Understanding Deployment Options for Emergency Notification Technology
Many public safety agencies that are considering acquiring or expanding emergency notification capabilities wrestle with which deployment option is right for them. Here's a rundown of the various ways to deploy these systems.
We were invited to present to a County Board meeting last week where we outlined recommendations for integrating an automated mass calling system with an existing (and extensive) siren system. During the meeting, board members and emergency managers wrestled with questions about which mass notification implementation approach was right for them: hosted, on-premise, or hybrid.
Since this continues to be a common struggle, I thought it might be useful here to define each of these options and outline high level advantages and disadvantages of each. We'll break this into two posts, so be sure and keep an eye out for the follow up. Let's start with some basic definitions.
HOSTED SOLUTIONS
This type of notification system actually resides outside of the EOC, typically in a vendor's or other provider's hosting center. Often referred to these days as "cloud" computing, secure/encrypted software applications are accessed over the Internet (from virtually any location with an Internet connection) with proper login credentials.
With these solutions, there is no hardware to buy, no phone lines to lease, and no system to maintain. Access to software is gained through a "subscription" typically over some contractually agreed-upon length of time. In addition, telephony infrastructure, email servers, SMS services, etc. are all accessed seamlessly as part of the overall service (though different service level agreements may exist depending on the agency's needs and budget).
ON-PREMISE SOLUTIONS
On-premise solutions are just as they sound-systems that reside on equipment within a local operations center. With these solutions, hardware is purchased, software is licensed and any communication infrastructure is installed onsite. While these systems may be configured for access over an Internet connection, they are typically designed for access from a local machine only.
HYBRID SOLUTIONS
Hybrid solutions combine features from both hosted and on-premise systems. With these solutions, a server resides on computer hardware within the operations center. These often have connected to them a minimum number of telephone lines for use in small-volume callout situations. In addition, these on-premise systems feature a hosted element--typically in the form of access to a large vendor-managed bank of telephone lines (for large-volume callouts). These may also be configured for access from the Internet.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? I know it's a real cliffhanger, but you'll just have to wait until the next post. Until then, best regards and thanks for all you do.
Lorin
