By Steve Sickler, VP of Field Operations at Genasys
Key Takeaways:
- Redundant emergency communications reduce risk by eliminating single points of failure during outages and disruptions.
- Cloudflare and IPAWS-related incidents highlight why multi-channel delivery is essential for public safety.
- Layered digital and audible communications strengthen reach, trust, and operational resilience.
Emergency communications are built on a single promise: deliver timely, trusted information when it matters most. Yet recent system outages tied to Cloudflare dependencies, intermittent IPAWS disruptions, and regional platform failures have shown how fragile that promise can be when agencies rely on a single communications channel.
For public safety agencies and local governments, redundancy is no longer a technical preference or a budget line item. It is a foundational requirement for resilience, operational continuity, and public trust.
Lessons from 2025
Recent outages tied to core internet infrastructure have underscored how vulnerable single-channel emergency communications can be.
In November 2025, multiple Cloudflare service disruptions caused widespread access issues across websites, dashboards, and application services relied on by governments and public agencies. Although these incidents were not caused by cyberattacks, they still rendered critical digital systems temporarily inaccessible.
For agencies that depend on cloud-hosted alerting portals or web-based communications tools, these outages highlighted a hard reality: when a foundational internet service fails, every downstream system connected to it can fail at the same time.
During the same time period, recent emergency response events have revealed limitations in relying solely on IPAWS as a primary alerting mechanism. While IPAWS itself has not experienced a nationwide outage, local incidents have shown that technical dependencies, approval workflows, and system integration challenges can delay message delivery during fast-moving emergencies.
In several cases, residents received warnings from other sources well before local alerts were issued, creating gaps in situational awareness and public trust. Together, these events demonstrate that emergency communications resilience depends not only on system availability, but on redundancy across channels, technologies, and delivery methods that can operate independently when one pathway is disrupted.
When One Channel Fails, the System Fails
Modern emergency communications rely on interconnected digital infrastructure. Cloud-based services, APIs, and shared networks make alerts faster and more scalable, but they also introduce systemic risk. When a major service provider experiences an outage, the impact cascades across multiple platforms simultaneously.
Recent Cloudflare-related disruptions demonstrated how websites, alert portals, and backend systems can become unavailable at the same time. IPAWS-related issues have similarly delayed or interrupted alert delivery during high-impact events. In each case, agencies that depended on a single channel had limited alternatives.
Single-channel communications are not cost savers. They are single points of failure.
Redundancy Is About Reach, Not Just Backup
Redundant emergency communications are often misunderstood as duplicative systems waiting idly in the background. In practice, redundancy is about diversified reach. Communities are not monolithic. People receive information differently based on location, access, ability, and circumstance.
A resilient citywide communication tool uses multiple delivery paths to reach the same audience simultaneously. Digital alerts, mobile notifications, audible warnings, and visual messaging all serve different segments of the population. When one channel fails or is ignored, another reinforces the message.
This layered approach is especially critical during fast-moving incidents when seconds matter and conditions change rapidly.
Infrastructure Outages Reveal Operational Gaps
Outages do more than delay alerts. They expose operational blind spots. If an alerting platform is inaccessible, can operators still communicate instructions? If mobile networks are congested, can messages still reach outdoor or displaced populations? If internet access is disrupted, can emergency personnel rely on non-networked communications?
Redundant emergency communications address these questions before a crisis occurs. They allow agencies to operate through disruptions instead of reacting to them. They also support continuity for emergency personnel who must coordinate actions while managing public expectations.
Communications for Local Governments Must Be Designed for Failure
Resilient systems assume failure will happen. Power outages, cyber incidents, infrastructure overload, and vendor disruptions are no longer rare events. They are expected conditions.
Effective community alert and messaging systems are designed to function across these scenarios. Redundancy ensures that communications do not depend on a single vendor, network, or technology. It also strengthens credibility. Communities that consistently receive alerts during crises are more likely to trust and act on future messages.
Building Redundancy Into the Communications Strategy
True redundancy integrates digital and non-digital channels into a unified operational framework. Audible warning systems, such as long-range acoustic communications, provide a critical layer when cellular or internet-based channels are unavailable. These systems reach people outdoors, in transit, or without mobile devices, reinforcing alerts with clear, authoritative instructions.
When paired with modern alerting platforms, acoustic channels add resilience rather than complexity. Together, they form a comprehensive approach to emergency communications that prioritizes reach, reliability, and clarity.
Final Thoughts
Recent outages have made one truth unmistakably clear: single-channel emergency communications are a liability. Redundancy is not about technology for its own sake. It is about ensuring messages reach the right people under the worst conditions.
Solutions like Genasys Protect, combined with LRAD and Genasys Acoustics, enable agencies to layer digital alerts with powerful audible communications, creating a resilient, citywide communication tool built for real-world failures.
Now is the time for public safety leaders to evaluate their communications strategy and ensure it is designed not just for normal operations, but for the moments when systems fail and lives depend on what still works. Contact Genasys to learn more.
