Building a Unified Fiber Network and Modern IT Core for a North Carolina County

Spanning nearly 500 square miles of mountain terrain, Jackson County in western North Carolina serves roughly 45,000 residents and a steady influx of visitors drawn to its trout streams and natural beauty. Behind the scenic landscape, the County’s IT department faced a less picturesque challenge—maintaining fragmented infrastructure across 23 remote locations. By 2024, each site relied on separate internet service providers and local on-premises servers. The lack of centralization introduced significant inefficiencies and reliability issues, straining both staff and resources.

Challenges Identified

• High Operational Overhead: Redundant ISP contracts across multiple facilities created an estimated $23,000 in annual maintenance costs.
• Unreliable Connectivity: Rural departments frequently experienced service interruptions, affecting time-sensitive operations such as GPS tracking for the transit fleet that serves elderly and disabled residents.
• Manual Backup Processes: Each site maintained its own backup routine, introducing human error and data integrity risks.
• Limited Scalability: The existing design made it difficult to integrate new services or respond to technology modernization efforts.
• Security Risks: The spread-out servers were difficult to patch, so they were often not on the latest code, putting the county at higher risk of a cyber-attack.

Modernization Approach

Partnering with Winslow Technology Group (WTG), Jackson County’s IT team and WTG’s Solution Architects developed a plan to consolidate and modernize the infrastructure. Key components included:

• Fiber Backbone Deployment: A new county-wide fiber network provided high-bandwidth, resilient connectivity to all major locations.
• Data Center Consolidation: Twelve physical servers replaced with a centralized hyper-converged environment hosted in a co-location facility, which is now the platform for the remaining 11 servers, which will eventually be consolidated.
• Unified Network Management: full implementation of Cisco Meraki to allow for simplified management, visibility, and security for all locations through a single interface.
• Centralized Backup & Recovery: A single, automated solution backing up the hyperconverged platform allowed for consistent data protection and streamlined recovery.
• Security Enhancements: Aging MX250 appliances were replaced with MX95 devices, improving throughput and threat protection.

The modernization initiative delivered measurable and lasting results. ISP costs dropped by 85%, which freed up valuable budget resources for other county priorities. Network reliability improved significantly, ensuring stable connectivity for mission-critical operations and public services across all departments. The County’s IT team now manages the entire network from a single, unified dashboard described by administrators as “easy, user-friendly, and straightforward.” The deployment of a county-wide fiber backbone and a centralized hyper-converged infrastructure has become the future-proofed platform that will allow the county to scale & continue to modernize. Through the strategic partnership with WTG, the county has mitigated cyber risk, reduced costs, and improved key services to its residents.