Beyond 99.9%: Why public safety can’t afford 'standard' uptime

In the world of emergency response, the margin for error is nonexistent. When someone dials 911, they aren't just relying on telecommunicators and responders in the field; they are relying on a complex web of technology. Computer-aided dispatch, law enforcement records and mobile data need to work together seamlessly to protect callers in their greatest moments of need.

Yet, for many public safety agencies, the responsibility of keeping these mission-critical systems running 24/7/365 is becoming increasingly difficult to meet as tech continues to evolve and workforce challenges persist. 

The sheer pace of technological change means maintaining a modern public safety tech stack requires a recurring cycle of upgrades and security updates to stay current with patches and improvements while also trying to keep ahead of bad actors. It also requires a highly specialized workforce — database experts, network managers and cybersecurity professionals — who are in high demand across every industry. 

For many municipalities, and nearly all industries and companies, the cost of retaining skilled resources is becoming more and more difficult.

For agencies overwhelmed by these challenges, managed services can be a lifeline for serving their communities. By partnering with third-party experts to handle core technical responsibilities, public safety agencies can move closer to an aspirational goal: systems that truly never go down.

The Myth of “Good Enough” Uptime

In many IT environments, 99% uptime is considered a great success. In public safety, that 1% gap represents over 80 hours of downtime a year. Even 99.9% results in nearly 48 minutes of downtime annually — a lifetime when seconds count during a structure fire or a medical emergency.

When these systems must go down for maintenance or disaster recovery sites don’t kick in, agencies are forced to go “old school” with pen, paper and radio. 

Not only does this slow response times, but it also creates a massive administrative burden once the system returns, as calls must be backlogged manually if the agency doesn’t have an automated process within their CAD system. 

The Proactive Resilience of Managed Services

Achieving true resilience requires a shift in philosophy from reactive to proactive. Here is how managed services bridge the gap between “standard” IT and public safety’s “never go down” requirement.

1. Constant monitoring. The key to achieving “never go down” status lies in moving to a proactive monitoring strategy. Constant monitoring is about more than just checking if a server is on; it's about getting ahead of an issue before it becomes a real problem. 

By setting specific thresholds for database consumption, RAM, network health and other factors, managed services teams can identify potential failures in their infancy. For example, if memory usage hits 80%, a proactive alert allows technicians to intervene before the system crashes. This constant vigilance ensures that fixes happen behind the scenes, often before the agency even realizes there was a potential problem.

2. Upgrades without interruption. One of the primary fears in public safety is that a necessary upgrade will cause an unnecessary outage. Managed services mitigate this through rigorous planning and advanced technical maneuvers.

Standard practices include scheduling maintenance during lowest-call volumes — say, 3 a.m. on a Tuesday — and utilizing forced failovers. In a failover scenario, an agency can upgrade a secondary site and then transition operations to it while the primary site is updated, ensuring that dispatchers never lose their connection to the field.

3. Expert staffing. With bad actors constantly evolving their tactics, staying current with the latest cybersecurity approaches and technologies is a daunting task. It requires high-demand tech experts who are routinely getting certified on the latest trends and ensuring the latest upgrades are in place. 

It’s simply unreasonable to expect individual municipalities that provide a wide range of resident services to keep up with the fast pace of change in this space. Managed services include expert staff who can ensure that systems are always protected by the latest defenses.

In some cases, this partnership even goes as far as having tech experts work directly inside the agency's facility. This provides the best of both worlds — the resources of a dedicated tech company and the expertise embedded directly into the daily operations of the command center.

Focusing on the Mission, Not the Servers

Ultimately, the value of managed services is that it allows public safety professionals to focus exclusively on their core mission: protecting communities. By offloading the burden of technical maintenance to partners who have been evolving inside the industry for decades, agencies can ensure they have the most resilient, secure and modern tools available.

Ben Ernst is vice president for global public safety at Octave.