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What is it?

High-availability server architecture is an IT infrastructure design that aims to ensure that mission-critical services remain operational and accessible even when hardware, software, or network components fail. This type of architecture is crucial for agencies that rely on the availability of their servers and services to conduct their operations, such as a public safety answering point (PSAP). In this post, we’ll explore the three key benefits of high-availability server architecture: Resilience, availability, and security.

Resilience

In computer networking, resilience is the ability to provide and maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges to normal operation. High availability is one aspect that can affect your overall system resiliency and your ability to maintain the requirements of your service level agreements (SLA). In a public safety answering point, the dispatcher requires that their PTT functionality continues even when a system fault occurs. When InterTalk began the design of the Enlite Cloud Ready Dispatch Console System, one key goal was to build dispatch system software that was capable of meeting the needs of agencies today, and into the future. How did we do this? Simply put, we listened to the industry and garnered feedback to develop Enlite to their needs. 

Pain Point: Mission-critical and public safety dispatch operations are hesitant to move to the cloud for their solution.  

How does one overcome the hesitation to move to new technology in an industry where failure is not an option? No one wants to be customer # 1 when lives are potentially on the line. InterTalk approached this issue with one overarching theme in mind, flexibility. With 25 years of exact fit experience, Enlite was developed to be deployed in the way your agency requires. Want to use Enlite as a Software-as-a-Service solution, utilizing an annual subscription model with minimal upfront cost to your agency, Enlite can do that. Perhaps your agency is not fully ready for the cloud but is curious about the mobility and freedom that it allows. Enlite can be deployed in a hybrid configuration, allowing for standard answering point operation at a desktop that can be easily and quickly transferred to a laptop, tablet or mobile phone.  Do you require a traditional on-premises deployment with industry-standard hot standby redundancy that is geo-diverse with automatic failover? As of Q3 2023, this deployment option will become available, providing what is needed for your agency today, with a clear migration path to cloud functionality. Simply put, Enlite can be the last dispatch console system you will ever have to purchase.

 

Availability

What is availability? It refers to the ability of a system to perform its intended functions consistently and without failure for a specific period of time. To achieve public safety grade availability, it’s important to implement proper monitoring and management tools, and conduct regular maintenance and software upgrades. Once again, Enlite was designed to provide flexibility in how availability is maintained. When connected to a cloud hosting service such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, Enlite is constantly being updated and patched through the cloud with minimal effort required by the end user. Additionally, if an air-gapped, on-premise deployment is desired, any trained system admin or technician can simply upload software upgrades on-site or through a secure VPN connection if allowed. 

Pain point: What happens if the internet goes down?

Every story has two sides, and every communication has at least two parties connected together over a medium. 

During a disaster, this means there are three potential problems: 

  1. The Dispatcher is unavailable. 
  2. The Resource is unavailable. 
  3. The link between the Dispatcher and the Resource is unavailable. 

A system in a series is weaker than its weakest member, while a system in parallel is significantly stronger than its strongest member. Many weak modules in parallel are substantially stronger than a few strong modules in a series. So, for extreme reliability, we use lots of weaker modules rather than focus on perfecting a few strong ones. Further, investing in improving the quality of a single node is quickly outdone by investing in an additional node of average quality. We can utilize a combination of wired, LTE, 5G and satellite connectivity to ensure our system stays connected and a plethora of smaller towers to ensure that there’s always a useful resource available at the end of the link. To summarize, “The Internet going away” is resolved by having no single “Internet” to be reliant upon. Each site offers resources, and each Dispatcher has the ability to connect to any resources that they can see from their console. All sites are connected to the wider world using several mediums.

Want to learn more? Read our white paper here: What Happens When the Internet Goes Down?

 

Security

Finally, security is a critical aspect of high-availability server architecture. It refers to the measures taken to protect sensitive data and systems from unauthorized access, theft, and damage. To ensure security, it’s important to implement strong authentication and authorization methods, encryption for data in transit and at rest, and regular software and security updates. 

Pain point: Can cloud-hosted dispatch system software still be secure? 

InterTalk Enlite adheres to the latest encryption guidelines from NIST and OWASP for securing real-time communications over the public Internet and for storing sensitive data at rest utilizing encrypted VPN links. Hosted architecture is deployed that is compliant with individual requirements for data center security and operations policies. Each system can be configured with independent monitoring and central logging and can be managed according to specific jurisdiction. Enlite software development methodology includes a fully automated deployment pipeline with automatic vulnerability scans, peer reviews and transparent deployments, adhering to NIST 800-160, ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 9001:2015 standards. 

In conclusion, a high-availability server architecture is crucial for agencies that rely on the continued function of their servers and services to meet their Service Level Agreements. By implementing HA architecture through products such as Enlite, agencies can minimize downtime, ensure that their systems perform consistently, and protect sensitive data.

See Enlite in action this March at IWCE 2023 in Las Vegas! The InterTalk team will be on-site at booth #1861 from March 29th-30th 2023. You can even receive your expo pass for free by registering and using code: Intertalk25.

Let’s continue the (R)Evolution of Dispatch together!

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