Team Fishel’s Columbus Technologies Division recently
completed wiring our new data center to host the
company’s network servers for all our applications and
Internet access. All 35 offices connect to Team Fishel’s
network operations center for network access to our
accounting system, email system, estimating system,
fleet management, safety management, and Teammate
development system. To say our communications
network is mission critical would be an understatement.
Recently, as the remnants of Hurricane Ike passed over
Central Ohio, the region experienced the worst wind
storm in over 100 years, which took down not only
AEP’s power lines but also AT&T T1 lines. Fortunately,
we had a good disaster recovery plan in place and
were able to mobilize a backup generator to get the
network back up and running in less than two hours.
With our Professional Services Group moving to the new
building, we were able to custom build our own new data
center as well as install our very own 235KV backup
diesel generator that is capable of running the entire
building for up to four days without refueling should
another power outage occur. We also have two different
carriers providing us with data services across diverse
cable paths in the event that a tree falls on the last mile
fiber lateral and cuts off service.
Furthermore, we were able to use this opportunity to
showcase our strategic vendor partners on the structured
cabling side and how their different solutions all fit into
the Customer’s network, including ADC, Belden,
CommScope (Systimax), Cablofil, Corning
Cable Solutions, and Panduit. The Center also
features the I-Patch solution from Systimax that
allows network managers from remote locations
to cross connect patch cables quickly and easily
with a visual indicator showing the station port
and desktop location. This allows quicker, faster,
and safer moves, adds and changes to the
existing network. Every Category 6 jack has
been tested to 1G Ethernet standards and
documented for future reference should we ever
need to troubleshoot the network.
Team Fishel’s Technicians also installed a
12-strand multimode fiber backbone running
from the data center to the second floor
telecom closet, thereby segmenting the
network and increasing the amount of
bandwidth shared between Teammates
throughout the different departments in the
building. Our Technicians also installed 100G HP
Ether-switches for our Engineering group so that our
CAD Operators and Surveyors can access large
amounts of data/files easily without having to wait for
the network to download the files.
In addition, we have a new security and surveillance
system to help us manage the building access to visitors
and keep non-authorized individuals out of places that
they don’t need to be. We also have a new Dynasound
sound-masking and paging system that will help us limit
the amount of noise and distraction to our Teammates
with multiple concurrent conversations.
We have also installed a new NORTEL voice over IP
(VOIP) phone system to handle all our voice
communication needs. This new PBX system will
connect both our corporate and construction office
locations across our fiber network and allow us to
transfer calls to our field office more efficiently.
Finally, we have installed a wireless network access
system to be used by our visiting Teammates who are
in town for a meeting in the Team Fishel Conference
Center. Both our Teammates and visitors can access
their email remotely while being away from their office.
The wide area network and data center have been
designed to be fully redundant and will eliminate any
potential network outages that might reduce our
Teammates’ productivity due to lack of connectivity
to the Team Fishel data center.
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