Clearwater County chooses Perle Console Servers for Out-of-Band Management of Micro Data Centers
IOLAN Console Servers enable administrators to remotely access and manage all equipment housed in numerous point-of-presence (PoP) sites throughout the county.
Residents in rural communities consistently identify high-speed Internet access as an essential component for economic and social well-being. However, population sizes and market conditions often discourage Internet Service Providers (ISP) from making the necessary investments to create the broadband infrastructure. Therefore, local governments, like Clearwater County in Alberta, Canada, are taking the matter into their own hands.
The Core Backbone Broadband Internet Plan is a multi-year initiative that aims to deliver high-speed Internet connectivity at lower prices to a majority of residents and businesses in Clearwater County. The municipally owned fiber-optic network will create multiple routes to Internet Exchange Providers (IXPs) and provide interconnectivity at lower scalable prices. It will also widen the service areas of existing ISPs, encourage new entrants and foster a competitive marketplace.
An initiative of this size encompasses much more than the roll-out of fiber cabling. Numerous point-of-presence (PoP) sites, or micro data centers, must also be built to house the servers, routers, switches, and other networking equipment that enable connectivity with upstream providers and connections to the internet. Each location requires careful planning to ensure high-performance connectivity and security that defends against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. With multiple PoPs needed across a wide geography, a robust method to remotely access and manage the various sites is critical. Using IOLAN SCG Console Servers for out-of-band management is the solution chosen by Clearwater County.
We use them for connectivity to a bunch of Point of Presence sites throughout the county for out-of-band management of the fiber and network equipment. Each IOLAN SCG is managing the whole site -- the DC, the AC, the networking equipment -- everything that needs to be accessed and managed remotely.
Bradley and his team can directly connect to each IOLAN SCG Console Server over the fiber infrastructure however, for out-of-band access redundancy, they invested in units and also provide LTE access as a backup when a site cannot be accessed directly on the primary infrastructure.
Bradley continues, We had been using a different provider, but their price point was too high. From a functionality standpoint, the Perle products deliver what we require at a more affordable cost.
About Clearwater County
Located in west central Alberta, Clearwater County is over 18,000 square kilometers of diverse and breathtaking landscapes. From oil and gas to farming to forestry, industry, and economic development abounds in the region. Residents and visitors experience adventure with countless lakes and rivers, mountains, forests, and prairies offering a year-round outdoor playground for all. Clearwater County provides approximately 12,000 residents with services and programs and a commitment to good government, strong values, and partnerships.
