There’s a behind-the-scenes story to the new pop-up liquor store at the Salt Palace Convention Center for the NBA All-Star Game weekend. The Division of Technology Services network team built a system that allows the pop-up store to connect to state resources in a secure manner from a portable network case. This “Network in a Box” not only takes care of the immediate need for the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services (DABS) but addresses the potential future needs when a network needs to be immediately accessible, but a secure state-connected wired infrastructure may not be available.
The self-contained system is one a small mobile rack encased with wheels. It contains drawers, UPS (battery backup), wireless (WiFi) access point, and other features. The case provides two separate LTE connections (AT&T and T-Mobile), and can accommodate a third public internet network hardwire connection. This provides multiple ways for a pop-up store to achieve connectivity to DABS resources to stand up a store, basically, anywhere.
