FIRST QUARTER E-NEWSLETTER 2020
Did You Know?

Election and Law Enforcement Security
offered by the iFiber Network

iFiber is part of the Illinois Century Network ( ICN) playing a key role to ensure security for Illinois elections, as well as the Illinois Law Enforcement Agencies Data System (LEADS). The ICN network serves as an Illinois local area network enabling inter-connectivity, resource sharing, and access to instate content and cloud resources. ICN is a high performance network built to meet the needs of educational, research, governmental and healthcare organizations throughout Illinois.
Election Security with iFiber
Election security is on everyone's minds, and especially iFiber's municipal customers looking diligently into ways to protect the most sacred of democratic institutions: voting. Having over 50 collective years of local government experience, iFiber has options to help organizations involved in facilitating and protecting elections through protected and isolated fiber optic connectivity, access to secure data centers, and partnerships to help in many other areas. These options can help protect both back-end and front-end systems. For more information, contact us at sales@ifiber.org.  
LEADS and CJIS with iFiber
The Illinois Law Enforcement Agencies Data System (LEADS) provided by the Department of State Police (Department) is a statewide, computerized telecommunications system designed to provide services, information, and capabilities to the law enforcement and criminal justice community in Illinois. Protecting criminal information is a paramount task for our colleagues in law enforcement, attorneys, and courts. iFiber has been working with customers with LEADS and CJIS systems since its inception. Through protected fiber optic connectivity, FIPS-secured systems, and our partnerships with Illinois Century Network and Illinois State Police, iFiber can help your organization maintain its LEADS and CJIS compliance. For  more information, contact us at sales@ifiber.org.
iFiber Website Provides Resources on Data Centers  
 
iFiber's partnerships with Data Centers throughout the region provide a broad variety of services. To help iFiber explore the best Data Center options for you, a Data Center matrix is available on the iFiber website. There are links to Direct Connected Data Centers and Network-Affiliated Data Centers.
  
iFiber's Data Center partners offer Business Security & Recovery Solutions; Data Protection - Media Vaulting; Co-Location of Customer IT Equipment; DRaaS Appliance & Cloud Backup Services; Secure IT Asset Disposal Services and much more! Special pricing is available at some centers. New Data Center partners are being added regularly to the iFiber Network.

Your Business moves at the Speed of Light when you combine iFiber with Regional Data Centers! 
Spotlight on iFiber Service Providers
iFiber works with a variety of trusted Service Provider Partners to promote high-speed network transport services to businesses and industries in the private sector. See the entire list of iFiber Partners.  
 
Wisconsin Independent Network (WIN)    
WIN Technology (Wisconsin Independent Network) is a valued iFiber Service Provider Partner, offering iFiber customers a variety of cutting-edge technology solutions. Small and medium businesses, large enterprises, and technology companies count on WIN to be their single source provider from network solutions to managed IT services to streaming solutions.
 
Headquartered in Eau Claire, WI, WIN is owned by 31 Wisconsin-based independent telephone companies. It has served the upper Midwest since 1997. WIN also owns and operates several associated technology companies: Airstream Communications (an Internet Service Provider and sister company); INDATEL, a "network of networks" that offers Ethernet services over its collective 90,000 miles of fiber (WIN is a founding member); and Midwest Video Solutions, a linear signal service provider bringing television services to companies in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois.  
 
With a footprint of more than 10,000 miles, WIN's fiber network is one of the region's largest. WIN serves Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, LaSalle, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside, and Winnebago counties in the iFiber network. Read the FULL STORY.  
 
iFiber Represented at Industry Conferences Around the State


iFiber and NIU Regional Technology Services were represented at the GMIS GIANTS conference in early November in Bloomington-Normal, IL. Attending were Marc Thorson, Executive Director of Regional Technology Services, NIU Division of Information Technology (pictured above), and Herb Kuryliw, iFiber Director of Sales and Business Development. GMIS Illinois is an association of local government information technology professionals dedicated to fostering an environment of sharing as it relates to topics affecting the vastly changing world of technology in the public sector. GMIS Illinois provides a common forum for local government technology professionals to collaborate, educate, and innovate.For more information: https://gmisillinois.org/GIANTS2019
iFiber team members, Jennifer Dolman and Herb Kuryliw, participated in Planet Underground's annual event, The Roundtable, Dec. 4-5, in Manteno, IL. Many professionals are involved in the design, installation, protection and maintenance of underground utilities. By exploring all aspects of the utility industry and the world of damage prevention, Planet Underground hopes to bring about a greater understanding of all aspects of the business. Dolman was on a panel entitled "Should utilities be required to assist in locator training, or least provide installation knowledge and info to entry-level locators?" Kuryliw participated in a panel entitled "How important is it to learn from the outgoing waves of older people in the workforce? Are we losing entire generations worth of information? Is that replaceable?"

 E-Rate: Schools & Libraries  

E-Rate is a program of USAC that gives funding to schools and libraries through an open bidding process. USAC, or the Universal Services Administrative Company, is an entity designated by the Federal Communications Commission responsible for administering a roughly $10 billion fund that can be used to pay for Internet connections within impoverished regions, whether rural or urban.

Eligible schools and libraries may receive discounts ranging from 20-90 percent on telecommunication services, depending on economic need and location. 

Monitoring Center Offers Support
 
Northern Illinois Monitoring Center (NIMC) provides support for registered iFiber Community Anchor Institution
network administrators. NIMC has an automated after-hours menu and Service Desk compa ny. Call 1-877-753-8100, where you will hear a message and asked to choose Option 3 to reach a live agent. This service gives NIMC greater flexibility in updating emergency notification messages, as well as stronger metrics and measures to evaluate the effectiveness of this service. Contact us at  sales@ifiber.org. Network Administrators: Register your organization's authorized administrators at 877-753-8100. Sign up for e-mail alerts for advance notice about maintenance or outages on the iFiber network at www.nimc.niu.edu.