Underpinning military intelligence communications
European national defense agency chooses VQ Conference Manager for managed and self-service collaboration in a high-sensitivity environment
The Challenge
Support high-secrecy conferencing on Cisco
Few disciplines are as secretive or as sensitive as military intelligence. Whether teams are discussing strategic, operational, or tactical matters, they need to be 100% certain that their conversations are private.
A European NATO member’s military intelligence organization was in the market for a new collaboration platform to host these classified meetings. This required a blend of managed and self-service conferencing, including via in-room endpoints.
With cloud services prohibited, the agency was keen on Cisco Meeting Server and Cisco video devices. But with Cisco TelePresence Management Suite (TMS) no longer available to purchase, it needed management and self-service tools to enable its new service.
The VQ Communications Solution
Management software built for private conferencing
VQ Conference Manager is designed for use in air-gapped environments, with privacy at its core. Multi-layer platform and meeting security protects the sensitive information being discussed.
The proposed solution for the customer included:
- VQ Conference Manager platform
The foundations of the service, with defense-grade security - Meeting Services
Tools for operator-led management of high-priority meetings, and single-tap joining access on in-room devices via One Button to Push (OBTP) - Metro premium self-service apps
Outlook integration for end-user self-service meeting scheduling. By offering an Outlook plug-in, Metro brings rich functionality to air-gapped environments that isn’t possible through an Outlook add-in - Device Management and Automation (DMA)
Tools to manage the Cisco in-room devices, including advanced certificate management - Analytics
Dashboards, reports, and alerting, to enable proactive service troubleshooting
With the software proven in numerous other national defense and intelligence organizations, the agency was able to move forward with confidence. It subsequently purchased a platform combining Cisco Meeting Servers, Cisco video devices, and VQ Conference Manager, all in a single order through Cisco.
Outcomes
Early service success leads to planned expansion
Following a successful go-live, supported by VQ Communications’ deployment specialists, feedback from administrators, operators, and users has been superb. Many have highlighted the ease of planning and joining calls, thanks to the integration with Outlook and single-touch joining capabilities.
With DMA, the team responsible for maintaining those in-room devices has its finger on the pulse at all times,and can carry out tasks such as firmware updates and certificate management at scale.
Meanwhile, the Analytics is helping administrators spot potential issues early, often before they impact meetings.This results in consistently high in-call experiences.
Such has been the success of the platform that the intelligence agency is now planning to expand its use of VQ Conference Manager, including upgrading to high-availability. This will add further resilience to the organization’s most critical conferences, helping its armed forces keep the country and its NATO partners safe.
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