PC Blades for Dyfed Powys

ClearCube Technology has 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 more than 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.

ClearCube takes the traditional box PC off the user’s desk, condenses it into an Intel-based PC Blade, and rack-mounts them in a centralised 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 utilises 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.

“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 data centre to which access is restricted.

“Working conditions within the Control Centre have previously been effected by excessive heat and noise produced by PC base units. With the blades housed remotely in the data centre this has removed these elements and improved the working environment for the staff.”

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.”