The OPCR (Open Programmable City Region) network, is a secure, local and private network within Bristol. Part of this includes an Open Stack environment, which enables the creation of Virtual Machines to run on the network, as well as internal networking tools and port/access controls.
KWMC has a portion of the Open Stack environment and projects, as well as their own Wireguard VPN server for development access, an open-source Nginx Proxy Manager for domain management, a LoRaWAN gateway and ChirpStack management tool, and an internal GitLab to host private code. This portion of the network, is KWMC’s “cloud” environment.
Not everything on the network is locked-down however, in fact this very website is being served from KWMC’s cloud, as well as other projects outlined on this site, such as To/Fro, BristolAirQuality.co.uk, Urban Monitoring Dashboards and more.
This safe, local environment allows for training, R&D and rapid deployment. The number of users accessing parts of the network, whether the inner circle or open web applications has grown rapidly over the past couple of years. There will be more training provided in the new year, starting with workshops around Machine Learning.
This invaluable resource fits squarely with Bristol’s One City Plan, especially around connecting up every community, a city-wide innovation ecosystem and responsible innovation – it’s amazing to be part of this development and look forward to seeing more communities connected up.