Our history
Deep expertise, built layer by layer
The knowledge behind Hanobox did not begin with the company, and it has never been one person’s knowledge. It was forged in the server rooms, network racks and email systems of the late nineties – and it has grown with the people who have joined since and brought their own practice with them. There are four of us today, one of whom has been here for over ten years. From the first ISDN lines and Novell networks to multi-cloud architectures and zero-trust frameworks, we have been at the front of every significant change in business IT. This timeline shows how that expertise came about – layer by layer, not overnight.
Where it started: data transfer over modems
The first links between sites, long before broadband. This is where our feel for what data transfer really costs comes from – in time, in bandwidth, in patience.
Enterprise networks and Novell
Designing and managing local area networks. Hands-on work with Novell NetWare, Token Ring to Ethernet migrations and structured cabling for SMEs. This is where the understanding of network protocols and infrastructure took root that still underpins everything we do.
Business email, open source from day one
Building and running some of the first dedicated email infrastructures for mid-sized companies. Our open-source roots are here: Sendmail and Postfix on Linux, alongside early Microsoft Exchange 5.5 environments. SMTP routing, DNS MX records and spam filtering, long before cloud mailboxes existed.
The move to broadband
From ISDN dial-up to permanent DSL and leased-line connections for business customers. Early IPsec VPN tunnels linking branch offices – a milestone that changed how SMEs saw wide area networking.
Windows 2000 and Active Directory
Leading large-scale migrations from NT4 domains to Windows 2000 Server and Active Directory. Building the identity and group policy frameworks some clients still rely on today. In parallel, Exchange 2000, clustering and company-wide backup strategies.
Wireless networks, VoIP and unified communications
Early enterprise Wi-Fi deployments (802.11b/g) with RADIUS authentication. Voice over IP replacing ageing PBX systems, integrating telephony, voicemail and email into the first unified communications environments for SME clients.
Virtualisation takes hold
VMware ESX and KVM/QEMU to consolidate physical servers, cutting hardware costs sharply and improving disaster recovery. Expertise in SAN storage (iSCSI, Fibre Channel) and virtual networking that became the foundation of modern data centre work.
Hanobox e.K. is founded
After nearly a decade of building expertise in networks, email and infrastructure, the company is formally established. Its mission: honest, vendor-independent advice grounded in practical experience rather than theory.
Exchange 2007, advanced routing, first managed services
Rolling out Exchange 2007 with unified messaging and Outlook Anywhere for mobile access. Expanding the network practice into MPLS, BGP and WAN optimisation for multi-site organisations. The first long-term managed service agreements mark the shift from pure consulting to ongoing operational partnerships.
IPv6, first cloud migrations and hybrid architectures
We were among the first SME-focused consultancies to move production workloads into early AWS and Azure environments, developing hybrid architectures that connected on-premises data centres to cloud resources over site-to-site VPN and later ExpressRoute or Direct Connect. IPv6 support becomes part of our standard approach to future-proof network design.
Office 365 and the end of on-premises mailboxes
Migrating from on-premises Exchange to Office 365, now Microsoft 365, managing complex hybrid coexistence scenarios, ADFS federation and DirSync or AAD Connect deployments. This wave completed a fifteen-year arc from Sendmail to fully cloud-hosted corporate email.
SD-WAN, open-source firewalls and ERP consulting
SD-WAN replacing costly MPLS circuits. Open-source firewall platforms such as pfSense and OPNsense alongside commercial next-generation firewalls. At the same time, the ERP consulting practice begins, positioning ERPNext and Odoo as serious alternatives to proprietary market leaders.
Management consulting and process maturity
Extending beyond technology into business process analysis and operational consulting. Applying standard methodologies – PDCA, Lean, ITIL, ISO/IEC 20000, Six Sigma – to assess and improve end-to-end processes. Combining IT knowledge with management method so clients get more value from the systems they already have.
Zero trust, SIEM and end-to-end ERP
Introducing zero-trust principles across client environments: conditional access, MFA throughout, microsegmentation. Deploying the first SIEM platforms for round-the-clock threat monitoring. Delivering several end-to-end ERP implementations including full data migration and training.
The pandemic: remote work overnight
When COVID-19 hit, our clients had to move to fully remote work in days rather than months. We expanded VPN capacity, deployed video conferencing such as Google Meet, Jitsi and Microsoft Teams, set up cloud desktop infrastructure and secured remote access for hundreds of users. Only years of networking and communications experience made that possible under such pressure.
Multi-cloud, infrastructure as code and ISO 27001
Open-source infrastructure-as-code tooling: Terraform, Ansible, Git. Guiding clients through ISO 27001 and NIS2 readiness programmes using open-source compliance and monitoring stacks. Multi-cloud architectures across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud – the right platform for each workload.
AI readiness and automation
We help clients evaluate and adopt AI and intelligent automation responsibly: LLM integrations, LLM-driven workflows and the data governance frameworks that make enterprise AI viable in the first place.
What comes next
What began in 1995 with a modem now leads to multi-cloud and AI governance. The approach has not changed: understand first, then recommend – and always what fits your business.