Case Study
Fairbanks Emergency Communications Center
After a major windstorm exposed on-prem risk, Fairbanks ECC moved to ONESolution™ on the Cloud—saving staff time, reducing attrition, and improving coordination across 22 agencies.
About Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks is a remote community, but it’s also the hub of Interior Alaska. The population shifts throughout the year—between heavy summer tourism, winter visitors, and residents from surrounding villages traveling into the city for medical needs.
The fluctuation in demand keeps Fairbanks Emergency Communications Center (ECC) on its toes. The dispatch center supports 22 agencies across a service area the size of Maine. It dispatches fire, EMS, and a mobile crisis team, navigating diverse geographies and unpredictable conditions with speed and precision.
In such an environment, operational continuity is even more critical.
That’s why a recent storm became the catalyst for change. When severe weather disrupted local infrastructure, Fairbanks ECC lost power and communications, exposing how quickly on-prem systems can become a single point of failure.
“Anytime I ran into a hiccup… I would screenshot it and send it to them… it didn’t really matter how late it was, they would answer the question.”
Kristi Merideth
Fairbanks ECC
The Problem
“Being a rural department in rural Alaska, we need to make sure that we have stability for our responders and our community.” — Kristi Merideth, Dispatch Manager, Fairbanks ECC
A windstorm swept through Fairbanks and created a continuity crisis. Power went out. Communications were interrupted, including cell towers. And with core systems still running on-prem, the ECC’s infrastructure became a single point of failure at the worst possible time: The outage lasted for hours during an active fire emergency, when responders needed reliable coordination and mission-critical communication.
The storm showed how quickly a traditional continuity plan can break down. On-prem operations depend on the building staying online, along with the equipment meant to protect it. When the facility lost power, the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) that was supposed to carry the load failed. The generator came online briefly, then went down. What looked sufficient on paper did not hold up under real conditions.
Being in a remote environment, the usual backup options also fell apart. The closest practical site to move operations to was 300 miles away. Building duplicate server environments in multiple locations would have been expensive, complex, and still not guarantee stability.
Staffing is also a challenge. Retaining dispatchers is difficult in rural Alaska, and vacancies put pressure on the people who remain. When coverage is thin, shifts are harder to fill, overtime increases, and the risk of burnout rises.
On-prem systems can make that problem worse. If CAD can only be accessed from inside the station, staffing is limited to who can physically be in the building. Fairbanks needed a model that could support dispatch operations beyond the walls of the facility.
Always‑On Cloud Continuity
A cloud solution that stays operational when local power, comms, and hardware fail.
Built‑In Resilience
A continuity plan that doesn’t require duplicate servers or backup sites far away.
Borderless Dispatch Staffing
The flexibility to staff remote dispatchers in the lower 48.
The Solution
“Anytime I ran into a hiccup… I would screenshot it and send it to them… it didn’t really matter how late it was, they would answer the question.” — Kristi Merideth, Dispatch Manager, Fairbanks ECC
Fairbanks has relied on CentralSquare since the early 2000s, moving through CAD upgrades as needs and technology evolved. After the storm, they shifted to ONESolution in the cloud to reduce dependence on local infrastructure and strengthen stability.
As part of an early adopter rollout, the migration had a hiccup or two, but the issues were largely tied to local infrastructure and network readiness—not ONESolution itself. The dispatch manager, an IT staff member, and CentralSquare worked side by side to troubleshoot quickly and keep the migration on track.
With ONESolution in the cloud, Fairbanks gained new flexibility in how it staffs and operates. CAD access no longer depends on being inside the building, which allows the center to support remote dispatch coverage, including dispatchers in the lower 48.
The shift reduced ongoing maintenance demands as well. Upgrades are handled by CentralSquare, reducing the need for local maintenance downtime. Fairbanks lowered server refresh needs and avoided building a second on-prem environment for backup. Not only that, the center can use CAD-to-CAD to easily connect with partner agencies, instead of building and maintaining extra servers at multiple departments.
The Results
“I can do CAD-to-CAD wherever I want…but I don’t have to have servers sitting in their department and in my department—and that saves us money.” — Kristi Merideth, Dispatch Manager, Fairbanks ECC
With ONESolution in the cloud, Fairbanks has reclaimed time previously spent maintaining on-prem systems. Upgrades are now handled by CentralSquare, which reduces downtime and the staff hours tied to updates and version changes.
The move also avoided major infrastructure costs, from replacing aging servers to maintaining a full secondary backup environment. And with CAD-to-CAD connectivity, the center can connect with partners without adding more on-prem hardware.
Those improvements helped with staffing as well. With more flexibility to cover shifts and fill gaps when someone is out, the center can take some pressure off the dispatchers who are already there. That means less overtime, less burnout, and ultimately, higher retention.
ONESolution also makes day-to-day coordination easier across 22 agencies. With a stable system and everyone working from the same information, the ECC can share updates and assignments faster across a huge service area with very different needs.
With a more resilient, cloud-based platform, Fairbanks ECC can provide dependable operations for responders and the community—even during the most severe conditions.
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