Case Studies

Municipal utility: a disaster recovery site on Dell PowerStore

The challenge: A Kentucky municipal power utility needed its critical systems to survive the loss of its headquarters, and wanted storage at a separate disaster recovery center kept in step with headquarters.

What we did: Pinnacle designed and delivered a Dell PowerStore 1200T array and two Dell PowerEdge R670 hosts for the utility’s disaster recovery center, all-Ethernet over fiber at 25 Gb, with dedicated replication ports on each array controller and replication between the two sites.

Why it matters: The utility’s systems can run from a second building if the first is lost, on hardware sized, quoted complete and installed by one Dell Gold Partner.

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Auto dealership group: FTC Safeguards Rule testing built in

The challenge: Two franchise dealerships had to meet the FTC Safeguards Rule’s testing requirements, and were being approached by third parties selling penetration tests.

What we did: Pinnacle runs monthly vulnerability scanning at both stores and added the annual penetration test the Safeguards Rule calls for at no additional cost under their managed agreement, with results documented for the dealerships’ compliance records.

Why it matters: The testing requirement is met by the team that already knows the network, and findings get fixed by the same people who found them.

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Dental practice: retiring an aging server

The challenge: A family dental practice was running its office on a very old server and a failing network switch, and was moving to cloud-based practice software.

What we did: Pinnacle planned the server’s retirement: Microsoft 365 Business Premium for every user with Entra sign-in and Defender, Huntress detection and response, documents moved to SharePoint and OneDrive, cloud backup for every user, a replacement switch, and Teams Phone with Yealink desk phones and fax moved to an online service. The choice of practice software stayed with the dentist; Pinnacle laid out the risks of each option.

Why it matters: No server to fail, every user secured, and a predictable monthly cost.