Cook County Assessor's Office Server Virtualization

Level-1 virtualized servers for the Cook County Assessor’s Office, ensuring secure, resilient IT systems with disaster recovery capabilities.

The Cook County Assessor’s Office plays a central role in one of the largest counties in the United States, overseeing the valuation of 1.8 million parcels of property and supporting economic development initiatives across the region. When the Assessor’s Office needed to enhance its IT infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted service and disaster resilience, it turned to Level-1 Global Solutions for a virtualization strategy tailored to public-sector needs. 

Level-1 was engaged to design, configure, and implement a Hyper-V virtual environment using a Dell PowerEdge VRTX system. Our solution replicated critical servers, including the Assessor’s public-facing web infrastructure, and incorporated Exchange DAG threat management to protect communications continuity. The virtualized backup environment allows for seamless failover in the event of hardware failure, power loss, or other unplanned outages, minimizing disruption to constituent services. 

Beyond infrastructure replication, Level-1’s solution featured advanced security protocols and recovery capabilities. We deployed threat management gateways (TMGs) and Forefront security tools to provide email firewall protection and anti-virus services. The Hyper-V Replica system was configured for asynchronous replication between primary and secondary servers, with recovery points tailored to the Assessor’s operational priorities. 

Our Scope Includes 

• Deployment of a secure Hyper-V virtual environment using Dell PowerEdge VRTX 
• Replication of the Assessor’s web server to support high availability and minimal downtime 
• Implementation of Exchange DAG threat management to ensure email continuity and security 
• Integration of threat management gateways (TMGs) and Forefront for anti-virus and firewall protection 
• Asynchronous replication between primary and secondary Hyper-V servers for seamless disaster recovery 
• System configuration allowing point-in-time workload restoration based on recovery history parameters 

By virtualizing mission-critical systems, Level-1 equipped the Cook County Assessor’s Office with the tools to sustain essential services, protect sensitive data, and respond to disruptions without missing a beat. This solution not only strengthened the County’s digital resilience but also exemplified how public institutions can adopt forward-thinking IT strategies to serve their communities more reliably and securely.