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Vital information protected with DataWise^TM software and Stratus^® systems

A police force must be prepared to respond immediately in emergency situations in order to fulfill its mission of protecting the community. The law enforcement agency of Sussex, England is no exception. Serving the counties of East and West Sussex, located south of London with a population of approximately 1.5 million people, the Sussex Police force answers about 700 emergency calls every day in its command and control center (C&C).

As with other police forces, the Sussex command and control (C&C) center is the very hub of operation. This is where emergency calls are answered and dispatched to police on the street. Efficient, accurate C&C operation is essential for faster response times in emergency situations and better service to the community. Because it operates around the clock, the computer systems that support the C&C center must be available 24x7.

A long-time Stratus Technologies customer, Sussex recognizes the need for fault-tolerant technology to deliver continuous availability The force relies on industry-standard, fault-tolerant Stratus^® servers and an operational information system (OIS) application to support this mission-critical environment.

For several years, Sussex has had a reciprocal agreement in place with the Gloucestershire Constabulary, which also uses the Stratus OIS application in its C&C center. Under the agreement, the two forces provide contingency coverage for each other in the event of a software or hardware failure. This allows for continued operation without any interruption to public services

John Downard, system support manager, IS, at Sussex Police, explains, "We were looking at opportunities that would allow us to update information far more transparently and automatically, and enhance the disaster recovery capability we share with the Gloucestershire Constabulary. Stratus brought DataWise^TM to our attention as a possible solution."

DataWise is a Stratus-based application developed by Insession Technologies and distributed by Insession and Stratus. The software allows customers to extract data from Stratus systems and replicate it continuously to designated remote systems.

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Sharing information: best practice in police operations

Sharing police resources across forces has been highlighted by UK government authorities as an example of best-practice in police operations. Sharing resources also enables police organizations to take systems down to make occasional software updates. This proved most useful for Sussex during Microsoft^® Windows^® 2000 testing. “All downtime has been planned downtime. On no occasion, has the reciprocal agreement been invoked due to a failure of the Stratus systems,” says Downard.

With increasing demands being put on police forces to provide the most up-to-date details in criminal investigations, Sussex is always searching for ways to improve its systems. Since the onset of the agreement between Sussex and Gloucestershire, the two forces have updated critical information through a periodic process of manual file transfers. While effective, the procedure was time-consuming and the information would not always be the most recent.

With DataWise software, the Sussex Police now have an effective mechanism in place for replicating data between the two locations. DataWise provides all the features required: rapid, accurate data replication; interoperability between a wide range of database systems including Oracle^®, Microsoft^® SQL Server, Sybase^®, IBM^® DB2^®, and all ODBC-compliant databases; and quick, secure data transfer between applications.

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Disaster recovery site more efficient

The value that Arrowhead places on reliability and simplicity would lead the financial institution to select an ftServer system for the new ATM/EFT server platform. Book says that purchase price was not much of a consideration, because the price of the fault-tolerant Stratus server compared favorably with multiple servers clustered for high availability.

"I like the Stratus ftServer system because of its simplicity.  With clustering, the typical approach to high availability, comes other issues including complex configuration and management as well as software compatibility," explains Book.  "It came down to the simplicity of managing one box."

The ftServer design maximizes uptime with built-in Continuous Processing^® features - including lockstep hardware, failsafe system software, and ActiveService^TM capabilities - all inside a single server.

The credit union recognizes the advantage of an ATM/EFT platform that is engineered to provide 99.999% availability, yet installs and manages as easily as an ordinary Windows server does. Book comments, "You buy, install, and manage the Stratus ftServer system like any other Windows server in your shop. We did not have to move to a UNIX^® operating system or a proprietary operating system to get the availability we need."

One aspect of the server's superior uptime protection was demonstrated during the installation process. Arrowhead's IT staff pulled out one of the replicated hard drives and one of the replicated CPUs, proving to themselves that the ftServer system continues to run normally even if one component fails or a hot-swap is necessary.

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A perfect union

Says Downard, “DataWise software streamlines the replication of information to our Gloucestershire Constabulary disaster recovery (DR) site, giving all of our operators immediate access to information that was updated only minutes, or even seconds, before. It is also part of our strategic drive to ensure that data is only entered once. We are doing a lot of work to process data so that it flows smoothly from one system to another.

"We are also implementing a major program to replace a number of our internal systems," he adds.

Datawise is a key step in the success of this long-term initiative. The force plans to create a system that will enable efficient investigation and processing of incidents "cradle to grave" as Downard puts it. The wide-ranging support for different data formats that DataWise provides will allow data to flow directly from the C&C system into other applications. Officers will have to access information that will help them build a complete and accurate police log. Sitting at the heart of the C&C, this new system will act as a hub for information within the force.

He adds, "We are pleased to say that our experience with the Stratus ftServer system has been completely uneventful. It's a decision we have never had to rethink."

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Reliable data replication

The growing need to share information with other forces and authorities is a prime consideration as Sussex looks ahead, but it is only part of the story.

The Sussex Police, along with all other police departments in the UK, will be expected to provide data for the central National Management Information System (NMIS). With Datawise software in place, Sussex will be able to fulfill its obligation. Datawise can also assist in intelligence information sharing within the force or between law enforcement agencies. This addresses a key issue raised by the UK’s Bichard enquiry.

The Sussex Police extensively tested the DataWise software and reports that the application is successfully and reliably replicating OIS data with Gloucestershire. Downard says, "When it comes to the hardware platform, we have every confidence in Stratus. Availability in these environments is paramount and coupled with Stratus’ track record, the choice was clear."

According to Downard, performance is improving as a result of the systems development being done across Sussex. "It is difficult to quantify our return on investment. We are a better performing force and there is no doubt that the availability of information has contributed to our improvement," he observes.

"The key benefit of Datawise data replication software will be in the better use of information. It will be the means by which we can exploit the value that is trapped in our information systems," Downard concludes.

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See also Customer Profile Sussex Police: 24/7 policing supported by 24/7 call center