Paradoxically, continuity of operations (COOP) becomes most
challenging when it’s most urgent: on the battlefield, in
emergencies, and during disasters. In these situations, federal IT
groups must augment day-to-day COOP requirements —
resilience, security, and privacy-with additional attributes. These
include the ruggedness to continue operating despite adverse
environmental conditions or network events; the portability to send
actionable information to first responders or military personnel on
the move; and rapid deployment in temporary or mobile command
centers. Ensuring COOP in these conditions is required for
Department of Defense (DoD) network-centric operations (NCO)
and network-centric warfare (NCW) strategies as well as for
response to non-combatant emergencies and disasters.

A Larstan Business Reports survey of 533 government IT
professionals revealed federal government agencies’ attitudes and
progress in integrating COOP into challenging military
combatant, military non-combatant, and civilian environments.
Most survey respondents acknowledged that ruggedness,
portability, and rapid deployment are crucial qualities for their
organizations to operate effectively, with 87% of intelligence or
military combatant, 75% of military non-combatant, and 78%
of civilian agencies agreeing or strongly agreeing. It’s unsettling
that 25% of civilian and 23% of military/non-combatant
agencies do not recognize the importance of rapid deployment as
crucial for effective operations. Events such as the explosion of
the Columbia space shuttle, natural disasters, hazardous materials
spills, building contamination, and disease outbreaks demand
rapid establishment of command centers and effective voice,
video, and data communication with mobile personnel called to
respond to the disruption.

Learn more about how Cisco's Solutions help the Fedaral Government sustain inter-agenency cooperation by reading this whitepaper.

At the heart of a growing collection of privacy regulations for
public and private sector organizations is the issue of public trust.
Storing mountains of information electronically and transmitting
it online multiplies the risks of inadvertently disclosing that
information. The consequences of loss of privacy for federal
agencies are grave, ranging from loss of citizen trust to
compromised homeland security. In acknowledgement of the
magnitude of the problem, government has implemented a spate
of privacy regulations discussed later in this report.

It’s important to recognize that privacy does not become optional
in the event of disruption. Arguably, it becomes even more
important because decision-makers might need to collaborate
across organizational boundaries not ordinarily crossed during
normal operations. To ensure that information can flow between
organizations freely and expeditiously during emergencies or other
disruptions, federal agencies cannot afford to rely on timeconsuming
manual security processes requiring human oversight.
Rather, they need integrated security technologies that facilitate
rather than hinder inter-organizational collaboration. Therefore,
privacy and security are inextricable from federal government
continuity of operations (COOP) planning.

Learn more about how Cisco's Solutions help the Fedaral Government sustain inter-agenency cooperation by reading this whitepaper.