Technology Aplenty At FOSE

It wasn't that the show was held in a brand-new convention center, or that the floor was alive and crammed with booths and people. Or that the organizers had attracted keynote speakers the likes of Cisco Systems' John Chambers and Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy. What got me excited were the brilliant opportunities for VARs.

North American Access Technologies (NAAT) of Hawthorne, N.Y., showcased its Mobile Emergency Datacenter (MED), which is basically a hot site on wheels. Inside the truck are racks of equipment, a UPS and a power generator, and enough room to stash gigabytes of storage. It can be outfitted to serve as a mobile command center, a movable storage facility for your files or as an emergency data center. NAAT is a perfect example of a VAR that can assemble a truly unique product out of commonly available parts to serve a critical need for governments and even private clients that must have mobility, security and redundancy in a single package.

Another exciting idea is a joint solution that is being sold by government integrator giant GTSI called STORM, which stands for Secure, Tough, Online/Offline, Reliable and Mobile. It is a combination of Panasonic's Toughbook rugged laptops, Senforce's mobility and security software, and GTSI's distribution savvy to meet the Department of Defense's (DoD) demand for commercial wireless applications. The military is looking for a few good laptops, but they must be able to turn off the wireless radios when security needs demand more circumspect communications.

You wouldn't want the enemy to sniff out our military users by listening in on their wireless broadcasts, hence the government has come up with regulations to be able to switch their laptops from chatty Cathys to more demure and encrypted ways to communicate, referred to as 8100.2 in DoD parlance. What is nice about STORM is that it shows how VARs can bring together a total solution, again out of commonly available parts but packaged in a way that makes sense. Senforce provides the secure part with its specialized software, Enterprise Mobile Security Manager, which can handle wide-area network security, end-point access, and policy enforcement for laptops and remote users across the battlefield. Panasonic has battle-hardened laptops that reduce the failure rate in the field. Company reps cited an almost 90 percent failure rate for ordinary commercial-grade laptops that were being used in the Middle East and were being returned for damage due to exposure in the harsh desert environment. By comparison, Panasonic Toughbooks had less than a 15 percent return rate.

My last example is a concern for all parents of high-school-aged children: applying for financial aid. The Department of Education, with some help from Accenture, manages to make things a bit easier with its Student Aid on the Web portal. This site offers links to all kinds of resources, including explanations of how to prepare for college, choosing the right type of aid package, finding the right funding sources and applying for the loans online.

These three examples were just the tip of the iceberg at FOSE. And while it was nice to hear from Chambers and McNealy, the action on the floor demonstrates that VARs continue to innovate and find new and interesting ways to deliver IT services and products to the government audience.