RESPEC PROJECT

The Bureau Of Land Management (BLM) needs to move their renewable resources monitoring and control center for the Western states from an on-premise solution to a Cloud solution. This need also includes onboarding sites where no government network exists. RESPEC is the architect of this Cloud solution.

RESPEC’s team collected inventory from approximately 50 remote sites, analyzed the existing available equipment, and designed a Cloud solution. This solution allows the current on-premise solution to migrate to a network and hardware-agnostic solution. The Cloud solution is able to incorporate remote sites that were previously incapable of communicating to the central data and monitoring repositories.

RESPEC’s design allows for a site-to-site virtual private network (VPN) via Cloud services and ensures the security of and access to the data while expanding the number of sites being monitored and controlled. This approach provides two-way communication for BLM managers to adjust site resources based on near real-time events and data. This solution makes adding and modifying sites easier for BLM. Upgrades to the monitoring system are also performed without the need of a centralized Information Technology department. All current features of the monitoring system are maintained while allowing improved access in the Cloud. This Cloud solution is more flexible, scalable, and cost effective for BLM, with business continuity and disaster recovery built into the overall design to ensure reliability. RESPEC designed the Cloud solution based on a “pay for what is used” strategy, which minimizes costs and ensures easy scalability. Additional features, such as reduced system size during slow periods, further reduce costs.

RESPEC designed this Cloud solution in a FedRAMP environment to help ensure compliance, data security, and employ uniformed authorizations and controls, such as National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA). Multifactor authentication, security plan, disaster recovery, maintenance, governance, and support plans are provided as part of this solution.