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Moving from Disaster Recovery to Constant Availability; DOT’s Telework Experiment and Thoughts About the Future. Daniel G. Mintz, CIO Department of Transportation dan.mintz@dot.gov. DOT Headquarters COOP Exercise.
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Moving from Disaster Recovery to Constant Availability;DOT’s Telework Experiment and Thoughts About the Future Daniel G. Mintz, CIO Department of Transportation dan.mintz@dot.gov
DOT Headquarters COOP Exercise • Pope Benedict’s April visit to the National’s Stadium presented a perfect opportunity to test the Department’s Headquarters-level COOP capabilities • Anticipated crowds, traffic congestion, and increased security made headquarters employees’ commute to work challenging • Gave us a chance to practice and evaluate DOT telework capabilities Page 1
Exercise Preparation • Checked network foundations for teleworking, published reminders about remote access procedures and expanded help desk functions • Training • User agreements • Communication through broadcast messages Page 2
Exercise Results • Telework worked and worked well • DOT maintained continuity of operations • Department Telework program was strengthened – hundreds of employees participated for the first time Page 3
What Worked Well • Connectivity – only minor load balancing needed • Communications – operational continuity and simultaneous supervisor/employee connections • Security-secure remote access • Employee Accountability Page 5
The Future of Telework at DOT • Moving Forward • Improve methods for data collection • Assess appeal process for non-eligible telework positions • Protect cyber-security and sensitive data • Give managers greater flexibility consistent with productivity • Key Message • While security and privacy concerns are critical, the largest telework challenge is cultural Page 6
Teleworking for COOP in Future Events • Integrate more regular testing • Expand to field operations • Conduct announced and unannounced exercises • Enhance ability to quickly keep DOT operations running smoothly when main computing facilities are disrupted • Experiment with using advanced technologies to supplement communications in emergencies Page 7
Technology Issues • Each operating administration/mode has a COOP plan for individual applications; goal is to begin to integrate the plans as we integrate systems into the Departmental Common Operating Environment • We are putting in place near-synchronous replication for all home directories • Current target is VPN access to email within six hours at our backup facility • In CY2009, fast email restart in less than an hour Page 8
Some More Technology Issues • Historically COOP planning has been dominated by organizational implications and data center/hardware continuity • Increased focus on Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs), shared services, and the rise of the Internet changes the paradigm • How to take advantage of the ‘cloud’ for COOP • Similar to concerns about security approaches, COOP issues should not be bolted onto a solution Page 9
Culture/Business Issues • Government incentives are not the same as for the private sector • Voice-mail is not a substitute for face-to-face communications • The concern that out-of-sight = out-of-mind • Can someone who cannot manage remotely, manage? Page 10