Case Study: U.S. Coast Guard achieves enterprise-wide, two-way emergency mass notification reaching 50,000 in minutes with BlackBerry AtHoc

U.S. Coast Guard Deploys AtHoc for Its Enterprise-wide Emergency Mass Notification System

The U.S. Coast Guard, responsible for protecting thousands of miles of U.S. coastline and coordinating maritime security across more than 100 facilities, needed a modern, enterprise-grade alerting system to replace legacy broadcasts and portal posts. Faced with requirements to reach and collect feedback from 50,000+ personnel and partners, support unit-specific recall and accountability, secure sensitive data behind the firewall, and scale for wide geographic and mission diversity (hurricanes, search and rescue, waterway closures), the service upgraded to AWS 2.0 to enable rapid, bi-directional emergency communications.

The Coast Guard deployed AtHoc Enterprise Edition integrated with its Homeport portal in a secure, private-cloud/on-prem configuration, giving centralized web-console control, failover redundancy, CAC-powered self-registration, and per-unit account management. The multi-channel system (telephone, SMS, email, fax) delivers targeted or enterprise-wide alerts in minutes, provides real-time response tracking and accountability, reduced redundant systems and costs, and earned industry recognition for improving maritime emergency communications.

U.S. Coast Guard

Ted Kim

Commander