As the business of government increasingly moves online, more and more focus will be placed on creating highly resilient networks and applications that enable employees to deliver the services that citizens expect.
Powerful networks and advanced IT solutions, such as cloud computing, drive today's dynamic global marketplace. They also play an equally critical role for governments in delivering vital services to citizens and other stakeholders.
The majority of consumers give little thought to the communications network that underlies and supports a government website or application. However, the pain is felt universally when a network or service outage impedes the ability of end users to access information or transact business online.
Recognizing this, there are four key recommendations I would offer to network administrators as they build the critical infrastructure that supports the ability of their department or agency to meet its mission.
- Architect robust networks. Build networks that can scale to quickly meet increased demand and survive outages through route diversity. Contract with a backup network provider for enhanced redundancy. Verizon public sector clients are quickly migrating to 1G and 10G networks, and many are expressing interest in expanding those networks to 40G and 100G capabilities to meet anticipated future demand.
- Eliminate single-points-of-failure. Assess critical networks and applications to identify and correct any single-points-of failure. Maintain diversity by hosting applications in multiple data centers and enabling fail-over procedures.
- Work with established, reliable providers. Work with proven and trusted providers who understand your business, have a history of providing reliable service, and offer stringent service level agreements.
- Develop a continuity-of-operations plan. Developing a continuity-of-operations plan is essential. Regularly test with internal stakeholders and external providers. Planned updates should be ongoing and a part of normal operating procedures.
While citizens expect a seamless online experience, government organizations must recognize that things don’t always go according to plan and make sure their IT systems and networks are built to withstand unexpected issues without negatively impacting service to end users.
