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Challenges
- Maintaining strict adherence to FAA regulations and safety protocols while operating drones beyond the visual line of sight in dense air traffic
- Avoiding service outages with advanced technologies used for collision detection and drone management that ensures safe and efficient operations
Outcomes
- Compliance with FAA regulations
SaaS applications essential for the DFR program are monitored for uninterrupted connectivity for drone operators who must follow stringent safety and regulatory protocols. - Enhanced visibility and improved troubleshooting
The city’s IT team better understands the intricacies of their network and digital services and can identify and diagnose issues more quickly for faster recovery. - Improved overall digital resiliency for both city staff and citizens
By swiftly pinpointing and addressing issues, or escalating them when necessary, the IT team can ensure that the city’s technology infrastructure and services remain resilient.
From Skyward Drones to Digital Resiliency
The City of Pearland is a dynamic, full-service municipal government in the Gulf Coast region of Texas, nestled within the expansive Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area.
Challenge
The City of Pearland is dedicated to providing its citizens with accessible, reliable, and effective services. A key program reflecting this commitment is the innovative “Drone as a First Responder” (DFR) program, which has been operational for two years under the leadership of the police department with robust support from IT. The DFR program leverages drone technology to swiftly address emergencies, such as traffic incidents and missing person searches, by bypassing road traffic and signal constraints, thereby significantly reducing response times.
A distinctive feature of the DFR program is its operation beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS), allowing drone operators to control the drones remotely without maintaining direct visual contact. However, being situated near Houston Hobby Airport, the program must adhere to stringent FAA regulations and safety protocols due to the heavy air traffic in the area.
To ensure compliance and safety, the city’s IT team employs specialized technology, including Iris Automation for collision detection cameras and WhiteFox for drone airspace security, to mitigate the risk of aerial collisions. Additionally, the city uses DroneSense, a comprehensive drone management SaaS platform, to handle various operational aspects such as flight maintenance, firmware updates, remote operation, and live video feed sharing with relevant personnel. The success of the DFR program hinges on the seamless integration and functionality of these three software services, as well as uninterrupted data flow from the drone through the network to the drone operator and other systems.
One day, the City of Pearland experienced a major service outage, disrupting operations. This incident underscored the necessity for improved visibility into the source of issues, whether within the city’s own network infrastructure or due to external service providers, to maintain the reliability and effectiveness of the DFR program.
Solution
In response to a service outage that affected the City of Pearland’s operations, a technology partner introduced the Cisco ThousandEyes Digital Experience Assurance platform to their IT team. “The primary driver for adopting ThousandEyes was the drone program,” said Paul Yates, Deputy Director of IT for the City of Pearland, Texas. “However, we’ve found that it offers a lot of visibility, which I value greatly, as does the rest of the technology staff at the City of Pearland. The more we can see, the better we can understand what’s going on, and the quicker we can respond to any incident or outage.”
Recognizing its broader potential, the city implemented ThousandEyes to oversee the availability of its public website and monitor applications used to provide essential services for staff and citizens, including the city’s financial ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and utility management software. For those applications, ThousandEyes assists in pinpointing the source of issues when they arise, whether its network latency affecting HTTP response times, or issues with an underlying database or other service dependency causing degraded application performance.
“We aim to provide a positive experience for our staff so they can effectively perform their duties and fulfill their mission to serve the citizens,” said Yates. “Our true mission is to work for the citizens every day, delivering exceptional service and making Pearland a shining example of excellence.”
The adoption of ThousandEyes has significantly benefited the city’s technology organization, granting them deeper insights into their network and enhancing their ability to monitor changes and sustain system resiliency. By using ThousandEyes, the Pearland IT team can swiftly pinpoint and address issues, then save their test results and analysis into a shareable “snapshot” to collaborate with the appropriate service provider or developer for speedy resolution.
Looking ahead, the City of Pearland intends to use ThousandEyes for two key initiatives. The first is the establishment of a real-time crime center, which aims to improve public safety by monitoring camera systems and automatic license plate readers. ThousandEyes will also play a crucial role in an adaptive traffic program designed to optimize traffic flow as part of Pearland’s traffic management system overhaul.
Interested in experiencing how ThousandEyes can transform your business or organization? Sign up for a free trial and gain valuable insights into the applications and services vital to your customers and employees.
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