Knox County CIO Trevor Ditmars told the Knox County Board of Commissioners during its July 21 meeting that the IT Department completed a firewall replacement project at the Knox County Fair Board in time for Fair Week.
"We discovered that their old firewall had obviously died right before Fair Week started. So we were able to get something ordered, and so we wrapped it up yesterday. So it's a much higher capacity," Ditmars said, according to a video recording of the meeting. According to the same video recording, Ditmars said the new firewall can support nearly 3,000 clients. The IT Department was confident it would be able to support its main use serving the point of sale system used for credit cards at the fair, and the internet required to run them. The system is for use by fair staff and vendors.
According to the video recording, Ditmars said his department installed point-to-point systems for the Fredericktown wastewater treatment plant to connect telemetry for water treatment systems. Some consolidation of their data internet service provider was made. By consolidating those internet services and cutting down on the number of accounts, it makes it cheaper, he said.
Knox County 911 is keeping the IT Department busy, Ditmars said, according to the video recording. The new 911 call taker stations were completed, bringing the total to seven positions. Another project for the agency is Next Generation 911, moving from analog to digital. An all-day call with vendors was scheduled for July 30. Included on the call will be internet service providers, Central Square, and a company called Elyrium. About a dozen technicians are on the ticket for that job. Ditmars said they will probably make the switch to digital on that date.
