Dyfed Powys Police Force Turns to PC Blades in Fight Against Crime Dyfed Powys Police Opts for the ClearCube Solution at New Communications Centre in Carmarthen improving PC availability and reducing IT costs London - January 2006 - ClearCube Technology, the market leader and pioneer in PC Blades, and strategic partner IBM Global Services today announced that Dyfed Powys Police has installed the ClearCube solution at its new Communication Centre in Carmarthen, Wales. Handling all emergency and non-emergency telephone calls from the public and deploying over 1,100 officers across 50 police sites daily this purpose-built centre will form the hub of Dyfed Powys Police's fight against crime. The ClearCube Solution improves PC availability, reduces IT overheads and provides added security for police information. Dyfed-Powys Police serves the people of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys. The Dyfed-Powys Police geographical coverage area is considerable and is, in fact, the largest Constabulary area in England and Wales, covering more than half the landmass of Wales. From one end of the force to the other is over 160 miles, greater than the distance from London to Cardiff. The Authority is currently staffed by 1162 regular officers, 147 special constables and 534 civilian support staff. Dyfed-Powys Police Communications Centre will use ClearCube for emergency incidents handling. In addition, Control centre operations will process in excess of 50,000 emergency 999 calls in a year and coordinate, map and dispatch resources across the Dyfed-Powys Police area. "The roll-out of IT into the new Communication Centre provided my team with the opportunity to rethink our computing requirements in, an area with a high number of IT related problems in the past." said Aled Williams, IT Services Manager. "IBM Global Services provided us with a ClearCube PC Blade solution, which has cured three ills for us: desktop PC failure, information security and environmental issues. Failures which might have occurred at critical times, no longer hinder us as they can now be fixed by switching the operator seamlessly onto a spare PC Blade instantaneously. Information security, the unauthorised introduction of software and malicious code such as viruses is unlikely as we have the Blades safely tucked away in the datacentre to which access is restricted. Working conditions within the Control Centre has previously been effected by excessive heat and noise produced by PC base units. With the blades housed remotely in the datacentre this has removed these elements and improved the working environment for the staff." ClearCube takes the traditional box PC off the end user's desk, condenses it into an Intel®-based PC Blade, and rack-mounts them in a centralized data centre. All that remains at the user's desk are the peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse) and a small connective device called a ClearCube User Port that utilizes existing cable infrastructure. Each PC Blade contains all standard PC components, including the latest Intel® processors, memory, hard drives and video cards. The removal of desktop PCs from the Communication Centre has allowed Dyfed Powys Police to relocate within a compact facility where desktops no longer clutter the workspace. Continued Williams: "For the user the computing experience has been no different to what they may have been used to from a desktop which is important. Feedback at all levels has been encouraging and we will share these experiences with other police forces looking to leverage technology to improve its policing." IBM Global Services, the world's largest consulting services organisation, was a one-stop shop for Dyfed from the initial demo and site survey to design and build, and are now responsible for support and maintenance of the system. The IBM architected-solution was integrated with Dyfed Powys police forces' existing infrastructure easing deployment and systems management processes, which was particularly attractive to Dyfed Powys to help reduce IT costs. Ken Knotts, senior technologist for ClearCube Technology added: "Dyfed Powys is just one example of many world-class organisations implementing an enterprise computing solution that is more suited for today's IT challenges. This shift in enterprise computing attitudes signals the transition of desktops to more advanced propositions." ClearCube has strategic customers including Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Insinger de Beaufort (UK offices), the Ministry of Defence and NORAD. The ClearCube solution is available through resellers across the UK including Business Systems Group, Business Systems International, Bladetec, Elcom, Sy and WEY Technology. About ClearCube Technology About IBM Global Services ClearCube Press Contacts: IBM Global Services Press Contact: |