In the wake of a 7.8 Magnitutde earthquake in Equador on April 16 the Cisco TACOPS team is dispatching teams from botth their San Jose, California and Raleigh, North Carolina hubs to the area. Bringing with it satellite, WiFi, Route/Switch, VoIP, Security and a plethora of highly skilled technical response engineers.

As aftershocks continue to plague the country as of this writing over 600 have been reported dead by Reuters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-quake-idUSKCN0XI26F

The team is working to assist with the restoration of emergency management and first responder telecommunication and data networks in remote areas that continue to be cut off from both the original earthquake and the aftershocks.

Following this tweet from Chuck Robbins – CEO of Cisco Systems the TACOPS team went into monitoring mode and began coordinating how they could best lend their assistance.

Cisco is also pushing additional equipment out from their global depot network and that gear will meet the team on site.

About Cisco NERV Technology

Cisco has built what has become the reference platform for emergency communications preparedness inside the NERV – Network Emergency Response Vehicle, with everything from Voice, Video, Radio and Data communications all over IP over just about any medium. GSM, LTE, Multiple forms of Satellite, Wifi, Mesh and everything in between.

If your organization is looking to build a response vehicle from mild to wild and beyond the Cisco NERV team is willing to help you with experience from their actual disaster response scenarios. Contact your Cisco partner today and ask them to engage the TACOPS team.

About Cisco TACOPS (from Cisco.COM)

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/supplier-sustainability/tactical-operations-tacops.html

Uniquely Trained The Cisco TacOps team comprises expert networking, radio communications, and systems engineers along with logistics and operations coordinators. Members of Cisco TacOps and the employee-volunteer Disaster Incident Response Team (DIRT): Are trained in the U.S. National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS)

Participate in large-scale exercises to validate technology solutions and train alongside other responders Uniquely Equipped TacOps specializes in emergency networks that support the immediate needs of rescue, law enforcement and security, and humanitarian assistance teams. TacOps can also support traditional enterprise and service provider networks. TacOps maintains many resources that are ready to deploy immediately, including: Cisco Network Emergency Response Vehicles (NERVs)

Satellite-equipped support vehicles

Fly-away networking kits that can be shipped or carried by hand

World-class cybersecurity solutions that protect first responders and affected populations A geographically dispersed network unites all these resources so that TacOps can easily scale the response based on needs on the ground. Uniquely Supported The team’s humanitarian relief operations are provided through the overall Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program. To ensure delivery of high-quality expertise and equipment around the globe