Towards a Business Continuity Information Network for Rapid Disaster Recovery

Khalid Saleem, Steven Luis, Yi Deng,

Shu-Ching Chen, Vagelis Hristidis, Tao Li

School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Miami, FL, USA

Roadmap

• Motivation

• BCIN System Overview

• Collaborators & Acknowledgements

• Related Work

• Conclusions – Future Work

04/21/23 2School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Motivation• Businesses can incur heavy Financial losses

due to• Natural Calamities: Hurricanes, Earthquakes,Tornadoes

• Terrorist Attacks

• Absence of effective Crisis Management and Disaster Recovery tools/resources hinders

• Rapid Disaster Recovery• Business Continuity

• Small and Medium size business are affected the most• Such businesses make a significant contribution to

local and state economy

04/21/23 3School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Motivation (cont’d) - Facts• 80% of small and medium businesses that do not recover

from disaster within a month likely to go out of business [Bernstein ‘98]

• Businesses that do not recover within 10 days of the disaster are not likely to survive [Fairbanks et al.]

• Most of small and medium businesses lack effective business continuity plans which can lead to a total failure within 3 years of a disaster for 75 % of such businesses. [Blythe ‘02]

• Delayed Recovery can also affect large businesses• Delayed recovery and shutdowns cause revenue loss at

the local, state and federal levels

04/21/23 4School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Motivation (cont’d) - Need• Need for a comprehensive, business-oriented

disaster preparedness and recovery information network that– Facilitates collaboration among emergency

management officials and private businesses– Ensures availability of and access to time critical

information• Limitation of current Disaster

Preparedness/Recovery methodologies– Only collaboration among local, state and federal

agencies– No private businesses in the process– Delayed or limited access to time-critical information– Rely mostly on relatively older technologies:

Telephones, two-way radios, tele-text, emails etc.

04/21/23 5School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Roadmap

• Motivation

• BCIN System Overview

• Collaborators & Acknowledgements

• Related Work

• Conclusions – Future Work

04/21/23 6School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

BCIN – Business Continuity Information Network• Model for effective collaboration among

private business entities and government agencies for business continuity and rapid disaster recovery

• Improves upon ideas presented by [Palen and Liu, 2007]: Easily accessible, web based technological information pathways for information sharing

• Designed in collaboration with business community and emergency operations centers in South Florida

04/21/23 7School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Goals of BCIN Model• Create user-friendly, internet-based,

information service• Provide businesses with timely disaster

recovery information• Facilitate collaboration and information

exchange with other businesses and government agencies

• Enable intelligent decision support• Leverage latest advances in data integration,

data mining, Web and GIS software technologies

• Enable rapid recovery and reduce closure time

04/21/23 8School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

BCIN Model

04/21/23 9School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Key Information Assisting business continuity and disaster recovery

• Critical Communications among:• Affected Business Community• Outside Business Community• Local Emergency Operations Center• Non-Governmental Organizations and Media• Outside Government Agencies

• Local Damage Assessment: Damage assessment conducted by businesses and emergency management officials

• Recovery Plan Execution: Identification and Execution of recovery plans

04/21/23 10School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

BCIN System Specifics• Technologies

– Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) and Java Enterprise Edition (J2EE) for highly interactive web based interface

– Google Maps API for embedding Geo-spatial data– PostGreSQL database systems

• Focus on Hurricane Disaster Preparedness and Recovery across the South Florida Region

• Key Components1.Disaster Management Dataspace2.Disaster Recovery Resources Identification3.Situation Awareness4.Dynamic Contact Management5. Intelligent Decision Support

04/21/23 11School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

1. Disaster Management Dataspace• Acquire, ingest and organize data available in

various formats from different sources– Pre/Post Strom information via Situation Reports and

Incident Action Plans from Emergency Operations Center (doc, pdf)

– Open/close status of emergency services, infrastructure (airports, seaports, bridges, roadways), power, public transportation, schools and hospitals (doc, xls)

– Businesses and Non-Governmental Organizations Reports (xls, doc, pdf)

• Bank and ATM branch opening/closing• Food and Grocery Store opening/closing• Gas stations opening/closings

• Challenges for dynamic data acquisition, information extraction and organization

04/21/23 12School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

1. Disaster Management Dataspace

04/21/23 13School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Data Acquisition, Ingest and Organization Architecture

2. Disaster Recovery Resources Identification

• Identifies disaster preparation and recovery resources around user’s local area

• Utilizes user’s profile information

• Employs algorithms for identifying Most Requested and Recently Posted Items

• Utilizes Google Maps API

04/21/23 14School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

2. Disaster Recovery Resources Identification

04/21/23 15School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

3. Situation Awareness

• Update Business Managers and Emergency Management Officials with information

• Overall & Location specific Crisis/Disaster conditions

• Customizable pre/post disaster dashboards– Current setup provides pre/post hurricane related

information – Dynamic data update and notification to users

04/21/23 16School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

3. Situation Awareness

04/21/23 17School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Red “X” indicates closure. Check marks indicate open. Time indicates the expected closure of the infrastructure/service

3. Situation Awareness

04/21/23 18School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

BCIN Post-Disaster Situation Awareness. Red “X” indicates closure. Check marks indicate open. Percentages indicate the overall availability or open/closure status of

services/resources/infrastructure

Red circles indicate Massive Damage

Blue circles indicate Flooding

3. Situation Awareness

04/21/23 19School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

BCIN Post-Disaster Situation Awareness with Business recovery dashboard. Gas station icons indicate gas stations within a 3 mile radius of user defined assets. Information about gas

stations can be viewed through the information window

3. Situation Awareness

04/21/23 20School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

BCIN Post-Disaster Situation Awareness for Banks open/close status in Miami-Dade county. Red ellipses indicate closed while Green ellipses indicate open.

4. Dynamic Contact Management

04/21/23 21School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Dynamic Contact Management Interface. Blue Ellipse shows current location of a user. Profile updates, latesreports and sent/received messages are appended under each contact name

5. Intelligent Decision Support (In Preparation)

• Assists business managers and emergency management officials in devising and executing preparation and recovery decisions

• Utilizes overall conditions and information available from previous profiled data for their specified items/locations of interest

• Can utilize Historic Storm Data for effective preparation against impending threats (Hurricane track and intensity, Damage information)

04/21/23 22School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Infrastructure Considerations - Supporting BCIN Post-Hurricane

• Failover remote backup site in St. Louis, Missouri

• Office Depot stores– Powered by Generators (if power unavailable)– Free cell-phone/battery charging for everyone– Free Internet Access via Wireless Access Points

within the stores• Verizon and AT&T Wireless Broadband

Connections• State Funded Mobile Wireless Access

Distribution Vehicles (under preparation)04/21/23 23School of Computing and Information Sciences

Florida International University

Roadmap

• Motivation

• BCIN System Overview

• Collaborators & Acknowledgements

• Related Work

• Conclusions – Future Work

04/21/23 24School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Collaborators & Acknowledgements

04/21/23 25School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

• Beckman Coulter• Florida First (Florida’s Financial Institutions)• Florida Power & Light• Florida Research Consortium• Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and its Technical Committee• Greyhound Lines, Inc.• IBM

• Juan Caraballo• Miami-Dade Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (ESF-

18 Committee)• Frank Reddish

• Office Depot• Tom Serio

• Palm Beach County Division of Emergency Management• Butch Truesdale

• Ryder System, Inc. • South Florida Technology Alliance• Wal-Mart• The Quantum Group• VITAS

Roadmap

• Motivation

• BCIN System Overview

• Collaborators & Acknowledgements

• Related Work

• Conclusions – Future Work

04/21/23 26School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Related Work (1)• Siegrist, D. 2000. “Advanced information technology to

counter biological terrorism,” SIGBIO Newsletter. 20, 2 (Aug. 2000), 2-7.

• Used by US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)• Utilizes sensor sites across different locations in USA for

capturing potential bio-terror threats• Uses Information tools such as message boards and emails • Information sharing among government agencies only• Mostly effective under pre-disaster conditions

04/21/23 27School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Related Work (2)• Schooley, B., Marich, M., and Horan, T. 2007. “Devising an architecture

for time-critical information services: inter-organizational performance data components for emergency medical service (EMS),” International Conference on Digital Government Research: 2007

• Provides a time critical information services framework in San Mateo county, CA

• Involves collaboration among public/private entities• Utilizes multiple modes of communication and information

exchange• Ineffective for effective information exchange under disaster

conditions• Palen, L. and Liu, S. B. 2007. Citizen communications in crisis:

anticipating a future of ICT-supported public participation. SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2007).

• Indicates persistent citizen communications under pre/post disaster conditions assists in information sharing

• Communication methodologies include web based wikis, web logs and SMS text messaging

04/21/23 28School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Related Work (3)• Agrawal, P., Rauschert, I., et.al. 2004. “Multimodal interface platform for

geographical information systems (GeoMIP) in crisis management,” Conference on Multimodal interfaces 2004

• Utilizes GIS data and maps

• Assists emergency management officials in taking necessary precautionary measures and disaster recovery actions

• Lacks collaboration tools/techniques for effective information sharing and collaboration among businesses and emergency officials

• SAHANA, http://www.sahana.lk• System for collaboration among emergency relief camps across South

Asia

• Supports GIS Maps and tracking information associated with missing persons

• Lacks the model for effective collaboration among private businesses and government agencies

04/21/23 29School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Roadmap

• Motivation

• BCIN System Overview

• Collaborators & Acknowledgements

• Related Work

• Conclusions – Future Work

04/21/23 30School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Conclusions, Future Work and Project Timeline • BCIN Facilitates communication and information sharing

among businesses and emergency management community under disaster/crisis situations

• Future: Multimedia data, Intelligent Information Delivery, Decision Support

• Project Timeline– 01/01/2009 – Deliver Version 1

• Guarantee performance, reliability and security for 1000 companies

– 01/01/2010 – Deliver Version 2• Utilize Cloud Computing• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)• Support ~10,000 companies

– Current fund generating activities in collaboration with our partners aim at supporting BCIN through 2009

04/21/23 31School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University

Thank You - Questions

04/21/23 32School of Computing and Information SciencesFlorida International University