Opengear Boosts Productivity for the Networking Team at Hillsborough County

Highlights

• Hillsborough County Clerk of Court and Comptroller Cindy Stuart’s office provides vital services to improve public safety, commerce, and the administration of justice. Each year, 6 million people access these services in person and even more online.
• For the IT networking team, with a lot of gear spread across the county, and with each team member living in a different area, they needed technology that would reduce the risk of interruptions, providing critical services for multiple service centers .
• The team’s results can be summed up in two categories: first, reduce any disruptions to critical services, and second, improve employee productivity.

Customer Story

Located in West Central Florida, Hillsborough County is known for its hundreds of miles of conservation land, 170 parks, diverse neighborhoods, and dozens of recreation centers. Serving this community of 1.5 million residents, Hillsborough County Clerk of Court and Comptroller Cindy Stuart provides vital services to improve public safety, commerce, and the administration of justice. Each year, 6 million people access these services in person and even more online. With so many residents depending on the Hillsborough County Clerk of Court and Comptroller’s office for everything from marriage licenses to deeds and court services, the office can’t afford to skip a beat.

One strategic priority for Hillsborough County Clerk of Court and Comptroller Cindy Stuart has been to deliver a positive customer experience. Her office accomplishes this by fostering a customer-centric culture where meeting the needs of constituents comes first. To provide an exceptional customer experience, more than 650 employees must have reliable technology. For that, they depend on their IT infrastructure team, who is responsible for the technology and the network that supports it.

Challenge

Scott Fogleman, Senior Manager of IT Infrastructure for the Hillsborough County Clerk of Court and Comptroller, leads a team of 13, overseeing three separate groups, including network engineering, information security, and desktop support. When he first joined the Hillsborough County Clerk of Court and Comptroller’s office 10 years ago as the Manager of the Network Engineering group, he was the subject matter expert (SME) responsible for the entire campus network. Since Scott joined, the office has been innovating its services, requiring Scott and his team to architect and design replacement network systems to meet its growing needs. While addressing these needs, one specific challenge became apparent: having resilient remote access to the office’s four service locations.

With the constituent experience being of utmost importance, it was vital that each resident could receive timely services in person or 24/7 access online by logging into www.hillsclerk.com. For the networking team, with a lot of gear in diverse locations across the county, and with each team member living in a different area, they needed technology that would reduce the risk of interruptions, providing critical services for multiple service centers.

“Opengear saved me from driving at 2:00 o’clock in the morning for 45 minutes. A switch went down after an upgrade. We used Opengear to remote into it as if we were sitting in front of it and get that switch back online. It worked great!”
Scott Fogleman, Senior Manager of IT Infrastructure
Hillsborough County Clerk of Court and Comptroller reporting to Clerk and Comptroller Cindy Stuart

Solution

As a networking professional who had used and benefited from an out-of-band solution, Scott spearheaded the project. He began looking into what was available in the market besides the legacy terminal servers he had used in his previous role. He consulted with his trusted business partner for a reliable out-of-band solution, and Opengear was recommended.

Scott and his team then evaluated Opengear’s Smart out-of-band solution and recognized it had all of the features and functionality they were looking for “and some more,” in Fogleman’s words. For the first part of the deployment, the team tested the IM7200.  A legacy Opengear product designed for dense IT environments with cellular connectivity, IM7200 has 8-48 software-selectable serial console ports, GbE connections with built-in Fiber SFP, 16GB internal storage, and a 4G-LTE cellular embedded module. The evaluation concluded very satisfactorily, and the team chose the IM7248 for their main data center location.

Over time, they confirmed that the Opengear appliances worked quite well, and decided to invest in new units and expand their out-of-band network. This time, they chose the ACM7000 product family for their service locations. Scott explained that he uses the IM7248, with more console ports, as the primary/leader console server, and uses ACM7000 as the secondary/follower. He went on to explain how cascading helped them streamline their out-of-band network. “If you use cascading, you’ll realize the IM7248 is a great product to use, a great setup inside of your product that works great without having to worry about yet another server to manage and keep on the out-of-band network,” he said.

At first, the network engineering team installed a limited number of appliances. When they eventually realized Opengear’s out-of-band solution helped them oversee the health of their network more efficiently, they increased installations using the CM Console Manager product family. According to Fogleman, they now have more than 20 devices, and some buildings have an Opengear device on every floor.

Results

The team’s results can be summed up in two categories: first, reducing any disruptions to critical services such as issuing marriage licenses, deeds, or providing court services and ensuring a consistent, high-quality customer experience for the community; second, improving employee productivity.
Initially, when Clerk Stuart’s office deployed Opengear appliances, they had a few connectivity issues. MPLS was supplied by their carrier and connected to two sites. With no dark fiber out to these sites, the networking team could not access them. According to Scott, “Instead of driving out there to figure out what was going on, the network engineering team was able to bring up the cellular link on the remote site and verify it.” The team can now invest more time on high-priority projects with the time saved utilizing Opengear. It means 30 to 40 hours less time spent on traveling to remote locations to manage or remediate network devices.

The team discovered there had been a power outage in the data room overnight, which caused the router to remain turned off. After having someone drive an hour and physically go in and switch the power back on, the team realized it needed better and more visible control over power at the site.  They connected their UPS devices via the cellular connection to the Opengear out-of-band network to control the outlets remotely and save almost $5,000 annually in labor costs alone. Their team is now able to remotely power cycle the outlet to which the router is connected.

Scott explained how he bridged the two network connectors and connected them to the out-of-band network. All of their sites’ UPS devices now plug into that local Opengear out-of-band network. The team can access a UPS device through the Opengear command line and tell it to power cycle that port. They can also remotely test the power via this capability.

“It ended up saving us from having to drive out there and do anything. Then we further enhanced it, knowing what its capabilities are, and having that out-of-band network available, we’ve used it a lot of times just doing ancillary work,” Scott said. The networking team uses Opengear’s out-of-band solution for deployments, management, and remediation of network devices.

“Another time, while upgrading some switches at night, a switch went down and would not come back up for a couple of hours. The team used the console to remotely get the switch back online saving me from driving at 2:00 o’clock in the morning for 45 minutes,“ Scott said. “It has only been a couple of times, knock on wood.”

With Opengear, instead of using their limited time to commute to physical locations, the Hillsborough County Clerk of Court and Comptroller networking team now has a remote solution that saves hours while also ensuring a great customer experience.