Moving from Disaster Recovery to Constant Availability; DOT’s Telework Experiment and Thoughts About the Future Daniel G. Mintz, CIO Department of Transportation

Page 1 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

Page 2 August 2008 DOT Chief Information Officer 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

Page 3 August 2008 DOT Chief Information Officer 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

Page 4 August 2008 DOT Chief Information Officer Telework Data Including April 17

Page 5 August 2008 DOT Chief Information Officer What Worked Well Connectivity – only minor load balancing needed Communications – operational continuity and simultaneous supervisor/employee connections Security-secure remote access Employee Accountability

Page 6 August 2008 DOT Chief Information Officer 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

Page 7 August 2008 DOT Chief Information Officer 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

Page 8 August 2008 DOT Chief Information Officer 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 within six hours at our backup facility –In CY2009, fast restart in less than an hour

Page 9 August 2008 DOT Chief Information Officer 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

Page 10 August 2008 DOT Chief Information Officer Culture/Business Issues Government incentives are not the same as for the private sector Voic 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