U. S. Coast Guard

The U. S. Coast Guard turned to BT Federal when they needed to meet the needs of their ship-based crews. Having deployed Exchange servers on each of their 48 cutters, the Coast Guard needed to address the usage of the satellite network. BT Federal’s automated solution significantly reduced the use of the satellite network delivering high cost savings and mitigated risks.

Close inspection of the Exchange synchronization process shows that the Exchange directory services utilize the same messaging infrastructure that supports the email service. Each Exchange synchronization message is 2000 bytes that allow handshaking and information transfer between Exchange servers. With the introduction of 48 additional Exchange servers, it was clear that the number of synchronization messages would increase dramatically, adding to the communications requirements. Further complicating the deployment is that a recommended maximum of 30 Exchange sites should not be exceeded within a domain. And ultimately, a substantial risk was identified with the Exchange directory services – a relatively minor change to a cutter’s local Exchange server could potentially result in a flood of synchronization messages. Across a satellite network, the incurred costs could be substantial.

BT Federal’s solution replaced Exchange’s directory services. A BT Federal-developed directory synchronization process now manages directory changes efficiently and automatically at pre-selected times. As changes are made to a cutter’s local Exchange directory, such as the addition of an email address, the change is stored on the cutter’s local directory. When the cutter is inport and connects to the central directory server, the changes made by the cutter since the last synchronization are collected and sent to the central directory server. At the same time, changes on the central directory made by other entities since the cutter’s last synchronization sent to the cutter’s Exchange directory, bringing the cutter’s directory current. This solution further reduces the amount of data moved during the synchronization process.

The solution leveraged the U.S. Coast Guard’s investment and proved cost effective relative to alternative solutions by combining the best features from the existing global directory delivered by BT Federal and Exchange.