Earlier this month (February 2019), the Easyweb Digital team spent some quality time upgrading network switches at five City of Melbourne library branches; East Melbourne, Library at the Dock in Docklands, City Library in Flinders Lane, Kathleen Syme Library in Carlton and the Boyd Library in Southbank.
As part of a hardware refresh program, all five sites had their switches replaced with Ruckus ICX 7150 hardware. While delivering faster communication speeds and tighter network security, the ICX 7150 series allows Easyweb to manage wired and wireless infrastructure from a single platform using our cloud hosted Virtual Smartzone controller. The clear benefit of this integration is that our engineers can quickly diagnose site network issues.
Easyweb worked outside of the usual 9 to 5 office hours during this week, taking on early morning and graveyard shifts to avoid any network disturbance for the City of Melbourne Library staff and public alike. Our Systems Engineer, Richard Ou, coordinated and managed this project. He even ventured away from the Easyweb NOC to experience work from the other side of the phone line. He became an ‘installation sidekick’, to our installation guru, Sean O’Connor. Through working onsite, our Systems Engineer experienced a hands-on perspective and tools to further expand his IP network knowledge, inside and out.
The Easyweb team worked closely with City of Melbourne’s Technology Innovation Coordinator, Ken Harris, in order to map out logistics and effectively execute all network changes. Our Senior Network Engineer, Sam Lim, and Technical Services Manager, Ben House, kept an eye on the backend of all sites from our Birraranga (Melbourne) office and communicated with the onsite team where needed.
‘The switch upgrade went very smoothly, despite the complexity of our LAN configuration. There was only one minor issue that was immediately resolved by Easyweb. All 5 sites were upgraded at times that suited business and not a single device was incorrectly patched. I'm very happy with the project and the work performed by Easyweb and I'm lucky to be able to say, “as usual," it's what I've come to expect.’
- Ken Harris, Technology Innovation Coordinator, City of Melbourne
At Easyweb Digital, we are pleased that all aspects of the project went well. We are impressed with the performance, ease of operation and management of the new ICX 7150 switch infrastructure.