Paulding County Boosts Emergency Responsiveness Using 3Com Gigabit Ethernet Network.

Business/Technology Editors

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 29, 2002

Fast Growing Georgia County Gains Rapid Delivery of Digital

Information, Videoconferencing and Key Applications

3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) today announced that the Government of Paulding County, Georgia, is standardizing on 3Com(R) high-speed switches to bolster its security and decision-making. Using a 3Com Switch 4005 Gigabit Ethernet core system and SuperStack(R) 3 Switch 4400 and SuperStack 3 Switch 3300 edge switches, Paulding is centralizing key applications to enhance its emergency, law enforcement, planning and administrative operations. The 3Com solution's aggregation of network resources will also reduce the county's hardware and software costs.

Seated 45 miles northwest of Atlanta in Dallas, Georgia, Paulding County is the nation's 10th fastest growing county and has a population of 81,678 -- more than triple its size from 1980. The 313 square mile county's proximity to Atlanta, favorable tax rates and lower than average cost of living have fueled its rapid industrial growth and suburban development over the last two decades.

After consulting with its local value-added reseller, Dellware, and evaluating products from Cisco, Allied Telesyn, Extreme and 3Com, Paulding chose a 3Com Gigabit Ethernet solution because of its superior price/performance, reliability and ease of implementation. The county was also impressed with the 3Com Switch 4005's ability to flexibly deliver Gigabit Ethernet over both fiber and copper links. The SuperStack 3 Switch 4400's ability to prioritize voice and video traffic also enabled the county to deliver latency-free video for its planned court arraignment videoconferences.

"3Com's powerful Switch 4005 and SuperStack switches are enabling us to streamline our deployment of hardware, software and other network resources, while extending connectivity to every County Government department and building," said Will Lyons, IT director, Paulding County. "The 3Com systems are simple to install and configure, yet provide us the scalable bandwidth to support applications that fortify our emergency readiness, safety and planning."

Advanced Features, Secure Communications

Using its new 3Com Switch 4005-based network, Paulding is centralizing its applications and Geographic Information System (GIS) database of nearly all county information. When the new 3Com network is fully deployed this fall, all necessary county departments over a four-mile area will share instant access to GIS and other key applications without the hardware, software and labor costs of Paulding's previously isolated server farms and redundant data storage systems.

Chief among these departments is the county's 911 emergency response team. 3Com switches will instantly deliver the GIS information to the desktops of dispatchers, including aerial digital survey photographs of all county land, so they can more efficiently route emergency services to crisis locations. The Sheriff's Department will use GIS and other applications to bolster criminal investigations and coordinate its collaborations with external public safety departments. The network will also distribute data to Paulding's Fire Department and Emergency Management Agency, helping them maintain evacuation plans for high-risk areas.

The Tax Assessor's office will utilize the network-based photos to analyze parcels of land. The Community Development office will refer to the digital pictures for zoning and land development when evaluating building permits, and the Parks and Recreation department will refer to them to site-plan new facilities. The Department of Transportation and Public Works will use the photo archive to plan, build and manage roads, pipelines and utilities, and the Geographic Information Systems office will maintain the photo database, ensuring that all pictures are up-to-date.

Many other departments under the Paulding County Board of Commissioners will utilize the network to deliver a range of new capabilities previously unavailable with the county's legacy network. The 3Com switches will also help the county to deploy and maintain current policies for users and data. In addition, beginning this fall, Paulding County will use the 3Com network to videoconference court arraignments, allowing the county to eliminate the costs and security risks associated with transporting inmates to and from the jail and the courthouse.

"3Com gave us the reliable, high bandwidth we need to upgrade our services to our staff and constituents," said Lyons. "Using 3Com switches, we're dramatically improving our emergency readiness and operations, while cutting the labor and overhead costs of our previous fragmented legacy network."

21st Century Communications Needs

Paulding County's decision to upgrade to 3Com systems emanated from its desire to streamline its operations and emergency services. Having previously relied on mixed-vendor, shared Ethernet departmental networks, the county sought an enterprise solution that would centralize its servers and enable every department to quickly access the digital photo archive and other mission-critical applications.

"3Com's flexible array of switches and modules make them great choices for a growing county government such as ours," said Lyons. "No other networking vendor offers 3Com's simplicity, value and advanced features."

Paulding County's high-speed 3Com Switch 4005 core, already in place, will serve as the backbone of the County network and carry Gigabit Ethernet over copper links to servers. The county is using both 24-port and 48-port SuperStack 3 Switch 4400s 10/100 megabits per second (Mbps) desktop connections. At its smaller sites, the county is employing SuperStack 3 Switch 3300s for edge switching.

"Our communications are critical to our ability to serve and protect our growing county," concluded Lyons. "Using 3Com systems, we're gaining a scalable, reliable communications infrastructure we can depend on daily for many years to come."

About 3Com Corporation

3Com is a global leader in functionally-rich, easy-to-use networking products that connect businesses to their employees, customers and suppliers anytime, anywhere. 3Com is also a leader in Internet protocol (IP) service platforms and access infrastructure for the network service provider market. In 1979, the company was founded by one of the inventors of Ethernet technology on which virtually all local area networks are based. Since then, 3Com has sold more than 360,000,000 Ethernet connections. 3Com has headquarters in Santa Clara, California and offices around the world. For further information, please visit www.3com.com, or the press site www.3com.com/pressbox.

3Com, the 3Com logo, and SuperStack are registered trademarks of 3Com Corporation. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective holders.