Cuyahoga County invests in a wide-area network for county buildings

OneCommunity is a nonprofit organization that brings together a consortium of technology vendors in its projects, including Global Crossing, Cisco and ICI Networks. Texcel, which is a certified minority business enterprise, and the Communications Workers of America also are part of the consortium.

A few specific goals of the upgrade are to:

• Provide network connectivity to two proposed new county facilities that are expected to be built over the next few years. After a new juvenile justice center-detention center is built and an emergency operations center is completed, the converged networks will increase network speed, provide significant bandwidth to facilitate application sharing and bring a high level of security and redundancy, according to company and county officials.
• Create secure video conferencing, thus saving taxpayer dollars by enabling video arraignments and reducing transportation costs in the justice system. Video conferencing also will enable employees in different locations to communicate face-to-face without the need for travel.
• Provide wireless access within the justice center and courthouse and county administration building, increasing the efficiencies of the county’s courts and allowing both attorneys and visitors to the justice center to access the Internet from their laptops or provided kiosks.
• Provide mobile county staff with wireless Internet access to needed business applications.

“This is a significant, proactive effort to ensure our county facilities are up-to-date with the latest technology,” said Daniel Weaver, director of information services for Cuyahoga County. “We’re expanding our converged network, enabling more effective communications and connectivity throughout the county, which will translate into a significant cost savings for taxpayers.”

“We are excited about the opportunity to work with our partners to deliver the county, its employees and citizens powerful, state-of-the-art technology services,” said Mark Ansboury, senior vice president and CTO of OneCommunity. “This partnership is in line with OneCommunity’s and Cuyahoga County’s vision to enhance community services while advancing Northeast Ohio as one of the world’s most technology-sophisticated regions.”