Strengthening government resiliency
When a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal in April 2015, Microsoft quickly responded. We focused on mobilizing more than 100 local Microsoft staff, partners and student volunteers to help with the relief effort. Furthermore, we worked to provide free international Skype calling for earthquake victims and also offered charging stations, Wi-Fi hot spots, and TV White Space equipment to help first responders communicate and access vital information. And we provided $1.4 million in relief assistance.
A year later, with help from our partners and volunteers, Microsoft has completed 18 disaster response missions for multiple government, NGOs and nonprofit organizations in Nepal in a program called Microsoft Services Disaster Response (MSDR). Often, these missions included rapid and secure cloud collaboration and communication systems to enable teams to rebuild the country. But there were others that included cloud data analysis and even rebuilding systems in destroyed datacenters. Since then, MSDR has had disaster response missions in the Navajo Nation and is currently doing disaster response missions in Fiji, Japan, Ecuador, Canada, and the Middle East.
When a crisis occurs, we support critical agencies and organizations responding with technology-focused relief, helping governments to reduce human suffering and stabilize communities. We then apply these solutions, along with lessons learned, to other governments around the world to help them improve their resiliency in advance of the next emergency.
In the past few years, MSDR has completed more than 150 disaster response missions in 30 countries with over 400 employees from around the world. From the Ebola virus outbreak to the Serbian refugee crisis to forest fires in Alberta, Canada, Microsoft is helping governments respond to all kinds of crises. A great example of our work following a crisis is the giant mudslide near Oso, Washington, the deadliest landslide in US history. When the disaster hit in 2014, Microsoft responded by developing an Incident Command Collaboration System for multiple agencies that needed to coordinate their responses. We also helped the local county government relocate all public information requests about the mudslide to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform leveraging, then alpha versions of Azure Search, to make it easy for global news organizations and agencies to access critical information without stressing the county’s datacenter capacity or staff.
In addition to disaster response missions, we’re working with governments to proactively plan and prepare for disasters. And we have found that our response work to real disasters has led to better resiliency services and solutions. For example, with new disaster recovery solutions from Microsoft’s Services in Microsoft’s cloud (example: Azure Site Recovery), governments can protect themselves from natural disasters and other emergencies at a fraction of the cost of extending their on-premises datacenters. In addition, from experience helping agencies respond to real world disasters, the Microsoft Services Justice and Public Safety team has developed an advanced Incident Command Collaboration System (ICCS) that incorporates advanced data integration and analysis, social web monitoring, and communication and collaboration capabilities across a wide range of diverse client systems.
As governments develop their resiliency strategies, we hope they will look to Microsoft as a partner. Resiliency is a long-term commitment, one that Microsoft can help governments meet as they prepare for a wide range of 21st-century disasters. To learn more, ask a question about Azure. Also, look to request a trial: Azure Government Trial, Office 365 Government Trial.
