Pima County Development Services

Success Story

Pima County Development Services moves from NT to NetWare and achieves enhanced speed, reliability and security for its heterogeneous environment.

Overview

Located in the state of Arizona, Pima County Development Services provides high quality and timely land use planning, development review, zoning and permitting services.

Challenge

Pima County Development Services depended on Novell NetWare as its primary server for years and had experienced outstanding results. However, when a flood of Microsoft NT based applications and tools-including its geographic information systems (GIS) application-were installed to its system, the organization assumed that splitting its primary NetWare server environment with Microsoft NT would enhance overall performance.

Soon after the transition to NT, the organization encountered numerous infrastructure challenges. The system was noticeably slower and less reliable, resulting in increased downtime, reduced productivity as well as an increase in user complaints and support issues. A particular concern was that the organization's permitting software and Web server continually required weekly maintenance while running on Microsoft NT.

The Development Services group also wanted to enhance its communication and collaboration resources as well as streamline application distribution to desktops.

Novell solution

"Once we moved our GIS application to Microsoft NT we noticed the difference immediately. NetWare surpassed NT in speed, reliability and security. Novell delivers on the mark. We returned the GIS application to NetWare and haven't looked back since."

Chris Hanson
Network Administrator
Pima County Development Services

Ultimately, Pima County Development Services decided to return the GIS application to the Novell server environment for optimal infrastructure efficiency. The organization is presently upgrading to NetWare 6, leveraging its new out-of-the-box functionality.

"Once we moved our GIS application to Microsoft NT, we noticed the difference immediately," said Chris Hanson, Pima Count Development Services network administrator. "NetWare surpassed NT in speed, reliability and security. Novell delivered on the mark. We returned the GIS application to NetWare and haven't looked back since."

With the interoperability of NetWare, the Development Services group is now able to support its heterogeneous network, including its specialized NT based applications, with improved speed, security and reliability. The organization now seamlessly runs a mixture of NT and NetWare to deliver its various services-land use planning, development review, zoning and permitting. NT is exclusively utilized to run the group's specialized applications and integrate with its MS SQL Server 7.0 database, while NetWare serves as the network's primary server environment, supporting all applications, storing all resident data and streamlining network access through a single point of authentication.

In addition to the server capabilities of NetWare 6, the Development Services group is also taking advantage of its new innovative features-specifically iFolder. Implemented in 2001, iFolder offers users instant access to their files and documents from anywhere-whether in the office, at home or on the road. What's more, iFolder automatically synchronizes any changes or additions made to files, ensuring the most current document is always accessed.

Development Services is also enhancing user communication and collaboration with the use of Novell GroupWise 6. The WebAccess functionality, which enables anytime, anywhere access, along with the handheld compatibility of GroupWise, enables zoning inspectors and field agents to connect to their e-mail and calendar while working remotely. The security of GroupWise also protects the organization from virus attacks. Unlike other departments that run Microsoft Exchange, the Development Services group has never been responsible for propagating viruses throughout the department or county system.

Leveraging Novell ZENworks for Desktops Application Launcher, the department is now able to run its permitting software on each desktop with ease. Prior to the Application Launcher, the organization manually installed software at each workstation, requiring up to six administrators for an entire day. With ZENworks Application Launcher, the organization simply sets up a snapshot of the permitting software and then pushes it to the desktop from one central location, in a matter of hours.

"In line with Novell's vision of anytime, anywhere access, our organization is also looking to progress toward a total Web-based infrastructure," Hanson said. "We plan to roll out iPrint, Novell's Web-enabled print solution, along with Portal Services and other Novell Web-enabled functionality, allowing our employees to be as productive on the road as they would be in the office."

Results

Upon returning to NetWare, Pima County Development Services immediately recognized real business benefits. With NetWare as its primary server, the infrastructure is significantly more reliable, secure and expansive, enhancing the services and resources available to its users. NetWare has significantly decreased the time required to perform simple tasks-name searches by more than 75 percent and application launches by more than 70 percent-increasing overall system efficiency.

Serving as the organization's primary server environment, NetWare has also eliminated downtime entirely, increasing user productivity and saving countless administrator man-hours. GroupWise, together with third-party products, has also saved the organization significant administrative costs and time by effectively safeguarding from an onslaught of computer viruses.

"GroupWise and NetWare have phenomenal security, their protection far surpasses other products," Hanson said. "When viruses hit, other departments spend days cleaning up their systems, but the NetWare server hasn't been hit at all. That is some security."

ZENworks Application Launcher has streamlined software distribution, saving the organization time and resources, while improving efficiency and ease of administration. Administrators are now able to distribute software from a single location, reducing administration time from one day to just a few hours.