Henrico County Public Schools (HCPS) in Virginia recently added a new data center onto its Richmond area fiber-optic network with the help of Cavalier, a provider of telecommunications services throughout the eastern U.S. The new center enables a secure dedicated Internet access service for the district and powers the service of its 68 schools.

The new service uses a Gigabit Ethernet connection from the HCPS data center to Cavalier’s core metro network. The district selects a fixed amount of Internet bandwidth, but can choose to exceed the threshold as needed—this ensures that HCPS is only charged for the actual usage it needs as a baseline, but gives it the flexibility to meet changing needs of its schools.

Lloyd Brown, director of technology and information services for HCPS, says Cavalier helped the district achieve its goals for bandwidth and flexibility, since “the Internet access needs at HCPS are never static.” If additional help is needed, it helps that Cavalier is local to the district.