Fiber Network, Managed Services Solutions Deliver Comprehensive Support for City
Just 12 miles north of Detroit, the City of Ferndale, Michigan, is an urban, inner ring suburb with a dense population of more than 20,000 living in a 3.8-square-mile community. Downtown Ferndale, in particular, is known for its eclectic mix of vibrant entertainment, entrepreneurial businesses and neighboring residential communities.
Nationwide, city governments and how to best manage them are undergoing a paradigm shift. The way in which services are delivered, the technology needs associated with those services and citizens’ expectations each are more sophisticated than ever before.
“We have significant technology and communication needs — and performance is more important now than ever,” said Joseph Gacioch, City Manager, City of Ferndale. “When it comes to public safety departments, for example, technology and network requirements have grown in complexity compared to a decade ago. Moving to an E-911 platform, increased surveillance needs, and the additional requirements related to body cameras — all of these involve a network capacity need.”
As expectations and requirements evolve beyond the means of local government, officials need to look for connectivity solutions partners skilled at providing innovative options to deliver these necessary services.
When Ferndale took on its first multi-level, mixed-use parking development project — The Development on Troy or The dot, officials recognized the importance in identifying the right provider. With gateless entry and exit, four levels of parking, plus retail, dining and event spaces, the project included substantial technology needs and concerns surrounding adequate bandwidth levels.
“A network certainly is not a ‘set it and forget it’ investment,” Gacioch said. “We needed outside resources willing to serve as a partner as well as a platform for our network.”
| SERVICES PROVIDED | CHALLENGES | OUTCOMES |
| Dedicated Internet Access | Slow Connection | High Capacity |
| Managed Services | Vendor Management | Network Oversight |
New Connectivity for City Hall
Everstream first engaged the City with a proposal for The dot and completed the installation of a 1 Gbps Dedicated Internet Access connection along with a 10 Gbps network in the fall of 2020. With this design, the City is able to offer complimentary public Wi-Fi at the outdoor event spaces on Troy Street.
Meanwhile, less than half a mile away, a separate connectivity need was emerging at City Hall in the way of increasing network demands and interruptions. Routine business operations were overwhelming the circuits — which were through a different service provider — resulting in slow internet connections, dropped calls and, ultimately, impacting interactions with citizens.
Like other cities of its size, Ferndale battles familiar resource constraints, from budgets and staffing to life cycle and network management.
“Local governments often have to find a different model to deliver the technology and services we need. Everstream provided that alternative,” Gacioch said.
Everstream proposed a solution to improve network connections while accommodating the City’s budgetary requirements.
First, a 1 Gbps DIA fiber network connection principally serves City Hall and the Ferndale Police Department, which is an annex of City Hall. The circuit effectively connects every department for the City of Ferndale, though, because their access to critical business applications route through City Hall.
Additionally, Everstream provides a 10 Gbps managed services network with a 5-year lease agreement for equipment. The managed services offering is an internal network infrastructure solution that involves the switches, firewalls and access points inside a building. Instead of an upfront investment for equipment, the cost is distributed over the length of the agreement, which allowed Ferndale to shift its capital expenses to operating expenses.
“Everstream’s solution enabled us to scale to our needs and minimized our front-load investments. It empowered us to make the correct long-term strategic and technical decisions for the City,” Gacioch said.
The City felt confident knowing that upon renewal, Everstream will provision and deploy new equipment to ensure the most up-to-date technology is in use.
A Strategic Partnership
By delivering network connectivity and managed services at both City Hall and The dot, Everstream has end-to-end visibility into and control of the connections, including 24/7 device monitoring and support through the company’s Midwest-based Network Operations Centers.
For example, shortly after The dot opened, a critical camera located at the front of the garage went offline. An Everstream engineer reached out and informed Ferndale of the outage. Officials later learned that a vehicle hit the lamppost overnight, causing damage and disconnecting the camera feed.
“Without that managed service, I probably would not have known about the pole until the next day and I may not have learned about the network devices until someone needed the camera,” Gacioch said. “With Everstream, we have an extra pair of eyes and ears focusing on our network, which is capacity-building for us.”