Moving from Disaster Recovery to Constant Availability; DOT’s Telework Experiment and Thoughts...

Moving from Disaster Recovery to Constant Availability;

DOT’s Telework Experiment and Thoughts About the Future

Daniel G. Mintz, CIODepartment of [email protected]

August 2008 DOT Chief Information Officer

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


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


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


Telework Data Including April 17

DOT Telework Participation

5.04%

22.22%31.43%

63.00%

0%

10%20%

30%

40%

50%60%

70%

2006 2007 2008(as of June)

COOP Exercise


What Worked Well

• Connectivity – only minor load balancing needed• Communications – operational continuity and

simultaneous supervisor/employee connections• Security-secure remote access• Employee Accountability


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


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


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


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


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?

Thank-You

Moving from Disaster Recovery to Constant Availability; DOT’s Telework Experiment and Thoughts...

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