8 WISPAPALOOZA SHOW I OCTOBER 3 – 6, 2022 www.bekabusinessmedia.com L Z OO 2022 DAY 2 The Hurst Euless Bedford Independent School District (HEB ISD) serves 23,000 students across 30 campuses using a 10 Gbps dark fiber backbone. The Ethernet point-topoint system provides a 10Gbps mirroring redundancy to two data centers. Funding is covered under the FCC’s Category 1 E-rate program with 85 percent of the expenses matched and subsidized by the Texas State Legislature. The HEB ISD is based in Bedford, Texas, and spans nearly 40 square miles and serves the city of Bedford, most of the cities of Euless and Hurst, and small parts of North Richland Hills, Colleyville, Fort Worth, and Arlington. First established in 1958, HEB ISD’s history of excellence is demonstrated by its 99.5 percent graduation rate and success in preparing students to compete in a global economy. HEB ISD serves 23,000 kindergarten through 12th grade students across 30 campuses. Intuitively, HEB ISD knew education was moving to a cloud-based design. It was at the forefront pushing all of its resources and applications to the new environment pre-COVID. In 2019, HEB ISD sought to transition to a Google District and enable cloud-based learning. Its intuition and forward-thinking positioned it to seamlessly transition to a virtual classroom environment as soon as the pandemic arrived. HEB ISD’s focus on technology enabled it to stay a step ahead of a change that left other districts scrambling to catch up. To become a Google District, HEB ISD required several upgrades to its network infrastructure and backbone. For example, it needed to scale up bandwidth among schools and increase capacity to the data centers. In the new environment, all the learning applications would reside in the cloud with 100 percent accessibility anytime, anywhere, from any device. “We always knew that a move to cloudbased education was coming, and we were at the forefront of pushing all of our resources to the cloud, said Scott Forrester, director of technology at Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District. “We knew it was coming, but the pandemic pushed us up by a couple years.” The Solution FiberLight was tasked with establishing a powerful network to reliably deliver the bandwidth capacity and heightened speed that would support these cloud-based applications and required that campuses be redundantly connected to a trusted data center. FiberLight provided a 10-gig backbone with an Ethernet point-to-point connecting HEB ISD’s 30 campuses, and linking two data centers with 10 gigs going to each site and mirroring for redundancy to deliver enhanced security and uptime. Building a state-of-the-art cloud-based platform requires significant resources, and federally funded programs like E-rate provide the financial support that enable local school districts like HEB ISD funding to support technology upgrades. Working with FiberLight, HEB ISD discovered the district was eligible to get reimbursed for 80 percent of recurring costs for networks or 80 percent of internal connections through E-Rate. The Results A win-win for Hurst-Euless-Bedford,TX and FiberLight: • 99.9 percent uptime • 80 percent E-rate reimbursement • 20-year contract extension In addition to the benefits, HEB ISD’s forward-thinking infrastructure provides to its school community, there have been numerous advantages that extend beyond the classroom. Its network has made it possible to livestream sporting events, club gatherings and extracurricular activities. This has given flexibility to students, faculty and communities. HEB ISD now can live stream sporting events, group meetings, clubs and students can participate in eGaming/ eSports programs. Forester credits FiberLight with providing valuable support in navigating the process. For more information on this case study or to more about FiberLight, stop by booth 208 on the Exhibtion Floor. m Mission Critical Facilities International (MCFI), a leader in global data center and telecom infrastructure solutions, announced it has expanded its lineup of sustainability focused solutions with the addition of multiple variations of its energy microgrid solution, MicroGENIUS. The MicroGENIUS solution ranges from 1kW to +100kW and can support telecom and IT equipment simultaneously. The addition of this sustainable microgrid communications shelter was born out of the efforts of MCFI to match the needs and requirements of its clients. With solar PV for primary energy combined with fuel cell for backup energy and scalable lithium storage batteries, MicroGENIUS reduces operational/maintenance expenses while addressing the typical environmental challenges associated with gensets and VRLA batteries. “MCFI recognizes that the industry is looking for more environmentally friendly solutions as clients who require infallible data centers aim to reduce their carbon footprints,” said Patrick Giangrosso, Vice President at MCFI. “By increasing our lineup of GENIUS solutions, we’re ensuring that our clients have the best available resources to address sustainability concerns at various levels.” MicroGENIUS joins MCFI’s GENIUS Modular Data Center, which delivers predesigned/pre-engineered facilities at an impressive speed to market of five to eight months, all with significant cost savings to edge or colocation providers. “We’re proud to be a leader in the space for providing eco-friendly solutions that ultimately bring cost savings to our customers,” Giangrosso continued. “MicroGENIUS gives our customers the chance to find the right solution for their operations based on their needs and goals. It’s truly a win-win for everyone involved.” MCFI is exhibiting its GENIUS solutions in booth 214 on the WISPALOOZA 2022 Exhibit Floor. For more information about MCFI and its GENIUS modular data center solution, visit www.geniusdatacenters.com. m Case Study: FiberLight Delivers Next-Gen Learning in Hurst-Euless-Bedford,Texas MCFI to Expand Lineup of Energy-efficient Solutions with MicroGENIUS
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