Citizens Advice Cornwall Upgrades to Fibre Broadband
Expired
Project Overview
Organisation: Citizen Advice Cornwall
Partner: n/a
Solution: Central Management
Products Used: Vigor 2927 router series - 1 GB Ethernet Dual-WAN Firewall VPN Routers. VigorACS remote management
Case Study Summary
- Citizens Advice Cornwall selects DrayTek fibre routers to upgrade their interconnectivity and take advantage of faster fibre speeds
- Full solution needed to provide remote management for firmware updates, VPN management and alarms to limit need for on-site visits
The Requirement
Always looking to improve their service to local people, Citizens Advice Cornwall wanted to upgrade their interconnectivity and take advantage of faster fibre speeds. This would enable them to better handle the large volume of calls from people needing help with debt, benefits, consumer issues, housing, employment, discrimination and relationship breakdowns.
Given the nature of the service, it is hard to stress just how important it is that people can get through to talk to an advisor. In charge of making that happen are Paul Stallard and Martin Toy, the IT Support Team for the organisation’s nine offices, which are distributed throughout Cornwall.
Not surprisingly, as well as outstanding reliability and security, remote management was a major consideration for the team. It would mean that rather than spending hours travelling between the nine scattered sites, involving a 250-mile round trip, often on small rural roads, they could devote more time to keeping the whole IT estate in perfect working order.
The Solution
Citizens Advice Cornwall had a range of legacy routers, many of which were unable to meet the requirements of the new fibre system.
When researching replacements, both Paul and Martin drew on their extensive IT experience. “If you want a product that is reassuringly secure, reliable, easy to use and configure, is intuitive and a pleasure to work with, then you can’t go wrong with DrayTek,” said Paul. Martin agreed, “I have used DrayTek over many years, so I’m very familiar with the brand and I know and trust that DrayTek works.”
Their trust in the product resulted in DrayTek Vigor 2927 routers being installed in each of the six offices that had already moved to full fibre. As the other three offices upgrade from ADSL, they too will receive DrayTek Vigor 2927 routers.
The DrayTek Vigor 2927 series Dual-WAN load balancing firewall VPN routers allow Citizens Advice Cornwall to make the most of FTTP fibre broadband, with gigabit WAN throughput, extensive firewall, content filtering, VPN client/server and quality of service controls.
As well as providing a network that’s ideal for their operation, the routers can also be centrally managed via the VigorACS central management platform, which can provide automated/bulk firmware updates, VPN management and alarms for connectivity or other issues.
Together, these features deliver significant benefits for the IT team.
In Paul’s experience, “They offer a stable connection, where once installed they can be left alone, doing their thing. From a resource point of view, DrayTek can be relied upon so we don’t waste time, allowing us to get on with other tasks.” Paul and Martin are pleased with their choice, confident that the DrayTek routers will help Cornwall’s citizens now and into the future.
Paul explained why, “Having looked at the market for a router that could handle fibre without affecting or constraining the bandwidth, to prevent bottlenecks that would affect workflows, it was brilliant that DrayTek, with their reputation for security, flexibility and reliability, could also offer a future-proofed fibre solution.”
