Monday, November 26, 2012

gbaSI Welcomes Doug Pershall - Director of Business Development



In my 25 years of business experience operating my own company and working for others, I have learned that to grow your business, you must maintain a HIGH LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.  I know that sounds simplistic, but so many businesses get caught up in the pursuit of billable hours and profits, allowing customer satisfaction to become a secondary priority.  In my dealings with the team members and management of both gbaSI and GBA, I have found partners that also believe customer satisfaction is THE priority and as such, I am excited to begin my new career with gbaSI.

My business background includes the previously mentioned 25 years owning my own company, as well as 7 years of experience as a regional sales manager.  This provides me with the insight and experience to interpret the tecno-speak (that is so prevalent in our industry) into an understandable dialog that we can all understand.  Once we all have the same that vision and understanding, we can refine it into a project with a definable goal, cost factor, and a solution that fits the needs.

My job and goal is to grow out gbaSI communication technology business and to do so in a manner that is consistent with the driving principal of customer satisfaction as our key measure of success!


Friday, November 16, 2012

Fast, Reliable and Scalable Network Solutions


The key to designing reliable network communication architectures is understanding the options for both infrastructure and protocols to be utilized by the system.  There are not always existing fiber optic cables available to deploy a high speed Ethernet solution.  But sometimes there are legacy copper cables in the ground that historically have been utilized for interconnection and other, low speed data communication types.  A lot of times, communication enhancement projects will require the combination of various technologies and elements, including high speed fiber optics, broadband wireless, cellular systems and more recently, Ethernet-over-Copper to provide the needed backbone communication.  These hybrid networks, when designed and implemented correctly, are able to deliver scalable, manageable, and secure Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) at a cost effective price.

An old 1200-baud frequency shift key (FSK), or an abandoned copper wire infrastructure, can be enhanced and converted today into a high speed Ethernet solution with affordable technologies.  These alternative technologies are both cost effective and easy to deploy.  Implementing a high performance Ethernet over Copper (EoC) solution for a City’s communication network typically requires both VDSL technology and a fully managed Layer 2 switch.  The Symmetric VDSL technology offers the fastest data transmission speeds (up to 45 Mbps over existing copper twisted pair or an existing telephone line), while a fully managed Layer 2 Ethernet capability switch, that is designed and hardened to operate in outdoor environments, manages comm traffic on the network and enables true ethernet capabilities for the system.  The Layer 2 switch should feature, at a minimum, IEEE802.1Q VLAN Tagging, Dynamic VLAN, IP Multicast Filtering through IGMP Snooping, and RSTP for Ethernet redundancy.  

By implementing an Ethernet-over-Copper solution, you can have a cost effective and scalable network that provides for seamless integration between today’s needs and tomorrow’s demands.   

COMING May 3, 2013

Technical Operations Manager Chuck Metzger tells us about the importance of Firmware updates, and shines some insight on his retirement plan...