Sussex County a leader in digital communication

NEWTON — Sussex County's use of information and communications research has been ranked first among all counties in the nation its size, according to a voluntary survey released by the National Association of Counties.

Each annual survey shows the direction digital innovation has taken across the country and, according to officials, "2011 left little doubt operational efficiency is guiding decisions in Sussex and county innovation offices everywhere."

Larry E. Naake, the national association's executive director, said the Digital Counties Survey, "identified best practices and innovative uses of innovation crucial with today's constrained budgets to maintaining and even improving service levels."

The county moved to the top of its size classification because of its development of server and desktop virtualization and creation of a private cloud computing model, which can be used by any other municipality in the county.

The network combining its resources into a pool

With the network combining its resources into a pool, available resources can be split into independent networks and each private network can be assigned to a particular government's requirements.

The county's entire network has been replaced with the private cloud allowing the county to share resources, improve research services and reducing the overall cost of the system.