UC in Government-A Walk on the Mild Side
Recently, I attended a one-day conference sponsored by the 1105 Government Information Group, publishers of Federal Computer Week, Government Computer News and Washington Technology, on the Networx contract and some other topics of interest in federal telecom including IPv6. My purpose in being there also was to try to get a sense of the status of Unified Communications (UC) with the federal community. It was an interesting, well-attended event; some of my findings and take-aways follow.
Networx, VoIP and UC
Networx is the General Services Administration’s program that serves as the primary replacement for the expiring FTS (Federal Telecommunications Service) 2001 contracts and federal wireless contracts (see www.gsa.gov/networx). Networx is an important subject with significant implications. Suffice it to say for now that it's worth spending some time on GSA's web site to understand it and to see how (as stated by the agency), it "provides the full range of FTS2001 services to meet current government requirements and over 20 new services emphasizing IP-based networks of the future". Networx has numerous VoIP or IP Telephony services (some standard, some optional) and even has optional unified messaging and collaboration services. Appendix 1 outlines the Networx service offerings. The implication might be that there is some degree of readiness for UC in federal telecom. However, observed reality doesn't quite reflect that point of view.
There were comments from three high-ranking government speakers at the conference that VoIP was "new" and/or "economically unjustified" technology. Given that the road to UC is generally associated with VoIP rollout and given the statements from key thought-leaders in 2008, it makes one wonder about the path ahead for UC in the fed. It clearly will be more difficult than that in the enterprise space, which in its own right is hardly a "slam dunk". Over the next few months I will be exploring UC in government further in www.ucstrategies.com and elsewhere.
IPv6 and Other Drivers
Transition to IPv6 has been an ongoing consideration and issue for the federal IT/telecom community and vendors who are selling into it or wish to do so. Back in August of 2005, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) set June 2008 "as the date by which all agencies’ infrastructures (network backbones) must be using IPv6 and agency networks must interface with this infrastructure”. Progress is occurring towards that goal but not at great speed and no detail was given. Recently NIST issued a second draft of the IPv6 profile for government (http://www.antd.nist.gov/usgv6/usgv6-v1-draft2.pdf). It should be noted, per NIST, that the profile is not intended to be applicable to near term uses (e.g., 2008 requirements). Instead, as a forward-looking strategic plan, the profile’s recommendations are targeted for "2010 and beyond”. The NIST second draft articulates the initial plans for the test program that will insure the compliance and interoperability of products built to this profile. (By the way, the draft covers backbone elements like routers, hosts, firewalls and intrusion detection systems; other lower-level nodes and elements such as network appliances, servers, CPE and applications are not addressed). There was no mention of DoD's IPv6 status, schedule and its IPv6 profiles and testing program at this conference, the focus was on the civilian agencies. (Note numerous up-to-date references on Dodd IPv6 are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoD_IPv6_Product_Certification). My take-away from the IPv6 discussion was that it remains very much a work-in-progress. There was more time spent on potential benefits (primarily IPSec support as opposed to expanded IP address space or other) than anything in the way of results or substance. Security was also the primary driver in discussions on reducing federal government connections with the public Internet via the Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) program and the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) effort.
Appendix 1 Networx
Universal Services: Awarded March 29, 2007
Awarded to: AT&T, Verizon Business, Quest Government Services Full range of services / 36 common services among contractors Additional optional services available (shown in italic) Service continuity from FTS2001 and Crossover contracts National and international coverage
Telecommunications Services Communications Transport – Voice – Circuit Switched Data – Toll-Free – Combined – Private Line – Frame Relay – Asynchronous Transfer Mode IP-Based – Premises-Based IP VPN – Network-Based IP VPN – Voice over IP Transport – Content Delivery Network – Converged IP – IP Telephony – Internet Protocol Optical – Synchronous Optical Network – Optical Wavelength Wireless Services – Cellular/PCS – Multimode Wireless | Management & Application Services – Video Teleconferencing – Managed Network – Audio Conferencing – Teleworking Solutions – Call Center/Customer Contact Center – Web Conferencing – Dedicated Hosting – Collocated Hosting – Storage – Customer Specific Design and Engineering Security Services – Managed Firewall – Intrusion Detection and Prevention – Managed E-Authentication – Vulnerability Scanning – Anti-Virus Management – Incident Response – Secure Managed Email | Telecommunications Services Communications Transport – Ethernet IP-Based – IP Video Transport – Layer 2 VPN Optical – Dark Fiber Management & Application Services – Unified Messaging – Collaboration Support – Internet Facsimile Special Services – Land Mobile Radio – Mobile Satellite – Fixed Satellite Special Services – Cellular Digital Packet Data – Paging |
Enterprise Services: Awarded May 31, 2007
Awarded to: AT&T, Verizon Business, Quest Government Services, Level 3 Communications, Sprint Nextel IP-centric services / nine common services among contractors Wide range of additional optional services available (shown in italic) National coverage/ varying international coverage
Telecommunications Services IP-Based – Network-Based IP VPN – Voice over IP Transport – Internet Protocol Management & Application Services – Customer Specific Design and Engineering – Managed Network Security Services – Managed Firewall – Intrusion Detection and Prevention – Managed Tiered Security – Anti-Virus Management Special Services – Land Mobile Radio Wireless Services – Cellular/PCS – Multimode Wireless – Cellular Digital Packet Data – Paging | Telecommunications Services Communications Transport – Voice – Circuit Switched Data – Toll-Free – Combined – Private Line – Frame Relay – Asynchronous Transfer Mode – Ethernet IP-Based – Premises-Based IP VPN – Content Delivery Network – Converged IP – IP Telephony – IP Video Transport – Layer 2 VPN Optical – Synchronous Optical Network – Optical Wavelength – Dark Fiber | Management & Application Services – Audio Conferencing – Teleworking Solutions – Call Center/Customer Contact Center – Web Conferencing – Dedicated Hosting – Collocated Hosting – Storage – Video Teleconferencing – Unified Messaging – Collaboration Support – Internet Facsimile Security Services – Managed E-Authentication – Vulnerability Scanning – Incident Response – Secure Managed Email Access Services – Wireline Access – Broadband Access – Wireless Access – Satellite Access |