The Legal Services Commission of South Australia (LSC) has been connected with SABRENet since early 2020. In planning for the upgrade of their network services, they explored options, becoming aware of other organisations utlising the SABRENet network who were obtaining benefits in line with those LSC hoped to achieve.
As an Independent Statutory Authority funded by the South Australian and Commonwealth Governments, LSC provides a range of legal assistance services to the South Australian community. The primary areas are:
- Funding grants of legal aid for representation in the State and Commonwealth courts,
- Providing legal assistance and free legal help, and
- Community education about the law and the legal system.
An analysis of SABRENet’s offering showed that the reach of the existing SABRENet network provided cost effective connection options to the major LSC sites and would be financially beneficial.
LSC’s existing business goal of increased focus on technology, was further facilitated through the objectives and successful outcomes of enabling higher bandwidth services. This allowed the practical application of higher quality video streaming for webinars, person to person video calling and virtual team meetings. The increased bandwidth has enabled video conference call quality to improve significantly. During the Covid restrictions, this also maintained workflow and staff safety.
Data centres are beginning to replace traditional on-site computer rooms and are becoming the hub for Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity, reducing the level of on-premise facilities required and providing physical separation from the main operational sites. LSC specifically chose a data centre with existing multipath connectivity to the SABRENet network.
The SABRENet network connections provided reliable high speed WAN between core sites and the data centre and reduced the TCO for the WAN services. LSC now has a redundant dual 10Gbps core network ring and also received the unexpected benefit of the implementation of dual 10Gb circuits utilising bi-directional transceivers. This 10Gb core could not have been afforded though a standard commercial agreement.
”The SABRENet dark fibre solution has enabled the Legal Services Commission to significantly increase the capacity and reliability of its core network. This has enabled both the relocation of services to new a data centre and the delivery of high speed internet services to metropolitan offices.”
The LSC staff members and stakeholders have been impressed with the connectivity speeds for the users to both the data centre and the internet, which have been boosted significantly. Through use of SABRENet network connectivity and 10Gb Adelaide internet connectivity, the internet speed at LSC’s Elizabeth office has increased from 4Mbps to an astounding 900Mbps.
Throughout the process of evaluating and implementing the new SABRENet connections, LSC Management embraced the opportunity to improve the network. The challenge of gaining the required building approvals and the installation of services was simplified through the project management provided by SABRENet. “The SABRENet team enabled LSC to understand the options available, provided accurate quotations and facilitated the delivery of services within the timeframes required”, states Andrew March, Manager, ICT Services, LSC.
The success of the recent network upgrade has supported plans for the future. LSC is embarking on an upgrade program that will result in the increased use of higher bandwidth services such as Microsoft Teams and cloud based services. The SABRENet connections provide the underlying bandwidth capacity to enable the implementation of future services with limited concern for capacity constraints within the LSC network.
