The Perfect Place for PC Blades: 2000 Feet Under a Mountain

Ah, government IT. It combines all of the procedure, budgeting, and staffing complexities of government with the get-it-done-yesterday, make-it-work mentality of IT. And when it comes to anything defense-related, you’ve got the additional challenge of security — and lots of it.

Federal defense entities offer a pretty unique set of requirements when it comes to staff computing resources. Take, for example, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. It’s tasked with early detection of missile, air, or space threats to North America. And its command center lies 2,000 feet under a mountain.

As a result, high availability isn’t NORAD’s only concern. There are some serious space constraints to consider. This case study details how and why NORAD decided to replace its existing box PC infrastructure with ClearCube’s PC blade-based computing solution. Briefly put, several factors came into play:

Quiet. ClearCube’s user ports don’t have any fans or moving parts, so they’re virtually silent. Reduced noise levels make it easier for personnel to communicate without raising their voices — a definite plus in threat situations when a lot of operators and technicians might be talking at once.

Space. When your office is nearly half a mile underground, expansion isn’t really an option. ClearCube’s solution makes the most of snug quarters. Rack-mounted PC blades increase density in the data center, while presence at on the user side is limited to a paperback book-sized port.

Security. William Jackson’s recent Cybereye column on GCN laments the government’s recent plague of data breaches, and points out that preventing them will require a great deal of work:

“What is the solution to this rash of data breaches? There is no single solution. It will require policies, budgets and appropriate security on networks, endpoint devices and servers.”

In NORAD’s case, personnel used to lock up hard drives when they weren’t in operation and then reconnect every time they were needed. In addition, technicians needed top-secret clearance. With ClearCube, NORAD needs fewer staff to manage their user systems. That means fewer security clearances, which in turn means less bureaucracy and delay standing between the IT department and actually getting things done.

Availability. Most practitioners in most industries would argue that it’s vitally important to keep downtime to a minimum. But in the defense industry, this can literally be a matter of life and death. Being able to quickly switch users off failed blades and keep PC availability at 99.9% isn’t just a luxury, it’s a necessity.

To learn more about PC blades in government settings, click here.