Cloud Computing in Support of Synchronized Disaster Response Operations

Abstract

During disaster response, key resources are supplied from a variety of channels including: government agencies, volunteer organizations, commercial businesses, educational institutions and others. While many of the entities have efficient internal methods of communication and coordination, global collaboration has historically been hindered by political, social, and technological challenges. Following Hurricane Katrina this resulted in over-resourcing of some in-need areas with little or no resources reaching others. While there is little argument that a global approach to disaster response should be adopted, political and technical challenges surrounding the integration and ownership of such a system have prevented its emergence. This thesis examines the current challenges to collaboration between responding entities and proposes self-synchronization using a distributed, highly scalable, Web application based on cloud computing technologies to facilitate communication between a broad range of public and private entities without requiring them to compromise security or competitive advantage. The proposed design applies the unique benefits of cloud computing architectures such as automatic scaling, geographic distribution, and query performance to the disaster response domain.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2010
Accession Number
ADA531586

Entities

People

  • Corey A. Mazyck
  • Shawn M. Kelly

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cloud Computing
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Data Centers
  • Data Storage Systems
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Disasters
  • Electronic Mail
  • Emergency Response
  • Geographic Information Systems
  • Information Systems
  • Network Architecture
  • Network Protocols
  • Operating Systems
  • United States Northern Command
  • Web Browsers

Readers

  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Educational Psychology
  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.