Nagahama City Strengthens Network Security and Lowers Costs
Nagahama City Hall in Japan creates a new, stable, and automatically managed network.
Nagahama City is located in the Shiga Prefecture of Japan. In 2006, Nagahama City, Asai Town and Biwa Town were merged into one city. Then in 2010, the city merged with a further six municipalities. All of these now form the current Nagahama City.
Nagahama City has now installed a brand new Local Area Network (LAN) in its newly constructed City Hall. In order to reduce Information and Communications Technology (ICT) costs, simplify network operation and management, and build a long-lasting stable ICT infrastructure, the City Hall wanted to converge their information and IP Telephony (VoIP) systems onto a single network.
Simplify Operations and Save Money
Nagahama City wanted to reduce ICT costs, and simplify network operation and management. As part of a new network upgrade they planned to converge their information and digital telephony (VoIP) systems onto a single network.
As Nagahama City has expanded the scope of its ICT systems through repeated mergers, their employees have experienced a number of challenges. The City deliberately operated separate backbone, information and VolP networks, for security reasons. Though this setup was effective for security, it was relatively costly because different sets of network equipment were needed for each of the three networks.
The City decided to implement a completely new design, to converge the three systems onto a single network. They aimed to achieve security logically, by dividing the network into VLANs.
Nagahama City Hall Choose Allied Telesis
The Nagahama City Hall chose Allied Telesis to provide their new network solution. Their converged network has been constructed from Allied Telesis Autonomous Management Framework™ (AMF) capable switches. The core switch is a SwitchBlade x8100 Series Next Generation Intelligent Layer 3+ Chassis Switch, and the intelligent edge switches are x510 Series Stackable Gigabit Layer 3 Switches.
Utilizing AMF greatly reduces the City’s network operation and management workload, by automating switch configuration and consolidating network management.
Allied Telesis provided network design advice and technical support for the installation of the new network. Mr. Tsuchiya, who was in charge of network design and installation describes, “We built the network while receiving technical support from Allied Telesis including guidance for setting up the SwitchBlade x8100 switch. In addition to other benefits, we are focusing on the use of AMF for efficient, reliable operation of the LAN.”
Network Design and Support
The LAN has been running in the new City Hall building since October 2013, and the SwitchBlade x8100 core chassis and x510 series switches on each floor use separate VLANs to secure the backbone, information and VoIP systems. AMF has greatly simplified network management and reduced administration by automating many tasks required for network alteration or expansion.
Automated Network Management
AMF meets the increased management requirements of the City Hall’s new converged network and automates many everyday administration tasks. AMF has powerful features like centralized management, auto-backup, auto-upgrade, auto-provisioning, and auto-recovery.
With AMF, we know that restoration will be completed very simply, as all that is required is to connect the standby device to the LAN, and the software and configuration will be automatically sent from the AMF master.
Information Policy Department,
Nagahama City Division of Planning
Improved Network Performance
Mr Tsuda, Assistant Department Chief of the Information Policy Department of the Nagahama City Division of Planning, says “We have been able to utilize VLANs to provide security while creating a stable integrated network. Since we can now reduce our network operation and management workload, we can put more energy into planning and implementing information system policies.”
