Essex County:
ACCELERATING
TECHNOLOGY
TRANSFORMATION
PKA Tech’s hybrid cloud solution for the historic
County of Essex, New Jersey, transforms IT
infrastructure into a unified technology hub serving
the region’s citizens, civil servants, departments,
agencies, townships and municipalities
Unifying At Scale
How does a county government serving
three-quarters of a million citizens unify its digital
ecosystem for civil servants working across dozens of
agencies, departments, townships, and municipalities?
How does an administration with centuries of public
and private records and a disparate collection of
technologies and systems that evolved over decades
into a complex network of siloed operations?
Founded March 7, 1683, Essex County now includes
the major cities, Newark, Montclair, West Orange, East
Orange and Bloomfield within its 129.4 square miles.
It is New Jersey’s second largest county—serving over
850,000 residents and operating as a national hub for
transportation, shipping, business, and sports.
Modernizing IT in a region of this scale required
more than just upgrades—it demanded a strategic
transformation.
The answer? A hybrid cloud infrastructure delivered
by PKA Tech with a simplified, modern design flexible
enough to scale rapidly and manage future growth at
predictable cost.
VISION
Transform, modernize the disparate, siloed Essex County IT infrastructure into a simplified, streamlined technology hub enabling government
workers to serve the bustling region’s more than 850,000 citizens and a vibrant array of industries.
STRATEGY
In consultation with Carl Hunte, Essex County CIO, PKA set out to develop and deploy a modern hybrid cloud infrastructure featuring
premier providers delivering high-performance systems based on proven technologies and predictable costs.
OUTCOMES
• Cohesive infrastructure, eliminating dozens of fragmented, outdated systems
• Countywide scalability, standardizing operations across all departments and municipalities
• Enhanced security for mission-critical applications and sensitive data
• Fixed, predictable costs — even as industry-wide infrastructure and support costs continue to rise
• Digital modernization of legacy records and hardware to meet today’s compliance and performance demands
THE SOLUTION
Under the leadership of Carl Hunte, Essex County CIO, the organization’s technology transformation team collaborated with PKA Tech through a multiyear comprehensive consultative process. This partnership secured the necessary funding and approvals to develop and deploy, within a few months, a modern hybrid cloud infrastructure capable of supporting hundreds of users across dozens of agencies, departments, townships, and municipalities—serving thousands of county citizens.
This digital transformation supports not just government agencies, but also critical public-serving institutions like Essex County Hospital and the iconic Turtle Back Zoo — both of which now operate on the County’s modernized IT backbone.
CORE ELEMENTS FROM HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE (HPE) & OTHER PREMIER PROVIDERS:
• HPE Proliant and Synergy Blade Servers, HPE Nimble, Alletra and StoreOnce Storage
• Aruba Wired and Wireless Networking