While it can be argued that not every business needs to be fully operational 100% of the time, for public safety agencies that are in the “business” of serving the public and saving lives, the need to be on 24/7 couldn’t be more true. A split second can mean the difference between an injury, rescue, or a fatality, so uninterrupted availability of critical systems is of the utmost importance.
Historically, dispatch and respond centers have been built and operated by single agencies for their own specific uses — with IT and communications systems disconnected and sprawled out across numerous facilities — making it challenging for agencies to streamline and operationalize mission critical functions and emergency operations. Additionally, emergency operations centers, 911 call centers, and police and fire departments can face technology constraints due to outdated legacy systems that can hinder data interoperability and the ability to rapidly scale IT infrastructure and operations. This limits the ability for agencies to quickly respond to large scale disaster recovery efforts or unexpected surges in incident response requests.