£42m contract to speed up broadband links
NORTH Yorkshire County Council has awarded a £42.4m contract for broadband services to NYnet.
The 10-year Wide Area Network (WAN) broadband contract, which includes schools, libraries, disaster recovery and council offices, will be delivered by NYnet, a commercial enterprise set up in collaboration between the council and Yorkshire Forward.
NYnet, which provides the fastest public sector telecoms network in Europe, is tasked with stimulating North Yorkshire's economic growth by providing a faster, better and cheaper broadband infrastructure, allowing public organisations to deliver more advanced services.
The council's new data centre in Northallerton which serves 512 sites, 5,800 PCs, more than 200 servers and almost 4,000 telephones was turned on this week.
The aim is to deliver high speed internet access to public sector services across North Yorkshire with a future option of attracting an internet service provider to offer high speed broadband to businesses and households across the county.
John Marsden, NYCC chief executive, said: “We are very pleased NYnet is progressing with the core county council contract. The move means that, for no additional cost, NYCC will be able to deliver massively improved 'e-services', enhancing the quality and efficiency of service to our citizens. As well as being unique in the UK, the NYnet offering is seen as one of the most ground breaking technology-based initiatives in Europe and is being watched with interest.
“This is only the start. We will now be working closely with a range of public sector partners to communicate the benefit and availability of joint services by using consistent systems across the network such as HR, procurement and financial applications that can be shared with district councils and others in the county. This ability will create improved services, value for money and huge cost savings for those who choose to adopt this approach.”
The contract, which will see the migration of the entire NYCC network over two years for 484 sites, has already started with the disaster recovery and Storage Area Network (SAN) facilities being connected in Scarborough.
Whilst NYnet cannot provide its services direct to North Yorkshires businesses, it is anticipated that internet service providers, who have historically been reluctant to venture out of the major conurbation areas, will see NYnet as an attractive commercial opportunity.
David Cullen, NYnet chief executive said: “NYCC's decision to migrate to NYnet nearly two years earlier than planned is testament to the speed, quality and value of our solutions.
“This will also allow us to expand the reach of NYnet's services across the sub-region with the addition of 28 new Points of Presence – making 40 in total. This will significantly help us achieve one of our principle objectives; that is, supporting and enhancing the economic prosperity of North Yorkshire whilst also improving the speed, reliability, security and future proofing of the Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) provided to our customers.
“The NYCC migration has already commenced with improving the disaster recovery facility for the council's IT services, accomplished by supplying a 1GB link direct from Northallerton to Scarborough. This will ensure back up and security of data, together with assisting fast recovery of IT systems in the event of failure or environmental disaster.”
NYnet was formed with £4m of funding from Yorkshire Forward and £1.1m from the European Union.
