Noteboom The Law Firm

The VA is Upgrading to a New Network

May 24, 2010 - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is undergoing many changes this year both in health care and their technology departments. Leaving Sprint as their main service provider, the VA will split their network traffic across three separate providers: AT&T, Qwest, and Verizon (Networx).

The VA is almost at the end of their network renovation. While there is still work to do, the transition to the new Networx program has been fairly painless given the significance of the VA's demands and the size of their set of connections. The VA network is high-bandwidth and high-security and supports the connection of:

• 150 Hospitals;
• 780 Outpatient clinics;
• Regional offices; and
• Over 300,000 employees.

The VA is a good model to use to show the efficiency of the new network as the VA has a monthly growing demand. The VA's electronic medical system is called VISTA and is Networx's main application. The VA found it had to use numerous carriers because it split its services into three categories:

• Wide-Area Network;
• Toll-free inbound and outbound voice services; and
• Call center services.

Due to the size of the VA's network, it has taken 2 years to transition to Networx from Sprint. Sprint will no longer provide any wireline services for the VA as of this fall but will remain a main customer for VA's wireless services. Wireless services will not be transitioned to the Networx contract and Sprint still supports thousands of mobile devices.

While everything is looking good for the VA and their new network coming online in the fall, it has yet to be put to the test. Splitting their services between 3 carriers may have been the best thing for their network as it will allow more critical focus on different areas.