A Lesson In Technology
Douglas County School System
Douglas County, located 15 miles west of Atlanta, Georgia, has experienced a greater than 30% growth in population since 1990. Nowhere is this rapid growth more evident than in its public school system which educates more than 18,000 students grades K-12 and is growing at a rate of 1,000 students per year.
Douglas County School System is a leader in classroom applications, infrastructure and technology among the 180 school districts in Georgia. Testimony to the school system's vision and leadership is their adoption of Category 6 two years before ratification and their aggressive applications and management of bandwidth.
At the center of IT planning and implementation is Chief Technology Officer, Derek Welch. His technology department oversees strategic planning, training and staff development of software and hardware, management of information services, equipment repair and maintenance, new technology implementation and telephone service.
Investing In Future Cost Reduction
Prior to Welch's arrival in 1999, there had been no consistent wiring from one facility to the next. "We were having a significant amount of network problems resulting from the lack of proper infrastructure and we needed a true end-to-end solution from the wiring closet to the workstation."
Welch and the technology department evaluated a number of different potential solutions for cabling management and structured cabling systems. Any construction would need to stand for 10 years or more, without any budget latitude for interim renovation, or monthly recurring costs.
In addition, the system would have to be scalable enough to sustain the unknown performance standards of the future. Discussions centered on how best to accommodate bandwidth-intensive applications, such as streaming media, which has already been proven to deliver exceptional educational value. After evaluating the options, Douglas County made the decision to standardize on a Siemon Category 6 and fiber telecommunications and CommScope cabling infrastructure.
"Our decision to go with Siemon has based primarily on risk-reduction," Welch stated. "Siemon is the industry's only ISO 9001-certified training program for cabling. Any Siemon-certified installer in the Atlanta area could deliver installations guaranteed for 20 years -- ten years longer than our expectations," said Welch. "In addition, Siemon is a solid engineering company whose members on the TIA Category 6 committee were instrumental in developing and writing the standards for Cat 6."
Welch chose NetPlanner Systems, a local Siemon-certified installer to perform a Category 6 pilot installation at Arbor Station Elementary School. The installation used a Siemon and CommScope Category 6 structured cabling solution, including all Siemon racks and enclosures. NetPlanner, located in Norcross, Georgia, has a fifteen-year track record in the data, voice and telecommunication industry.
"We are privately owned by Founder and CEO, Clint Bridges, RCDD, as well as operated by the same team of associates that started the company in October 1987," said Mike Dycus, RCDD, of NetPlanner Systems, Inc. "It is the longevity of and the loyalty displayed by the NetPlanner team that customers like Douglas County look for in a contractor."
In addition, Dycus believes that NetPlanner's strength in maintaining specifications is one of the reasons that they were selected to assist Welch's network team with the cabling infrastructure. "Derek insists on maintaining a high standard of performance and quality, both on the Siemon product line, and with the overall installation practices," stated Dycus. Welch confirmed, "NetPlanner's eight RCDDs, (Registered Communication Distribution Designers), their well-trained and tenured technical staff, and their high quality standards are key reasons why we chose NetPlanner to assist us."
As a pilot and a possible new standard for the school system, everything about the installation had to be perfect. Douglas County's project manager for infrastructure deployment, Dana Jones, was tasked to monitor the project. "The system requirements were stringent. Everything from cable routes, to the color and type of boot on the patch cables were specified. Derek even wanted every screw in every rack to make a plus sign," recalled Jones.
According to Welch, "The NetPlanner's installers had worked with many other products, but found Siemon to have extremely reliable components and their procedures easiest to follow".
While technology costs may decline, the cost of labor never does. Meeting future budget constraints also meant minimizing or eliminating the need for possible moves, adds, and changes. Siemon's concise labeling, intuitive color coding and ease of testing substantially reduced both installation and ongoing troubleshooting time. "When our installers are comfortable, we get a better quality installation," Welch concluded.
The Douglas County School System, with installations performed by NetPlanner, has deployed Siemon Category 6 solutions, fiber RIC enclosures, RS2 racks and other Siemon products in all new and renovated schools for the past three years. Over the past 18 months, Welch's team has refurbished the MC (Main Cross-Connect) and TR (Telecommunications Room) wiring management systems in all facilities. These enhancements include 3 to10 managed Siemon racks per school. Countywide, the nework supports over 15,000 data ports which provide connectivity for the more than 7000 computers and 1500 printers.
Welch's group digitally photographed the MC and each TR prior to replacement with Siemon products, and assembled the "before-and-after" images into a Power Point presentation for the School Board to document the improvements made to the infrastructure.
Unique Leveraging of Infrastructure
 "We will have |
Welch proposed an "in-house" approach to meet this challenge. He suggested that the school system purchase and own the fiber that would connect the school system's facilities for a capital cost of about $2.1 million. Greystone Power partnered with the school system to allow space on power poles for the fiber. Siemon racks and fiber enclosures comprised the cabling management infrastructure of the fiber network. Welch stated, "By March (2003) we connected 15 schools, and by August, 2003 we will have all thirty facilities connected".
The introduction of a self-owned fiber backbone opens the door for a plethora of learning and administrative applications. One of the many applications being introduced is the migration from PBX/Centrex systems for voice to a complete IP telephony environment. By March, 2003, 20-30% of 1,000 phone users had been migrated to VOIP from the existing PBX/Centrex system, with the rest of the migration to be completed in the second half of 2003. New phones, faster internet connections, faster file and print-sharing, a consolidated server environment and many other economic and educational benefits will materialize in light of this project. "We will have 800 times the performance while saving close to $500,000 a year," said Welch. "That's about a four year payback."
"This solution will allow for data transmission speed growth without retrofit or upgrade to our cabling infrastructure. Siemon gives us full investment protection with the build-out of a certified and tested Category 6 solution. Our new Dell GX260 (PCs) have 10/100/1000 network cards that can support a 1000 megabit/sec connection to the network and our cabling infrastructure meets and exceeds the anticipated future demand for bandwidth. All we had left to do was upgrade the electronics on each end," Welch concludes.
Routers, Switches, Servers and Desktops
Driving the Douglas County network is a Cisco certified design based on Cisco AVVID solutions (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data). Douglas County's Manager of Network Planning, and lead designer, Cory Martin flew with his team in May 2002 to Cisco's corporate headquarters in San Jose, California and made arrangements to completely replace all of the school system's network electronics. "In order to provide scalable and reliable services in respect to leveraging the improved infrastructure environment, a robust and powerful three tier architecture is needed," says Martin. The Core of the network is powered by Cisco's GSR 12000 carrier class router. The Distribution layer is made up of Cisco 6513s, 6509s and 3550 gigabit catalyst switches. Cisco Catalyst 2950s make up the access layer in each IDF. "The significance of using Cisco's design can be summed up in one phrase, Total Packet Management and Policy Enforcement throughout the network."
On the systems side, Welch and associates traveled to Austin, Texas, to meet with Dell Computers. Over several days, the group arrived at configuration standards for servers and PCs that "far exceeded" other schools' specifications. PCs are custom Dell GX260 each with 1.7 GHz, 256 RAM, 20 Gig HD, 15" LCD monitor and 10/100/1000 network card. Most classrooms each have 3-6 computers plus a printer. Labs have 25-35 computers. Other classrooms are equipped with a wireless network access point, accessible to specially configured Dell laptops shared by teachers and wheeled out on portable carts as necessary.
Compounded Value
If the value of a byte of data is held constant, the cost/benefit formulas for the Douglas County project are almost too profound to believe. By cutting costs in half and realizing an 800-fold performance increase, the case might be made that the payback period can be measured in months, rather than years. Factor in shorter learning curves, motivated teachers, and the innovations of students compounded over a lifetime, and the value of a byte is immeasurable. Douglas County had a vision and the determination to act on that vision. As time marches into the future, Douglas County can define the value of a byte in terms of the services and knowledge it brings to its users while other school systems are battling for more bandwidth. Ultimately, momentum and direction will define Douglas County as not only a leader in technology but in education as well.
(Cabling For The Future, 2003, US)
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