Communication systems are no exception.
Change is important and necessary, but combining ignorant change with arrogance (the belief that something "never happens" after change has happened) is naive and irresponsible.
Rogers Communications recently suffered another major outage, causing multiple dependent systems to fail.
This is a relatively complex problem with fairly serious emergency management implications.
Here are some related issues for clarity.
Communication is the most important resource in an emergency.
The reason an emergency is an emergency is due to the fact that something out of the ordinary has happened and requires an out-of-the-ordinary response to resolve it.
This solution always requires activation of assets or resources to deal with emergencies. Otherwise it wouldn't be an emergency.
Bringing order to chaos by building organizational decision-making structures and coordinating responses before an emergency occurs is fundamental to dealing with emergencies.
You can't do this without communication.
For example, the 911 emergency line doesn't actually need to be down for most people.
Rogers' power outage created a situation where multiple communications devices were unable to make outgoing calls, including his 911 call.
If someone cannot make a call, regardless of whether the center can receive the call, for that person he is 911 down.
The recommendation to the public regarding this issue was to use Bell's landlines instead.
However, landlines are becoming less common each year.
Many government agencies and even public health networks do not have landlines in their main buildings.
Business continuity plans for many government outages use backup systems known as VOIP phones.
VOIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. Basically, these are internet phones that require both internet and power to work.
If the internet or power goes out and the phone that relies on power and internet is the backup, the backup phone will also go down.
By contrast, older copper landline phones have an independent power source and do not need the internet or power grid to operate.
Then there is the issue of arrogance.
Both private and public institutions are concerned about the problems that arise when adopting new systems that are highly dependent on technology, without considering the unintended consequences of failure of the new systems.
Risk assessments that examine the likelihood of new systems failing compared to the systems they replace are seldom performed.
The underlying idea here is that the failure of the new system ``never happens'' and that the old system should be discarded without reasonable consideration of the risk of the new system failing.
It's a whole different order of magnitude when an individual does this than when it's done by a public or private agency that is always obligated to serve the public.
This is inexcusable.
I teach a course at the University of York on how to modernize the workforce on this issue, as well as advise and serve clients across over 15 unique industries. .
This knowledge is readily available, but many organizations clearly don't care.
Canada is bad at this and embarrassed.
The risks we routinely assume with little or no control over what happens when something goes wrong are national security, disaster risk reduction, and emergency It confuses emergency preparedness experts.
Here are some things people and organizations can do to prepare.
Learn the importance of business continuity in an emergency for both information technology and non-information technology systems.
Do not pay for services or engage in supply chains unless the organization in question can provide reasonable assurance of its ability to continue operations in an emergency. .
Organizations looking for your business should be able to explain why they will not be shut down in an emergency and how their service will be affected if they do.
Do not use them if the risks are not adequately addressed or if you are not satisfied with the handling of unexpected outages. They are not suitable for your business.
The only way organizations care about this is if stakeholders make it a priority.
— Vezina He is CEO of Prepared Canada Corp. and teaches Disaster and Emergency Management at York University. You can contact him at info@prepared.ca
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