Cloud Computing
When Santa Clara County activated the emergency
dark site on Google Sites, they were managing crisis communication
using cloud computing. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others
provide cloud computing services.
With cloud computing, site content and data
is hosted “in the cloud” on redundant data centers.
Online web sites are accessed from a web browser, while the
software and data are stored on the host’s servers.1
Cloud computing is a good choice for crisis
communication and emergency response because:
- The extensive infrastructure
of the hosting company (in this case Google) is more reliable
than a local network.
- Redundancy and reliability is
important in emergencies that can damage network infrastructure
(earthquakes and fires) or overload the system (public health
emergencies, pandemics).
The Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s
Emergency Dark Site resides in the cloud, on Google’s
servers. When the emergency dark site was activated during
the H1N1 response, viewers were re-directed from the usual
public health web site, residing on the County’s servers,
to the emergency dark site on Google Sites.
When the H1N1 outbreak subsided, the Public
Information Officer (PIO) gave approval to de-activate the
emergency dark site. In a few simple steps, viewers were directed
back to the Public Health web site on the County’s servers.
If the H1N1 outbreak intensifies again,
the emergency dark site can be quickly activated and the PIO
can input updated information immediately. In another type
of public health emergency, the PIO can easily copy and revise
the emergency dark site for that incident.
OTHER USES FOR A EMERGENCY DARK
SITE HOSTED IN THE CLOUD
If your public health department currently
does not have a web site, you can use cloud
computing to provide both routine public health information
and emergency information. To do this, you would first build
a public health web site on Google Sites. Then, you can build
pages within the publicly viewed site that are hidden, or
dark, until activated in an emergency. Using this model, you
can easily and quickly switch from the usual public health
site to the emergency information on the dark pages.
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