Department of Agriculture Deploying VPN

December 31, 2002 -- The US Department of Agriculture is reportedly planning to link 2,824 service centers through a single virtual private network during the coming year, marking the conclusion of a 10-year technology overhaul that included a move to a common hardware and software platform.

The two efforts will unite 29 bureaus, making data sharing easier, says the department.

Six USDA bureaus will participate in a three-month enterprise architecture prototype. The CIO's office is currently collecting information about what kinds of data the organization's bureaus can share and what kind of databases they can open to one another.

The VPN currently connects systems at Fort Collins, Colorado; Kansas City, Kansas; and St. Louis. Managers in those cities are overseeing the implementation of the VPN across the department.

Spreading the service to the remaining centers will require the installation of routers, upgrades to operating system software and shipping hardware. Over the last decade, the VPN team has completed a series of smaller projects, boosting bandwidth to accommodate VPN service and developing a common network infrastructure.