Park County: Two Decades of Steady Government IT
Park County and the City of Livingston have relied on Granite Tech for their technology infrastructure for more than twenty years. Here is what a public safety environment with remote facilities needed, and what Granite built for it: standardized CAT6 cabling, backup internet at remote offices, a year-long SD-WAN deployment, and cloud-based phones.
Years as the technology partner for Park County and the City of Livingston
- Client
- Park County and the City of Livingston
- Location
- Livingston, Montana
- Client lead
- Erica Hoffman, IT/GIS Director
- Fire
- Police
- Sheriff’s Office
- 911 Emergency Services
- Public Works
Public safety cannot wait on a shaky network
Park County, with its county seat in Livingston, runs the services residents count on most. Fire, police, the sheriff’s office, 911 emergency services, and public works all work out of separate buildings, and many facilities sit in remote parts of the county where a dependable connection is harder to come by.
As a government entity, the county also needed strong security standards, technology that supports its compliance obligations, and one long-term partner who knows the environment instead of a new vendor every few years.
Offices far from town needed reliable connectivity and network performance, and a single connection left them exposed when it went down.
Older, inconsistent cabling across facilities limited stability and made problems slower to trace.
With few backup paths, an outage at one site could cut off the communication systems that emergency response relies on.
Uneven oversight from site to site created risk for the systems that support day-to-day public operations.
An upgrade built from the cable up
Granite treated the county’s environment as one connected system. Select a layer to see what changed, starting with the physical cabling and working up to the support that keeps it all running.
Use the arrow keys to move up and down the stack.
CAT6 as the minimum at every facility
Granite standardized cabling across county facilities with CAT6 as the minimum, then cleaned up the infrastructure so every run is properly organized and labeled. A consistent, labeled cable plant is faster to troubleshoot and easier to extend when a department moves or adds people.
- CAT6 set as the minimum standard
- Organized and labeled cabling
- Infrastructure cleanup across facilities
Upgraded network equipment
Older network hardware gave way to upgraded equipment, so the connectivity work above it sits on a current, supportable foundation. New gear on top of standardized cabling is what lets the redundancy and SD-WAN layers do their jobs.
- Network equipment upgrades
- Built on the new CAT6 standard
A second path for every remote office
Remote locations received redundant internet connections: a primary connection plus a backup. One carrier problem no longer has to take an office offline, which matters most for departments that answer emergencies.
- Primary internet connections
- Backup internet connections at remote locations
A year-long SD-WAN deployment
Granite deployed SD-WAN across the county’s sites over twelve months, tying departments together with secure multisite connectivity. SD-WAN can steer traffic across both the primary and backup connections, which is how the redundancy at Layer 3 turns into steadier communication between departments.
- SD-WAN implemented over 12 months
- Secure multisite connectivity
Modernized communication systems
The county’s communication systems moved to cloud-based phone systems, and Granite manages the phones as part of the ongoing relationship. Voice runs on the same network Granite built and supports, so one team answers for the whole path a call travels.
- Cloud-based phone systems
- Phone system management
Consistent monitoring, responsive support
Granite provides consistent monitoring and responsive technical support, with expedited timelines when the county needs something fast. When a request falls outside the usual limits of a vendor contract, the county still gets help.
- Consistent monitoring
- Expedited timelines on urgent requests
- Support beyond conventional parameters
Steadier connections for the services residents rely on
Park County saw clear gains in connectivity, reliability, and system performance once the work was in place. The county has not published percentages, so we report the outcomes the way the county describes them.
The biggest one is the simplest: essential services kept operating without interruption.
Remote offices gained a backup path, so a single carrier problem no longer isolates a site.
Network redundancy and SD-WAN improved communication between county departments.
Upgraded, standardized cabling improved the stability of the network over the long run.
Essential services, from fire and police to 911 and public works, operated without interruption.
A relationship that goes past the contract
Twenty years is long enough to see how a partner behaves when the request is not in the agreement. Park County’s IT/GIS Director put it in her own words.
Granite has been providing services to Park County and the City for over 20 years. The relationship we have built goes beyond the traditional working relationship.
When my children’s school needed help with wireless and cabling needs, I reached out to Jayme Branson personally to see if Granite would be willing to help them on a shoe string budget with no IT staff. It had to be done within a couple of weeks while school was not in session and Jayme made it happen immediately.
Three decisions other public agencies can borrow
Counties, cities, and school districts share the same mix of remote buildings, lean IT teams, and services that cannot go dark. These choices from the Park County project apply almost anywhere.
Making CAT6 the minimum at every facility, with organized and labeled runs, gives every later upgrade a known starting point.
A backup internet connection at each remote site is what turns a multisite network into real redundancy.
Park County’s deployment ran for a year. A measured rollout lets departments keep working while the network changes.
See how Granite supports government and education IT across Montana.
Questions about the Park County project
Granite standardized cabling across Park County facilities with CAT6 as the minimum, upgraded network equipment, added redundant internet connections at remote offices, and completed a year-long SD-WAN deployment. Granite also manages the county’s cloud-based phone systems and provides consistent monitoring and responsive technical support.
More than twenty years. The work for Park County and the City of Livingston covers phones, cabling, network equipment, primary and backup internet, and SD-WAN, supporting departments from Fire and Police to the Sheriff’s Office, 911 Emergency Services, and Public Works.
Yes. The Park County project spans multiple departments and remote facilities across a large Montana county. Managed IT is priced per user, voice per phone or seat, and cabling per project, so a short discovery call with our team is enough for a written proposal. Call 406-505-5061 to start the conversation.
Running a county, city, or district network?
Request a short discovery call. Bring your site list and your biggest uptime worry, and get straight answers on fit, scope, and next steps. A written proposal follows if there is a fit.
Or email CustomerCare@granite.tech