Avaya Government Cloud achieved Department of Defense (DOD) Impact Level 4 High certification, with Provisional Authorization granted by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the company announced today.
A software as a service offering that provides secure communications capabilities for eligible DOD users and tenants, Avaya Government Cloud is a subscription-based service that includes telephone and voice, voicemail, multimodal instant messaging, conferencing and collaboration, a user/subscriber portal, and optional enhanced emergency calling.
For defense agencies, the authorization enables a trusted path to cloud modernization for communications environments that handle sensitive but unclassified mission information. Avaya Government Cloud supports up to Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)-level voice and contact center communications while maintaining interoperability with existing Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC)-certified premises-based and DISA voice services.
“Federal agencies are being asked to move faster, but the communications systems that carry the mission cannot be treated as experimental,” said Jerry Dotson, vice president, Government Solutions, Avaya. “Avaya Government Cloud gives Department of Defense organizations a secure path to modernize unified communications and contact center environments in the cloud while protecting the investments and workflows they depend on today. With IL4 H Provisional Authorization from DISA, Avaya is currently the only provider with a combined contact center and unified communication solution certified and available at IL4 H. This authorization enables mission assurance in practice: strengthening what carries the mission today while preparing agencies for what comes next.”
As a DOD Community Cloud Service Offering, Avaya Government Cloud is provisioned for the exclusive use of DOD users or tenants, including defense agencies and authorized mission users that need secure cloud-based unified communications and contact center capabilities aligned to IL4 requirements.
Modernization minus disruption
The highest-value use cases for IL4 High-certified communications capabilities are environments that carry mission coordination and sensitive information every day but cannot be disrupted during modernization, Dotson said.
These include secure voice services, mission support desks, contact centers, collaboration environments, emergency calling workflows, distributed base and field communications, and hybrid cloud modernization programs.
In practice, these systems support operational details, logistics coordination, personnel interactions, service requests, and other CUI-related communications. They are high-volume, essential to daily operations, and difficult to take offline for upgrades, he noted.
Avaya Government Cloud helps agencies modernize these environments without forcing a rip-and-replace approach, Dotson said. Agencies can move toward cloud-based communications while protecting existing investments, maintaining continuity, and supporting secure cloud, on-premises, or hybrid operating models based on mission requirements.
“The key is modernization with continuity. Department of War DOD communications platforms need to evolve faster while remaining stable, secure, and impact-level ready,” Dotson added. “Our goal with Avaya Government Cloud is to give DOD organizations a practical path to modernize mission communications while preserving stability.”
Avaya Government Cloud enables agencies to centralize management, strengthen security controls, improve lifecycle management, support high availability, and prepare communications environments for future capabilities such as automation, analytics, artificial intelligence-enabled service delivery, and integrated mission workflows, according to the company.
“We’re building on Avaya’s long-standing government footprint across unified communications, contact center, JITC-certified offerings, FedRAMP Moderate environments, and mission-critical communications modernization,” Dotson explained. “Our approach is to strengthen the systems agencies already rely on, extend them to meet IL4 requirements, and help them adapt over time without disrupting mission operations.”