BACKGROUND:
Cisco equipment supports all County WAN, LAN and Audio Video connections allowing the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) the ability to monitor real time all phone connections and all data network connections. The use of Cisco based equipment provides DoIT the ability to react to any outage, proactively route around troubled areas and provide an “Always Up” solution for the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). DoIT is currently undertaking the process of moving to a Cloud Hosted Internet Protocol (IP) Communication system allowing for greater flexibility, disaster recovery and enhanced use of unified communications. This will provide more reliable office telephone system, enhanced use of mobile devices, converged networking solutions and direct access to conference room AV systems.
Using a cloud hosted telephone service, DoIT can maintain both inbound and out bound calling during local and regional disasters allowing WebEx teams to receive, view and provide real time information to first responders and others.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If this action is not approved, the EOC will not have a telecommunications or video infrastructure to effectively respond to, monitor, manage, proactively resolve issues and recover from major emergencies and/or disasters in real time.