Enterprise Networking Abounds Throughout Palm Beach County

From the desk of Commissioner Abrams

In 2008, Palm Beach County was the first county in Florida to connect to the Florida LambdaRail (FLR), a non-for-profit organization, created by twelve state universities, which manages a 1,540-mile fiber network throughout the state of Florida. As a member of this network, the county is able to acquire incredibly fast Internet service at a dramatically lower cost compared to any commercial carrier.

Another important aspect of the agreement is the ability to sell this incredible network resource to local municipalities, schools, and other qualifying organizations such as non-profit organizations. In addition, the FLR provides access to the Northwest Regional Data Center (NWRDC), a major disaster recovery site in Tallahassee, which allows the county to back up data at significant savings over a commercial facility.

Currently, I serve as chairman of the Broadband Coalition (Coalition), which was formed in 2006 to promote the expansion of broadband networks to serve the public and taxpayer-supported institutions providing them with high speed Internet access and other applications at a substantially reduced cost. This expansion began with the Palm Beach County School Board and recently expanded to include the Kravis Center, the Palm Beach County Health Care District and the Children’s Services Council. Other members include Florida Atlantic University, Palm Beach State College, South Florida Water Management District, and the Palm Beach County Education Commission.

The Coalition also coordinates numerous community projects, including a “Digital Inclusion” project in the Pleasant City neighborhood. Through this project, free WiFi Internet access is available to the public in a two-square mile area of this economically challenged section of West Palm Beach. The School District provided refurbished computers and training to selected students and their family members to promote computer literacy. When funding is available, there are plans to expand these Digital Inclusion projects to targeted neighborhoods in additional municipalities, including Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, and Belle Glade. The Coalition is an excellent example of successful intergovernmental collaboration.

Support Requirements for an Enterprise Network
Maintaining a secure and stable public sector network requires much more than a network of connected facilities. Our most valuable asset is a staff of skilled and experienced network professionals. They are Cisco-trained and manage an array of tools for security, load balancing, spam filtering, performance monitoring, etc.

Further, the county’s Network Operations Center maintains a 24/7 help desk for responding to customer service calls. Other essential components are internal systems for tracking work requests (problem incidents, service orders, change requests, projects, etc.), an hourly time-keeping system, and a cost allocation plan for billing purposes.

Please contact me if I can be of assistance or if you have any comments and/or suggestions. I can be contacted at sabrams@pbcgov.org or at my office at 561-355-2204 (West Palm Beach) or 561-276-1220 (Delray Beach). Also, please visit my Web site at http://www.pbcgov.com/countycommissioners/district4/ for updates and links to county divisions and other governmental agencies.