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The Disaster Management Hub

What you need to know about disaster management for GIS organizations

How migrating to the Cloud and partnering with a Managed Services Provider (MCSP) prepares your GIS organization for disaster response and resilience

Navigating the Disaster Management Cycle: The role of Managed Cloud Services

Hear from ROK Technologies, leading GIS Managed Cloud Service Provider (MCSP) as well as two SLG clients who leverage MSCP to streamline their disaster preparedness efforts and better expedite recovery processes.

Learn more from IWCE's disaster symposiums

 

ROK Technologies is proud to be a sponsor and panelist for the 2023 and 2024 Disaster Management Digital Symposiums organized by IWCE’s Urgent Communications and American City & County

Understanding the 4 phases of disaster management

 

Phase I: Mitigate & Plan  — Capacity Building

  • Consider what can actually eliminate or reduce the probability of a disaster as well as reduce the effects of an unavoidable disaster (ie vegetation clearance in high fire danger areas, or building restrictions in potential flood zones).
  • Analyze and document the possibility of an emergency or disaster and the potential consequences or impacts on life, property, and the environment – assessing hazards, risks, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery needs

Phase II: Prepare Pre-Impact

  • Outline what happens when the mitigation measures in place from phase 1 have not, or cannot, prevent disasters. Develop plans to save lives and minimize disaster damage (i.e. compiling state resource inventories, installing early warning systems, through training exercises, and by mobilizing emergency response personnel on standby).

Phase III: RespondEmergency and Restoration

  • When an emergency or disaster occurs, provide emergency assistance for victims (ie search and rescue, emergency shelter, medical care); stabilize the situation; and reduce the probability of secondary damage (GIS Technology for Disasters and Emergency Management J-8474 ESRI White Paper)

Phase IV: RecoverReconstruction

  • Efforts to return all systems to normal or better, including short-term recovery activities – cleanup, temporary housing, and access to food and water – and longer-term recovery activities that could last years depending on the disaster – redevelopment loans, legal assistance, and community planning. 

GIS is the foundation for disaster management

 

Emergency disaster management depends on surfacing and leveraging data from a variety of sources at the right time, shared with the right teams to take the right action. That is a lot of “rights” to get right.

With Esri GIS infrastructure and the Cloud, departments have access to a centralized source of data that can be shared anywhere and at any time. Without this capability, emergency workers must gain access to a number of department managers, their unique maps, and their unique data. Most emergencies do not allow time to gather these resources.

As a MCSP, we partner with Esri to ensure your GIS implementation is running effectively and efficiently. Read more about Esri disaster management support
Esri Disaster Response Program (DRP) and Resources
Esri Disaster Response Program (DRP) and Resources
Best Practices from the GIS Disaster Response Community
Best Practices from the GIS Disaster Response Community
ArcGIS Living Atlas - Live Feeds for weather and disasters
ArcGIS Living Atlas - Live Feeds for weather and disasters

Partnering with an MCSP (like ROK) can help your GIS organization with disaster response and recovery

Scalability during emergencies: 

In disaster situations, data processing and mapping demands increase exponentially as governments, first responders, and citizens require real-time information. MCS provides auto-scaling capabilities, ensuring critical GIS applications remain available without performance bottlenecks during surges in usage.

Timely data recovery and reduced downtime

Automated backups and failover systems ensure that GIS data remains intact and accessible when it’s needed most. During disasters, power outages and infrastructure damage can cripple on-premises systems. In the cloud, GIS organizations can maintain uptime, ensuring critical systems continue to operate, even when physical locations are compromised.

Ability to rapidly deploy GIS data and solutions

Quick action is essential and cloud-hosted GIS platforms can provide live updates on affected areas, helping allocate resources more effectively. MCS partners help integrate data from multiple sources – drones, satellite imagery, etc, for a comprehensive view of the disaster.

Collaboration across teams and organizations when it matters most

Cloud-based GIS systems support real-time collaboration by allowing multiple teams—local governments, emergency responders, and federal agencies—to access and share critical data. MCS providers manage the infrastructure to ensure that all parties can work from the same up-to-date information, whether through shared maps, dashboards, or GIS data layers.

Dedicated continued security 

Human-caused disasters, such as cyberattacks, can target infrastructure. MCS and Cloud providers implement advanced security measures, including encryption, intrusion detection, and multi-factor authentication, to safeguard GIS data and systems. For public sector organizations, MCS providers help ensure compliance with regulations (such as FedRAMP, HIPAA, and CJIS) when managing sensitive data.

 

Hear from local GIS organizations that managed disaster with the help of ROK Technologies

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) of an MCSP related to Disaster Management
Why should we consider a MCSP for our GIS operations during an emergency?

During a disaster, GIS systems need to scale rapidly to accommodate increased demand for real-time data and maps. A MCSP can ensure your systems remain operational, secure, and accessible, even in the face of power outages, hardware failures, or surges in traffic. MCSPs also provide robust disaster recovery solutions to help restore services quickly after an incident.


How can a MCSP help ensure continuity of GIS operations during disasters?

One of the many values a Managed Cloud Service Provider offers not only during larger scale emergencies, but day in and day out, is automated backups, multi-region data replication, and failover mechanisms, ensuring that if one system fails due to a disaster, another system takes over. With cloud infrastructure, GIS data is accessible from any location, allowing your team to continue operations even if your physical offices are affected.


What disaster recovery features should we look for in a MCSP?

Look for features like:

  • Multi-region data redundancy to protect against local disasters
  • Automated backups and frequent snapshotting of GIS data and applications
  • Failover capabilities that ensure minimal downtime
  • Real-time monitoring and alerting systems for proactive disaster mitigation
  • Pre-configured disaster recovery plans that can be activated with minimal manual intervention

Feel free to reach out to the ROK Team to talk about these features and more! 


How can a MCSP help us scale our GIS systems in response to emergency-related demands?

During disasters, GIS systems may need to process large volumes of data from sensors, drones, or satellite imagery, or handle spikes in traffic from emergency responders and the public. MCSPs offer auto-scaling capabilities that can dynamically allocate more compute and storage resources based on demand, ensuring your applications perform reliably.


Will partnering with a MCSP help us reduce our GIS IT costs during disaster recovery?

Yes, a MCSP can help you reduce costs by eliminating the need for maintaining costly on-premises disaster recovery infrastructure. Instead of over-provisioning for worst-case scenarios, you only pay for cloud resources when they are needed. You can scale up and down as needed and when needed and in real-time.


What happens if the MCSP's infrastructure is affected by the same disaster we're experiencing?

ROK Technologies has multiple geographically distributed data centers, so even if one region is impacted by a disaster, your GIS applications and data can automatically switch over to another region. This ensures continuous availability, allowing your team to focus on managing the disaster without worrying about system downtime.


What specific disaster scenarios can a MCSP help us prepare for?

ROK Technologies can help you prepare for a wide range of disaster scenarios, including:

  • Natural disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and earthquakes that are regional and seasonal
  • Cyberattacks that target GIS systems and data
  • Human-caused disasters such as infrastructure failures, data breaches, or most commonly, accidents
  • Utility outages that may affect on-premises systems but not cloud-hosted services

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