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The Source for Public Transportation News and Analysis June 17, 2011
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AATA Joins in IT Partnership

The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (TheRide) has joined with the city of Ann Arbor, MI, and Washtenaw County to save on the costs of operating their respective computer networks.

Dan Rainey, the city’s information technology director, explained that a network of fiber optic cable installed several years ago connects the major municipal buildings in Ann Arbor and essentially brings together the city, county, and public transportation agency into a single computing network. Although the municipalities were separate at the time (e.g., separate firewalls), the IT directors of the agencies saw an opportunity to collaborate and share information technology infrastructure with the purpose of reducing overall costs.

Recently, the partners entered into an interagency agreement for collaborative technology.

Jan Hallberg, IT manager for TheRide, explained: “By sharing resources, we are not only saving by getting volume pricing, but we also are reducing redundant investments in infrastructure and services.” He added: “One of our upcoming projects will be to move our backup processes off-site and be able to back up server images, which we have not been able to do with our current backup system. This is an important requirement for our disaster recovery process.”

The three agencies have shared IT resources through multiple projects including web services, phone (VoIP) services, and co-location of the data centers. Future services to be offered may include web mapping applications and enterprise content management.

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