Qmoe For Public Sector Wp090863

Qwest® Metro Optical Ethernet for the Public Sector

Delivering Secure, Scalable Connectivity Across Metro Areas

As governments and other public sector institutions expand their use of online services and advanced digital technologies, such as connecting police, fire, and other first responders for coordinated responses, one thing is clear – demand for secure, reliable, high bandwidth connectivity continues to rise. Qwest Metro Optical Ether-net, or QMOE™, is a flexible, highly scalable solution that delivers switched, Ethernet connectivity to enable organizations in the public sector to extend their local area networks to other metro sites for increased efficiency with traffic prioritization.

QMOE is backed by Qwest’s Spirit of Service®, which provides technical expertise, responsive account management, and world-class services that exceed customers’ expectations for quality, value, and reliability.

I N C O L L A B O R AT I O N W I T H

Introduction 1

Serving the Public 2

What is Qwest® Metro Optical Ethernet? 3-4

Supporting Secure Online Services 5

Enabling Robust First Responder Capabilities 6

Ensuring Regulatory Compliance 7

Reducing Operating Costs 8

Alcatel-Lucent Ethernet Service Switch 9

Table of Contents

Copyright © 2008 Qwest All Rights Reserved. Not to be distributed or reproduced by anyone other than Qwest entities.

As with many organizations today, institutions in the public sector are rapidly adopt-ing new online, self-service applications for citizens and employees, to add conve-nience, meet the demands of elected officials, and improve efficiency. One state re-cently introduced a separate Web site and set of online tools to help the uninsured find discounted healthcare. At the opposite end of the spectrum, public safety agencies demand connectivity with each other and with government databases that help them do their jobs more effectively. All of these applications consume band-width at an ever-increasing rate.

The public sector is also most certainly not immune from compliance issues. In fact, agencies in the public sector have their own alphabet soup of regulations – HSPD-12, DITSCAP, FISMA, NIST, and OMB A-1301, among others – in the area of information security and authentication alone. For example, the Federal Information Security Management Act, or FISMA, requires accountability to the regulations of yet another agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). All of this takes place in an atmosphere of declining government spending.

Qwest® Metro Optical Ethernet, or QMOETM, offers a highly scalable, secure, and cost effective solution to meet the connectivity demands of the evolving public sec-tor, between multiple locations, across metro areas. QMOE has also been shown to deliver greater service flexibility – an institution can obtain precisely the amount of bandwidth required – over a network that allows customers to upgrade and increase capacity quickly.

Introduction

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1(HSPD-12) Homeland Security Presidential Directive; (DITSCAP) Department of Defense Information Technology Security Cer-tification and Accreditation Process; (FISMA) Federal Information Security Management Act; (NIST) National Institute of Standards and Technology; (OMB a-130) Management of Federal Information Resources


IT managers in the public sector deal with political, social, and economic forces that simply don’t exist in other industries, along with a unique collection of agencies and departments. Yet the four operational imperatives on which they focus are remark-ably similar :

Supporting Secure Online ServicesA growing collection of online services for citizens, employees, and partners in the public sector continues to grow, from online payment for fees to Web sites dedicated to helping the uninsured find low cost healthcare.

Enabling Robust First Responder CapabilitiesOrganizations in the public sector are on the front lines as critical first re-sponders to emergencies and natural disasters. Connecting police and fire are critical requirements, as are advanced business continuity/disaster recovery capabilities.

Ensuring Regulatory ComplianceSome would say that the public sector invented regulations. Yet government agencies and contractors are subject to very stringent regulations themselves, from computer security to the identity schema under which online services are offered.

Reducing Operating CostsWith ever increasing pressure to improve productivity and profitability, IT managers know that they must achieve the first three imperatives while reducing costs and improving resource utilization.

Serving the Public

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Qwest Metro Optical Ethernet service, QMOETM, combines the simplicity and affordability of Ethernet with the speed and reliability of optical fiber to deliver flexible, highly scalable connectivity between government offices and multiple public safety facilities across a metropolitan area. QMOE is available in point-to-point and multipoint service configurations, with bandwidth available in manageable incre-ments from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps. Traffic flows securely as Ethernet virtual circuits (EVCs) across a shared network infrastructure.

QMOE seamlessly extends access to data and business applications across a metro area, all with the utmost in privacy and security. QMOE can connect a police department to a video surveillance system to support public safety and security. At the same time, the service can connect police, fire, and EMT dispatch to help coordinate the response to any situation that might arise. In addition to IP-centric applications, QMOE is ideal for converging voice, video, and Internet traffic to elimi-nate network overlays.

Qwest® Metro Optical Ethernet

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Qwest Metro Optical Ethernet

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Qwest® Metro Optical EthernetQ

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Securely connects multiple facilities across a metropolitan area•

Point-to-point and multipoint service available•

Supports adoption of critical emergency communications•

Offers unparalleled scalability to precisely match bandwidth to requirements•

Delivers high availability – up to 99.9% with the Quality of Service feature•

Enables control over routing and traffic priority•

Is more cost-effective solution overall than other service options•

Is backed by the Qwest Spirit of Service• ®

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Qwest offers a Quality of Service (QoS) feature with QMOETM that enables public sector institutions to prioritize network traffic by type to help ensure availability and efficiently manage network resources. Priority 1, for example, might be reserved for mission-critical emergency communications, including video surveillance, which require low latency connections. Priority 2 might be used for public service com-munications, including voice; Priority 3 for regular business data; and Priority 4 for communications that only require best effort service. Many public sector institutions prefer QMOE because it enables them to control routing and traffic priority.

Qwest can assist organizations in the public sector with the design and deployment of customized solutions through the Qwest® AdaptiveBuild® process, supported by Qwest technical experts in the Qwest National System Design Center. QMOE so-lutions are highly reliable and backed by a written Service Level Agreement (SLA) that defines performance objectives. The Qwest Network Operations Center (NOC) continually monitors the health of the network to support SLAs.


Network Requirements

Secure network architecture•

High availability and survivability • Flexible capacity to accommodate large • planned and unplanned data transmissionsPrivate, secure networking•

Private, secure networking• Network extensibility• Network storage and retrieval• Large bandwidth for GIS files•

Real time connections with zero downtime• Meshed architectures• Scalable bandwidth• Quality of Service•

High capacity network• Quality of Service•

Qwest Solution

QMOETM runs on a private network managed by Qwest. Connections are made through virtual circuits (EVCs) that partition traffic securely.

QMOE can include high capacity, redundant trunk connections enabling switching in the event of a detected failure.

QMOE supports most higher-layer applications and is often used as the preferred transport to connect data centers because of its large capac-ity.

QMOE seamlessly extends access to applica-tions across a metro area. The service is ideal for converging voice, video, and data to eliminate network overlays.

QMOE supports distance training, video, data, and voice in an environment with low latency and jitter, necessary for sensitive applications.

Network SecurityRegulations, including those found in FISMA, DITSCAP, OMB A-130 and others stipulate strict information security policies.

Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BCDR) & StorageRegulations also stipulate requirements for data storage, access, and recovery in the event of a threat or natural disaster.

e-Government ApplicationsOrganizations in the public sector are adopting new applications that eliminate paper files while speeding access to information needed by citizens, public safety officers, other employees, and partners.

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Public SafetyFrom emergency response to video surveillance and e-911 applications, government agencies are leveraging technology to speed service.

Distance TrainingUse of video and other media for conferencing, online collaboration, training and professional development.

Public sector organizations, particularly those directly tied to public safety, real-ize that their role as critical first responders to emergencies and natural disasters requires robust, dependable communications networks, with advanced business continuity/disaster recovery capabilities. In times of crisis, Qwest solutions keep networks up, accessible, and operating at peak performance.

High AvailabilityThe QMOETM infrastructure utilizes carrier-grade network elements, with stringent reliability requirements, and resilient failure recovery mechanisms to optimize the service for minimal failover administration.

Rapid Response TimesQwest assists institutions in the public sector with the design and deployment of customized business continuity/disaster recovery solutions through the Qwest AdaptiveBuild process, backed by responsive account management and service delivery personnel committed to the Qwest Spirit of Service®. In the event of a disaster, Qwest can help organizations in the public sector implement a BCDR solution to ensure the survivability of mission-critical ap-plications.

Quality of ServiceApplication-specific Quality of Service is an optional feature of the QMOE, to enable IT professionals in the public sector to manage network resources more efficiently, avoiding over-provisioning, while ensuring the performance of critical applications.

Enabling Robust First Responder Capabilities

6


Ensuring regulatory compliance depends on secure, resilient transport of volumes of data, often stored on multiple network servers or backed up in remote data centers. QMOETM is provided across a carrier-class optical network with secure facilities governed by strict network policies designed to address the stringent requirements of the public sector.

SecurityData travels over the QMOE infrastructure as native Ethernet, so many of the security methods used in the LAN can be extended across the metro area. Connections are made through virtual circuits that partition traffic se-curely while maintaining connectivity across all devices. When complemented by stateful firewalls, intrusion detection systems, anti-virus solutions, and the like, security can be efficiently maintained across the network.

Flexibility/ScalabilityQMOE service can support point-to-point and multipoint connections with bandwidth profiles up to 1 Gbps. Unparalleled scalability, with bandwidth pro-files available in 10 Mbps increments from 10 to 100 Mbps, and in 100 Mbps increments from 100 to 1 Gbps, (also at 150 Mbps, complementing tradition-al private line speeds) allow institutions in the public sector to cost-effectively match QMOE to their requirements.

Support for Business Continuity/Disaster RecoveryQwest assists institutions in the public sector with the design and deployment of customized business continuity/disaster recovery solutions through the Qwest AdaptiveBuild process, backed by responsive account management and service delivery personnel committed to the Qwest Spirit of Service®.

Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

7


Institutions in the public sector operate under tightly controlled budgets, frequently reduced as state and local revenues fluctuate. In this climate, IT managers in the public sector are still challenged to adopt new services to better serve the public and increase efficiency. QMOETM supports a balance between lower costs and technology adoption through its unsurpassed flexibility and reliability.

Extended ReachQMOE can securely connect government offices, police, and fire to enable public service professionals to collaborate more easily and better serve the public. Plus, with a QMOE solution, efficient BCDR and remote storage plans can be implemented, all with the security, availability, and reliability that public sector institutions require.

Lower IT Management CostsIn addition to eliminating LAN/WAN protocol conversions and the need to support multiple legacy WAN services, QMOE enables public sector orga-nizations to merge IP data and applications, voice, video, and Internet traffic on a single network service. QMOE additionally enables the consolidating of servers and remote facilities, further reducing overhead and ongoing manage-ment costs.

More Cost-Effective OverallQMOE bandwidth costs are typically lower than traditional private line servic-es and those based on synchronous optical networks. Unparalleled flexibility and scalability allows public sector organizations to better tailor bandwidth to their specific requirements.

Reducing Operating Costs

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With industry leading density and performance the Alcatel-Lucent 7450 Ethernet Service Switch router supports scalable, reliable and predictable SLA-based Carrier Ethernet services. The Alcatel-Lucent 7450 ESS router, part of the Service Rout-ing platform, overcomes the limitations imposed by traditional Ethernet switches while minimizing operating expenses to reduce the total cost of ownership.

Dramatically improves network stability, scalability, availability and performance •

Quality of Service management enables support for different traffic types •

Superior provisioning tools speed deployment of new Ethernet services •

For additional information, please contact your Qwest Representative or go to www.qwest.com.

Qwest Metro Optical Ethernet: Qwest Metro Optical Ethernet from Qwest Communications

Corporation is available in selected areas. Rates vary depending on speed and term commitment selected.

Installation charge may apply. Additional equipment may be required. Contact Qwest for availability and

additional restrictions. All marks are the property of their respective companies.

Enabled by Alcatel-Lucent 7450 Ethernet Service Switch


I N C O L L A B O R AT I O N W I T H

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Qmoe For Public Sector Wp090863