Award for connecting isles

SHETLAND Islands Council’s ICT team have received a national award for creating a new network system in the isles.

The service won a prize at the Holyrood Connect Awards in Glasgow as a result of their work in replacing the Pathfinder system, which provided the network connection to SIC properties outside of Lerwick.

The team turned off the service in 2014 and replaced it with a more cost-effective network that involves fibre and satellite technology, as well as commercial masts.

It links around 60 sites in total across the length and breadth of Shetland. Executive manager Susan Msalila said that the new network, which cost £400,000 to implement, was delivered within budget and on time.

Paying tribute to the achievement, council leader Gary Robinson said: “Our ICT service was faced with an enormous task to find a viable replacement for Pathfinder, and they’ve come up with a system which uses existing IT infrastructure and is flexible enough to take advantage of any new developments in the future.

“This project saved the council well over a million pounds and I’d like to congratulate them on winning this award.”