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AtHoc IWSAlerts Achieves "Positive Military Utility" Rating by U.S. Army Pacific and U.S. Pacific Command After Use in Cobra Gold Exercise in Thailand
Cobra Gold Exercise Extended Use of AtHoc IWSAlerts for Myanmar Relief Efforts
| Source: AtHoc
BURLINGAME, CA--(Marketwire - August 18, 2008) - AtHoc, Inc., the pioneer and leader in
network-centric emergency notification systems, today announced U.S.
Pacific forces successfully fielded AtHoc IWSAlerts™ during the Cobra
Gold 2008 exercise in Thailand and rated the solution as a "Positive
Military Utility." In addition to successfully completing the exercise,
joint military forces also used AtHoc IWSAlerts in preparation for relief
efforts when Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, Burma in May.
Cobra Gold 2008 was a six week event that took place in April and May of
this year. The exercise was designed to improve military readiness and
interoperability between the U.S., Thai, Japanese, Indonesian and
Singaporean militaries. The exercise demonstrated the United States'
support for the security and safety of Pacific allies.
During the event, the five countries participated in field training
exercises, humanitarian assistance exercises and computer-simulated command
post exercises. During these exercises, AtHoc IWSAlerts was fielded as a
solution for rapidly disseminating emergency information to personnel to
warn of emergencies, provide instruction for action about how to respond
and track recipients' responses to alerts.
For the exercise, AtHoc IWSAlerts was first deployed at the U.S. Pacific
Command (USPACOM) headquarters at Camp Smith in Hawaii on the Asia Pacific
Area Network (APAN). The U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) led the exercise and
operators from the Joint Task Force protection teams throughout Thailand
were able to use the emergency notification system. With onsite support by
an AtHoc engineer, they were trained to publish alerts, create user and
distribution lists, and disseminate alerts through the Web-based alerting
interface. Alerts were sent mainly through mobile and landline phones and
to computer desktops, but they could also be sent to any network-connected
mobile device, siren or public address system.
Midway through the exercise, disaster struck in Myanmar in the form of
Cyclone Nargis, and many of the Cobra Gold participants were diverted from
the exercise to help respond to the cyclone. In preparation for the relief
efforts, AtHoc IWSAlerts was used in real-world scenarios to alert
personnel about emergency situations.
"AtHoc IWSAlerts proved itself to the Cobra Gold forces and demonstrated
effectiveness when it counted most -- in supporting real-world disaster
relief efforts," said Andy Anderson, vice president of defense sector
operations for AtHoc. "Cobra Gold tests the viability of products for use
in the Pacific region -- tests that help ensure that the technologies used
are as ready for action as the men and women who serve. AtHoc IWSAlerts
demonstrated the value of network-centric alerting in simulations as well
as through its use in Myanmar, meeting the Pacific force's high standards
to achieve Positive Military Utility status."
USARPAC and PACOM rated AtHoc IWSAlerts based on its scores for
performance, operator feedback, ease of use, maintenance requirements,
deployment flexibility and cost benefit analysis.
AtHoc IWSAlerts has been deployed at PACOM headquarters at Camp Smith for
over a year on the NMCI network. It is used for emergency notification and
critical alerting to all headquarters personnel.
About AtHoc
AtHoc is the pioneer and recognized leader in providing enterprise-class,
network-centric emergency notification systems to military, government and
commercial organizations for physical security, force protection and
personnel accountability. Millions of end users worldwide, in organizations
such as the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Hawaii State Civil
Defense, NASA, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Boeing,
PricewaterhouseCoopers and eBay, rely on AtHoc's unified management systems
for their emergency alerting and critical communication needs. AtHoc has
partnered with market leaders including Microsoft, Cisco, Harris, Siemens,
Avaya, Lockheed Martin, Unisys and others to bring these notification
solutions to the public and commercial markets.
For more information on AtHoc, please visit http://www.athoc.com.