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© 2016 Stratus Technologies. All Rights Reserved. 1

®

Annual Public Safety PSAP Survey results

573 PSAP Employees Surveyed

March - July 2016


Stratus PSAP Survey – March 2016

From March 2016 through July of 2016, Stratus Technologies surveyed 573 PSAP employees, primarily in North America. Respondents were recruited through emails sent to subscribers of leading public safety publications, notices on forums, and previous year respondents.

The 21 question survey featured topics including call volume, staffing, next-generation 9-1-1 migration, use of virtualization technologies, system outages and more. Data was collected without respondents having to identify themselves or their PSAP organization.

The following pages outline the results of the survey, as well as select comparisons to the previous survey.


Role in PSAP operations

About the Respondents

n = 573

The survey respondents represented

a number of roles within the PSAP.

49% identified themselves as Communication Center

Managers. This was up 10% over last year (39%) but on

par with the previous year’s survey (48%).

IT participation has decreased 2% from 17% last year.

Currently, 15% of the participants are in IT Staff or

Management positions.


®

About the PSAPs

Public Safety Survey Results

March – July 2016


PSAP Geography and Population

In terms of geography, over half the respondents covered a city or county (55%).

Larger PSAPs, those presiding over multiple counties or a region (18%), metro

areas (6%) and states (3%) took up a little over a quarter as a group (27%).

Smaller PSAPs took less than a quarter of the pie with 18%.

Populations served was split with 45% serving less than 80,000 people, and 55%

serving over 80,001. There was a slight shift in percentage population to last year

which was 51% and 49% respectively. This may be due to consolidation.

n = 573

n = 573


Number of 9-1-1 calls per year? Percentage of 9-1-1 calls that require dispatch to a first responder?

PSAP Call Volume and Dispatched

n = 529

Looking at annual call volume, 56% receive over 50,000 calls per year and 44% handling less than 50,000 calls.

Annual call volumes are increasing, as last year these groups were at 49% and 51% respectively.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents said more than 80% of calls received required dispatch to a first responder,

while only two percent reported “Under 20%” of 9-1-1 calls required immediate response, a decrease from last

year’s 4%.

n = 454


Call Intake / Dispatch Function

n = 555

In terms of call intake and dispatch responsibilities, 67% of PSAPs

combine the two functions, a 4% decrease from last year.

Therefore, not surprisingly, there was an increase in almost every

population group separating these functions, except for the

80,001-200,000 category. This group actually increased combining

call intake and dispatch functions from 60% to 70% this year.

Function by Population Served

n = 565


PSAP Staffing by Population

How many call takers and dispatchers

are working on a typical peak shift?

This past year has seen an overall

increase in peak staffing. The ranges

gaining are highlighted in green and losing

in orange.

PSAPs that serve populations under

20,000 people typically have one to two

dispatchers working at peak times. Last

year the shift was towards 3-5, but this

year it was reversed with 3-5 decreasing

from 16% to 8% and 1 increasing from

31% to 42%.

PSAPs serving populations over 200,000

people also had a significant shift, with the

bulk moving from 26+ to the 11-25 range.

11-25 increased from 32% to 38%, further

marking it as the most likely range, while

26+ decrease from 25% to 20%.

1 2 3 to 5 6 to 10 11 to 25 26+

Under

20,000 42% 50% 8%

20,001 to

40,000 8% 51% 38% 3%

40,001 to

80,000 30% 65% 4% 1%

80,001 to

200,000 8% 48% 37% 5% 2%

200,001+ 1% 18% 23% 38% 20%

Number of Dispatchers

Po

pu

lati

on

Serv

ed

n = 563


PSAP Staffing by Yearly Calls

The following is a comparison of how many

dispatchers are working on a typical peak shift

by annual call volume.

Most of the shifts from the previous year were

small and not enough to modify the dark red

selections for each cross section.

The exceptions were:

100-200k, which showed both a downward

and upward shift. This caused the dark red

ranges to include the 3-5 range, while at the

same time increasing the 11-25 range 8% to

25% from 17% last year.

Over 200,001, which had a significant shift

from over 26 dispatchers toward the 11-25

and 6-10 ranges. The shifts from last year

were 6-10 up 8%, 11-25 up 6% and >26 down

11%.

1 2 3 to 5 6 to 10 11 to 25 > 26

Under

10,000 33% 62% 4%

10,001

to

25,0004% 41% 50% 5%

25,001

to

50,000 23% 69% 8%

50,001

to

100,00011% 54% 30% 4%

100,001 to

200,000 1% 39% 32% 25% 3%

Over

200,001 7% 23% 44% 26%

Number of Dispatchers

Yearl

y C

all

Vo

lum

e

n = 528


®

IT Infrastructure and Capabilities


March – July 2016


IT Infrastructure

n = 514

With regard to how a PSAP’s IT is structured, 50% of PSAPs host their own data center and provide their own IT support. 20% have their own data center but outsource IT support to another organization. 20% have a data center hosted and managed at a central location, and only 10% share their data center with another PSAP organization.

When compared to last year, there has been a small shift from all infrastructures towards having IT and the data center in-house, with 50% reporting this year vs. 46% last year.


Next-Generation 9-1-1

n = 442

Looking at the NG 9-1-1 implementation trend, there is a consistent increase in departments planning to implement.

Although slowing down to a 2% increase (12%, 15%, 2%), the number of respondents implementing NG 9-1-1 is up again

this year.

As PSAPs move towards full NG 9-1-1 implementations, it’s no surprise that “Currently Running” showed a 14% increase to

27% while those planning to implement decreased 12% and no plan decreased 2%.

Note: we assume that none of the PSAPs reporting “Currently Running” have fully implemented, but more likely have some

portions of NG 9-1-1 implemented. We are considering a follow-up question to detail areas of implementation.

47%59%

74% 76%

53%41%

26% 24%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2012 2013 2014-15 2016

No

Yes

Implementing/Running NG 9-1-1 Trend


Inside the Numbers: Next-Gen 9-1-1

n = 442

When we look at Next-Gen 9-1-1 by

geography served, we found most PSAPs

were likely to be making NG 9-1-1 upgrades

in the next year.

Like the previous chart, all segments are

down in the “plan to implement” bucket as

they grew in the “currently running” bucket

significantly.

Only “Metro Area” is bucking the trend, with a

9% increase in the “No Plan” bucket, 32% this

year vs. 23% last year.



The chart on the right compares the year

over year changes for Next-Gen 9-1-1 by

geography served.

This year’s average is 76%, up just 2% over

last year’s 74%.

Only Metro has shown a decrease, which

appears to be due to a smaller percentage

implementing compounded by a larger

percent reporting no implementation plans.

State/Federal had the largest increase. At

this point, we are unsure if this is a correction

of the past two years or anomaly like 2012.

Either way, we suggest discounting the

State/Federal percentage.

Currently Running/Implementing

Next-Gen 9-1-1 by Geography Served



n = 437

Next Generation 9-1-1 plans are running

an average of 76% (blue line), up only a

few percent from last year’s average of

74%.

When we look at those running, there was

a 15% increase, with those reporting to be

running NG911 averaging 29% (red line)

this year vs. only 14% last year.

We also see a clear progression of those

implementing as the population served

increases.


Seven Things to Consider When Migrating to NG9-1-1

Your PSAP should not be satisfied with anything less

than 99.999% availability for most critical applications.

Get the paper and learn:

Why 99% system availability is not good enough for PSAPs

What technologies can be employed to increase system uptime

The pros and cons of various availability technologies – hardened

servers, clusters, virtualization, high availability and fault tolerance

– in terms of ease-of-use, administration and cost

What technologies are the best fit for your specific environment

Download Seven Things to Consider When Migrating to NG9-1-1 at: go.stratus.com/NG911

go.stratus.com/NG911


Virtualization in PSAPs

n = 331

More PSAPs are planning to implement virtualization.

When asked about virtualization, 40% of PSAPs have no

plans. This is down 3% compared to 43% reporting no

virtualization plans last year. This shows a continued trend

towards virtualization, as it was only a few years ago when

almost half (49%) had no plans.


Inside the Numbers: Virtualization

Deploying Virtualization

For those planning to deploy virtualization,

61% of PSAPs said they plan on deploying

virtualization for critical applications. While this is

up from last year, it is on par with those currently

running critical applications in virtualized

environments (63%).

Those currently running applications in a virtual

environment, the split between critical and non-

critical applications remains the same at 63%.

This continues the trend of PSAPs seeing

virtualization as a potential solution to downtime.

Deeper dives into the results will see if this holds

true.

n = 199



n = 328

63%57%

37% 30%33%

Looking at PSAP virtualization

results by population served, there is

a correlation between geographic size

and those who are currently running or

planning to implement virtualization. As

the population increases so does

virtualization.



n = 66

This chart looks at just those running

CRITICAL applications in a virtualized

environment by the technology used

to prevent downtime.

Respondents could choose multiple

solutions and averaged 2.8 selections.

This verifies multiple technologies are

used to ensure application availability.

When looking at responses from IT staff

or management, this increased to 3.1

selections and the use of fault tolerant

servers increase 4% to 33%.


Learn More About Virtualization

Is your PSAP interested in leveraging virtualization technologies? Don’t know where to start?

Download Virtualization for Dummies to learn:

– The basics of virtualization and why availability is important

– How organizations of all sizes can take advantage of virtualization

– The role virtualization plays in cloud computing

– How to ensure virtualized applications are always up and running

– The top ten things to consider when virtualizing business-critical applications

Download Virtualization for Dummies at: go.stratus.com/DUMMY

go.stratus.com/DUMMY




PSAPs in The Cloud

n = 365

Similar to last year’s 66%, and unlike other technologies,

67% of PSAPs have no cloud plans. When we looked

closely, most deployment changes happened in non-

critical deployment, most likely for back-up and DR.

Deploying in the Cloud

n = 121

For those deploying in the cloud, 37% of PSAPs said they

plan on employing the cloud for critical apps. This remains

the same compared to last year, but a 12% increase over

those currently running critical applications in the cloud,

which decreased 6% to only 19%.


System / Application Downtime

According to respondents, 67% of PSAPs

have experienced an outage in the last 12

months.

With only slight movements over the past

3 surveys, we see that downtime is

consistently a grim reality for 2 out of

3 PSAPs.

n = 457


Inside the Numbers: Downtime Events

Looking at outages by the size of the

population served, downtime has affected

PSAPs of all sizes, with 67% of all PSAP

reporting at least 1 outage (blue dashed line).

This is down slightly from last year (68%).

The 1% change can be attributed to the

10% decrease in outages for PSAPs

serving under 20,000 who dropped from

68% to only 58% reporting an outage. The

bulk coming from the 2-4 outage range,

which reported 17% less outages this year.

n = 447


Inside the Numbers: Outages by Technology

n = 424

This chart looks at the technology used to prevent downtime by how many outages the PSAP had.

Many things can cause downtime and some outages cannot be prevented. But, as expected, PSAPs who

included Fault Tolerant Servers as part of their technology mix had both a higher percentage without outages as

well as less incidents in the two higher downtime ranges (5-10 and over 10).


Inside the Numbers: Downtime Duration

n = 307

In addition to the sheer number of outages, it’s

also important to examine the average length of

downtime events. Because if you do go down,

it’s vital that you recover fast.

The results show good news, as downtime lasting

more than one hour decreased from 32% to 25%.



When we cross tabulate outage length for those running or planning to implement virtualization, we see that 55% of those with over 15 minutes of downtime are planning to employ virtualization. This suggests the thinking of virtualization as a possible solution. But, when we look at those currently running virtualization, there are still 61% with downtime events lasting more than 15 minutes.

This 6% increase indicates virtualization alone is not really resolving the downtime issue and is why employing complementary high availability or fault tolerant technology is important.

n = 469

Virtualization Plans by Outage Duration

When we cross tabulate outage length for those

running or planning to implement virtualization,

we see that 64% of those with over 15 minutes of

downtime are planning to employ virtualization. This

is up considerably from 55% last year and suggests

the continued thinking of virtualization as a solution.

But, when we look at those currently running

virtualization, there are still 62% with downtime

events lasting more than 15 minutes.

This indicates virtualization alone is not really

resolving the downtime issue and is why employing

complementary high availability or fault tolerant

technologies is important.



n = 287

When comparing the length of application

outages to call volume, 25% reported

having downtime events over one hour.

Additionally, 62% reported having

downtime events over 15 minutes.

The chart on the next page will give you

further detail on the impacts of downtime

length as call volume increases.

> 15 min

> 1 hr.


911 Calls Affected by Downtime

10,000 25,000 50,000 100,000 250,000 500,000

1 Minute 0 0 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 1

15

Minutes0 - 1 1 2 3 7 14

30

Minutes1 2 3 6 14 29

1 Hour 2 3 6 12 29 57

The chart to the right outlines how many

911 calls could potentially be affected

during an application outage of various

lengths.

A relatively short system or application

outage can have a major affect on

emergency response. Even partial

outages, or outages to less critical

systems, can impact first responders

ability to perform at their best.

Calls should always be routed to a

secondary location, but even then

dispatch could be delayed.

Number of 911 Calls Per Year

Length

of S

yste

m O

uta

ge


®

Disaster Preparedness


March – July 2016


Does PSAP have formalized disaster recovery /

contingency plans in case of a catastrophic outage?

Disaster Preparedness Plans

n = 433

The final questions centered around disaster preparedness. According to responses, 18% of PSAPs do not

have a disaster recovery or contingency plan in place in case of a catastrophic outage. As shown by the chart

on the right, those serving over 80,000 have a higher propensity to have formalized plans.


Does PSAP have a standby / backup PSAP location in

case of catastrophic outage or natural disaster?

Disaster Preparedness

n = 461

Twenty percent of PSAPs do not have a backup PSAP location in case of a catastrophic outage or natural disaster. This is only

a 3% decrease over last year’s report of 23%. When we look at the breakout by population served, we see those serving

< 80,001 are below average, and >80,000 are above the average of 80%. Next we look at the trend over the last 4 surveys.


Inside the Numbers: Disaster Preparedness

Last year when drilling in we saw

unexpected results for this question, so

we started looking at the responses over

time.

We expect more PSAPs to have backup

locations as we move forward, not less.

But we do see the 2014-15 spikes were

an anomaly and have returned to a more

plausible range.

One theory is that with technologies,

consolidation and coverage models, it is

less necessary to have a formal standby

or back-up location.

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Under20,000

20,001 -40,000

40,001 -80,000

80,001 -200,000

Over200,000

No Standby/Backup Location by Population by Year

2012 2013 2014 2016


®

PROTECT LIVESAlways on for PUBLIC SAFETY

First Responders take care of emergencies 24x7x365. Application downtime shouldn’t be one of them.


The Availability Continuum

While offering great convenience and attractive new economic models, cloud services today leave availability management up to the client with sometimes disastrous results.

Today’s always-on world is more demanding than ever before, leaving traditional approaches to managing uptime falling well short of acceptable protection for your business.

Conventional Unmanaged

Typical CloudService Level

Conventional Clusters, VMs

Stratus

Always-On

Zone

Downtime / Year

99%

87 hrs. 36 min.

87.6

99.9%

8 hrs. 46 min.

8.77

99.95%

4 hrs. 23 min.

4.38

Alternative availability management technologies deliver a modest level of coverage but require costly centralized storage or specialized staff expertise.

* Take your hourly cost of downtime and multiply it by this figure for each level to get your average yearly potential exposure.

i.e. If hourly cost of downtime is $1,000 then 99.9% will have a potential exposure of $87,600

Always on Level

Downtime Risk Factor*

Stratus’ software solutions with proactive support by design, combine to deliver the highest levels of availability while leveraging your existing apps and staff.

Stratus Software

99.995%

44 min.

.73

Stratus’ platform solutions with proactive support by design, combine to deliver the highest levels of fault-tolerance while leveraging your existing apps and staff.

Stratus Platform

99.999%

5¼ min.

.09


The Right Choice for You

Software SolutionsPlatform Solutions

Utilizes standard x86 dedicated servers

Hardware defined downtime prevention

Fully integrated solution – hardware, software, service

Traditional environment; Intel® Xeon-based servers running Windows®, Linux®, VMware® and OpenVOS environments

Virtual environment; embedded KVM hypervisor

Software defined downtime prevention

Easy, High Performance,

All-in-OneFlexible, Compatible,

System Enhancing


Partners in Public Safety

Stratus works with leading public safety software providers to ensure that your most critical applications never

go down. Our hardware and software solutions require no application code changes and are easy to deploy and

manage. Refreshing your data center technology? Upgrading your applications? Ask your CAD vendor or

systems integrator to supply Stratus always-on solutions.


In the Always-On World of E-911, Stratus

keeps your critical applications running

continuously

We prevent downtime, not just simply recover

from it. Stratus products, services and people

provide worry-free availability, so you can rest

easy.

As a result, the world's most

critical applications rely on Stratus.

Learn more about our flexible hardware and

software always-on solutions for Public Safety

at www.stratus.com/safety

Learn more about keeping your PSAP applications running at: www.stratus.com/safety

Learn More

http://www.stratus.com/safety


1-800-STRATUS (1-800-787-2887)

www.stratus.com/Contact

For more information,

contact Stratus Technologies:

Specifications and descriptions are summary in nature and subject to change without notice. Stratus and the Stratus logo are registered trademarks of Stratus Technologies Bermuda

Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

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