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:

  1. The extensive infrastructure of the hosting company (in this case Google) is more reliable than a local network.
  2. 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.

 

1"Gartner Says Cloud Computing Will Be As Influential As E-business". Gartner. 2008-06-26. Retrieved 2009-06-02.

Gruman, Galen (2008-04-07). "What cloud computing really means". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2009-06-02.

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