PARTNERING WITH PRESIDIO TO TRANSFORM EMERGENCY RESPONSE: A STUDY IN INNOVATION, RELIABILITY, AND RESILIENCE
Operational efficiency gains, tighter security, and better controls help the District improve its response time to the community.
THE CHALLENGE
Put yourself in the shoes of someone responsible for the seamless operation of 911 emergency services for a border county of 845,000 people. While serving as the first call for citizens experiencing their most dire situations, you’re also under constant threat from bad actors targeting you with cyber-attacks and fake 911 calls. You’re also under immense pressure to innovate to meet growing demands on emergency response and public safety, all while remaining fiscally responsible.
Jennifer Aguilar faces this reality every day. In her role as Senior Network Administrator at El Paso County 911 District, she recognized the need for a future-proof infrastructure and reliable architecture to help mitigate risk, protect sensitive call data, make better decisions faster, and operate more efficiently.
She needed a partner that could advise, mentor and collaborate to enhance the 911 District’s operations – not just sell her technology
THE SOLUTION
Aguilar found the partner El Paso County 911 District needed in Presidio. A true collaborative relationship began.
The first step was selecting the right monitoring tools to get a view of everything happening across its systems and network. Presidio took El Paso County 911 District through an objective evaluation of the technology options, ultimately selecting the SolarWinds Orion suite of monitoring tools. The efficient implementation of these tools brought unprecedented visibility and proactive management capability.
With visibility in place, it was time to enable precise controls. Presidio guided the 911 District to a successful migration of its mission-critical computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system to a fully virtualized environment. Virtualization would be key in ultimately improving emergency response capabilities, thanks to tighter control and increased flexibility.
The partnership reached another level during the planning and rollout of a new state-of-the-art facility – the El Paso Regional Communications Center. Presidio worked hand-in-hand with El Paso County 911 District to plan and execute every detail, from cabling and power to racks and documentation. To be truly effective, any modern network infrastructure must be built to withstand unpredictable disruptions and cyber threats. Presidio was instrumental in developing a comprehensive disaster recovery runbook, a living document that holds the keys to resiliency in the face of such disruptions.
Presidio Managed Services monitors and maintains the El Paso County 911 District’s datacenter infrastructure on an ongoing basis.
THE RESULT
The partnership has been nothing short of transformative for El Paso County 911 District. Operational efficiency and control continuously improve with each phase of the journey.
The SolarWinds implementation drastically reduced downtime while enhancing overall system performance and reliability. There is a straight line between these capabilities and faster emergency service response time to the community.
Enhancements in disaster recovery preparedness and cybersecurity have hardened the 911 District’s defenses. It now has a well-defined plan in place to provide uninterrupted service to its constituents should disruption strike. Presidio’s guidance in implementing security best practices and best-of-breed technologies ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical data and systems. Few entities handle more sensitive and urgent information than a 911 District; El Paso County is now protected from bad actors.
Moving forward, El Paso County 911 is in prime position to continue innovating without overspending. The new El Paso Regional Communications Center serves as the foundation for the District’s future technology advances. “Presidio’s dedication to customer success and commitment to innovation have instilled a culture of continuous improvement within our organization,” said Aguilar. “We are constantly exploring new technologies and solutions to further enhance our operations, with Presidio serving as a trusted advisor and partner every step of the way.”
“You can throw just about anything at us (now), and we have a solution for it. I’ve been guided, I’ve been mentored, and I’ve been counseled by Presidio…they are El Paso County 911’s Trusted Ally for resilience, reliability, and innovation.”
- Jennifer Aguilar
Sr. Network Administrator
Services / Technology Used
Data Center
SolarWinds
Virtualization
VMware
NetApp
Cisco UCS
Cisco Nexus
Resilient Architecture Design
VEEAM
NetApp
Partners
About Presidio
Presidio is a Global Digital Services And Solutions Provider accelerating business transformation by modernizing and securing our clients information technology.
For more information on how we connect IT of today to IT of tomorrow, visit www.presidio.com
