CENTERFOLD

Tapping Into A Cool, Clear Network For OCWA

Water constitutes two-thirds of the earth's surface and 70 percent of the human body. Yet, because of natural and/or manmade impurities, the majority of the world's water must be treated and filtered before it reaches the household faucet. The Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA), based in Toronto, provides efficient and cost-effective delivery of water and waste water services to the citizens of the province of Ontario, Canada. The Ministry of Environment and Energy founded OCWA in November 1993. OCWA operates in the free market, and working together with municipalities, must provide competitive pricing to consumers. The Toronto headquarters and six other area offices administer more than 325 treatment plants across the province. Ilan Tsafnat, lead technology architect, has expanded a powerful network system in less than a year.

"We are starting from scratch from here," says Tsafnat. "First we implemented office automation in the area offices by attaching them to the WAN. Attaching the plants is the second phase." Multiprotocol, NPR Cisco routers are used for the WAN. Through a government service, the routers allow data tr ansport between each area office. The routers handle NetWare IPX/SPX, with TCP/IP being tested as a working protocol. Today, the WAN has 200 nodes distributed over 1,500 miles in Ontario. Tsafnat plans to expand the network within six months by connecting 600 nodes. Cheyenne Software's ARCserve provides automatic backup and restore capabilities to the network's peripherals. RAID Level 5 is used in the headquarters. Each of the seven offices and 10 of the larger plants have their own backup server, with more planned.

In the past six to eight months, Lotus Notes has helped OCWA coordinate workgroups, workflow and automation. Eighty percent of the network applications are Lotus Notes related. Electronic documentation (OCWA ABC) in Notes keeps the company's guidelines accessible and current. A service request system in Notes assists help desk operations. OCWA maintains accurate client contact records in Notes, and Lotus Notes Document Imaging (LNDI) keeps 800 agreements with customers available for point-and-click searches. Daily activities like human resources' workflow and employee database management is also accomplished. A future goal is for Notes to be implemented at all treatment plants. OCWA has established a resource engineering database that includes information about facilities and sites. The company is involved in a conversion from cc:Mail to Lotus Notes mail. "Our challenge is to keep up with new technology and upgrades," Tsafnat explains. "Managing a Windows-based network can be difficult, and we'll also be looking to Saber Menu for help."

When people in Ontario use water, they are sipping the benefits of the growing network at OCWA headquarters.

September 15, 1995