Commander installs new network for Toowoomba

Commander has replaced Toowoomba City Council’s obsolete data network with a high-speed network from Nortel.

The new network, designed and installed by Commander, has been specified to support the council’s growing bandwidth and document management requirements for the next eight years.

The network comprises of three Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 5530 10 gigabit switches, 25 Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 5520 48-port switches and 11 Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 5520 24-port gigabit switches.

Rodney Kuhn, Principal, IT services, Toowoomba City Council said the council’s existing network had reached the end of its lifecycle, and large parts were due to be unsupported by the vendor beyond 2008.

“We took the decision to redesign and refresh our network based on current and future requirements,” he said.

“We sent out a closed bid to select providers to come up with a cost-effective network design that takes into account our projected network growth to 2011 at a minimum, and ideally to 2014.

According to Kuhn this includes the ability to upgrade to IP telephony and video distribution if and when it makes business sense, without needing further investment in the infrastructure.

“The decision to go with Commander and Nortel was two-fold, given our tight local government budget, Nortel’s 10 gigabit network was priced similarly to its competitors’ gigabit solutions, but more importantly it met each of our high-priority criteria for simplified management, security, and a proven track record in similar installations,” said Kuhn.

“We’ll also be better protected against network outages, which would be increasingly likely if we hadn’t acted to replace our old network. Given that an outage can cost the council approximately $80,000 an hour in lost productivity, we weren’t taking any chances.”

Phase two of the three-phase installation began in June, with the network likely to be completely operational later this year.

Kuhn also said the council has recently gone to tender for an upgrade of its ageing PABX, with the provision that it be supported by the new network and offer the same upgrade path to IP telephony.