinIO S3-Compatible Object Storage
On top of TrueNAS, we deployed MinIO, an S3-compatible object storage layer, so Able Electrical LTD's applications can store and retrieve files with standard API calls. Project management data, documents, job-site photos, and business files are all stored at their office. Their apps talk to it the same way they would talk to cloud storage, and the data stays on hardware they control.
SMB File Shares for the Office Team
We configured SMB network shares for the Able Electrical LTD office team, organized by project, department, and access level. Office staff open the shared drives from their Windows workstations, and permissions control who can view, edit, or delete each file. Files no longer go back and forth by email or sit in personal Dropbox accounts.
Tailscale Remote Access for Field Staff
Field technicians and project managers need business files and systems from job sites across the Lower Mainland. We deployed Tailscale, a zero-config VPN mesh network, so authorized staff can connect to the Able Electrical LTD office network from any device while the server stays off the public internet. Each device takes minutes to set up, on iOS or Android.
Microsoft 365 and Device Management
We migrated Able Electrical LTD's team to Microsoft 365 Business Standard, setting up business email, Teams for internal communication, and SharePoint for document collaboration. All company devices were enrolled in Microsoft Intune for centralized device management, so we can wipe a device remotely, enforce policies, and deploy software from a single dashboard.
Virsa on Their Own Server
We set up and configured Virsa for the Able Electrical LTD team, using their new NAS and MinIO as the storage backend. Project managers track active jobs, assign tasks to crew members, monitor budgets, and keep each job's photos, contracts, permits, and change orders with the project. All Virsa data lives on Able Electrical LTD's own server at their office. We trained the full team on how to use it.
Ongoing Managed IT Support
Astro Developments continues as Able Electrical LTD's managed IT partner. Ongoing support means a help desk the office and field crew can call when something breaks, updates and patching for the systems and devices we put in place, and monitoring of the network and on-site storage.
The Result
Able Electrical LTD's business data is centralized, backed up, and accessible to the right people. Office staff use structured SMB shares from their Windows workstations. Field technicians and project managers connect from job sites across the Lower Mainland through Tailscale, with the server kept off the public internet. The team is on Microsoft 365 Business Standard, with business email, Teams, SharePoint, and company devices enrolled in Microsoft Intune. Field staff manage their jobs through Virsa, and every project record lives on hardware they own. Astro Developments still supports the whole setup.
"We went from spreadsheets and group texts to a real system that actually works for our business. The Astro team built exactly what we needed and made sure our team actually knew how to use it."
- Able Electrical LTD
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