Managed security services for The City of San Gabriel’s integrated utility billing, field automation, & customer portal solution
About The City of San Gabriel & Advanced Utility Systems
Home to a population of more than 42,000, the City of San Gabriel in California actively encourages citizen feedback, pursuing a strategic plan designed to move the community toward improved living standards and city services. In line with this, the City of San Gabriel appointed Advanced Utility Systems to develop an integrated utility billing, field automation, and customer portal cloud solution to improve the quality of services received by citizens.
Since its establishment in 1997, Advanced Utility Systems has gained a reputation for providing exceptional municipal customer information and billing solutions. The company has delivered more than 150 successful customer deployments across North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
Challenge: Securing a City Services Portal
In order to meet the specific needs of the City of San Gabriel, Advanced Utility Systems developed a cloud-based solution that provides billing functionality, workforce automation, and customer portal services. The software needed to operate in the cloud securely, so the organization partnered with FuseForward to ensure the security of the solution.
FuseForward specializes in managed security services for Amazon Web Services (AWS). Following best practices, supported by its AWS cloud application management solution, security, and optimization tools, FuseForward protects AWS application workloads like those used by the City of San Gabriel with a comprehensive, multi-layered approach, supported by continuous monitoring by a team of experts using ISO 27001 compliant procedures.
Solution: A Secure Private Cloud with Managed Security
FuseForward proposed a private cloud solution that incorporated a private cloud security service along with an application monitoring and management service. The City of San Gabriel also required the ability to operate the application in a dedicated cloud environment, so FuseForward provisioned a private application using specialized secure templated cloud deployment for private VPCs in AWS.
FuseForward leveraged its private cloud environment, including a shared edge security infrastructure along with its shared application monitoring services, to ensure the City of San Gabriel is protected against all threats.
In addition, the city was set up with third-party software from Advanced Utility Solutions. The Advanced Utility Solutions software uses AWS Workspaces with AppStream, EC2, RDS, and all of the associated edge security from FuseForward including EC2-based firewalls, VPN, VPC, transit gateways, database services, etc.
Results: Secure City Utilities Management
FuseForward’s managed security services have not only ensured that the City of San Gabriel is protected against unauthorized access or loss of confidential data but have made sure identity and access are managed appropriately across the city. Constantly monitoring and predicting performance, FuseForward intervenes where necessary to prevent issues, improving cost predictability and management across the customer information and billing solution.
The utility management solution is live, delivering the improvements in citizen services the City of San Gabriel was looking for. The managed security services went live at the same time, providing the constant protection needed for a solution of this nature. The entire project was deployed on time, with all revenue and performance targets being achieved.
About FuseForward
FuseForward accelerates digital transformation for critical infrastructure providers such as cities, utilities, and transportation providers through consulting and technology expertise. With expertise across cloud, intelligent systems, advanced analytics, cybersecurity, and much more, FuseForward serves customers around the world from offices in Canada, Europe, and South Africa.