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ment tool,” Lumbard said.
The state chose a business intelli-
gence and analytics solution from Si- sense that gave it a customizable dash- board for its KPI front end.
The dashboard uses custom visual- izations to show network speed and performance and how much broad- band use has increased by sector. It also reveals trends and indicates whether they are headed in the right direction, and it monitors the circuits that support the state’s 911 system and real-time occurrences that inter- rupt service.
The interactive dashboard allows the executive team and bureau chiefs — all of whom have their own KPIs — to drill down into more detailed data.
The Sisense ElastiCubes analyt- ics database merges and manipulates data from multiple sources so that
queries go to one dataset. ICN set up a dedicated, secure server to provide the horsepower needed to support those activities.
When a service goes live, it inte- grates with the Sisense dashboard, and ICN staff can then see its KPIs on the dashboard at all times. Some of Io- wa’s systems are not advanced enough to send data to the dashboard, which means that a number of metrics still require manual reporting.
However, according to Lumbard, “putting [KPIs] into a dashboard like Sisense has not been difficult,” but de- veloping them has.
The Broadband Information Cen- ter, ICN’s operations-monitoring cen- ter, also uses the dashboard as part of its mission to track ICN third-party technical applications and oversee all things broadband in Iowa.
BRIC has two walls of large flat-pan- el screens that monitor cybersecurity operations, network health and ICN processes.
Because Sisense’s database server is inside the ICN network, data can flow anywhere the network goes, allowing all bureaus to see ICN’s status.
“We did that by design,” Lumbard said. “We didn’t want Sisense to ac- tually be a cloud apparatus for us. We wanted it...within our network structure.”
ICN can now easily provide timely, user-friendly reports to statewide offi- cials and other stakeholders.
Still, Lumbard said a key part of his job is keeping tabs on the real-time health of the network and monitoring indicators “that impact the decisions that we’ll make in the next two hours, not necessarily next fiscal year.” •
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NETCENTS-2: BRINGING CONVERGENCE TO DEFENSE
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NETCENTS-2: A NETWORK-CENTRIC CONTRACT WITH BROAD REACH
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