Testing cloud invention to prevent natural disaster outages

ARMONK, USA: IBM and Marist College are testing a new cloud computing innovation that could help prevent disruptions in voice and data communications services caused by hurricanes and other natural disasters.

When a major weather event occurs, such as last year's deadly and destructive Super Storm Sandy, data network operators may have just a few hours or even less to protect critical communications systems before disaster strikes, but moving voice and data application and services to a safe location-a process called re-provisioning-typically takes days.

The cloud computing disaster prevention invention that IBM and Marist are currently testing could slash re-provisioning time from days to minutes -- avoiding costly network disruptions and outages.

"A year ago, Sandy left millions of individuals and businesses in the Northeast without electronic communications for days, weeks and even months -- in some cases, data centers were literally under water," said IBM Distinguished engineer, Casimer DeCusatis. "With our invention, a data center operator could quickly and simply move data and applications to another data center outside the danger zone in minutes -- from a remote location using a tablet or smartphone."

Cloud invention to disaster prevention

IBM's cloud networking innovation uses software-defined networking (SDN) technology and is being tested in Marist's SDN Innovation Lab. SDN enables data center operators to more efficiently control data flows within physical and virtual networks.

The SDN advancement IBM and Marist are testing will enable an IT professional to remotely access and make changes to network resources via a wireless device and open source network controller developed by Marist.

This cloud-based solution could significantly reduce or eliminate the loss of services and data in a major weather event or other crisis that threatens voice and data network resources. It is now being demonstrated to clients and is expected to be commercially available in 2014.

Marist's SDN Innovation Lab, which is sponsored by IBM, focuses on evaluating new technology, inventions and use cases related to SDN, a foundational technology for cloud computing that enables the dynamic management of network resources through automated software programs.

The SDN Innovation Lab also supplements and supports IBM's cloud computing research efforts by evaluating new inventions and technologies; developing first-of-a-kind opportunities with clients to test inventions in real-world applications; and promoting education in the area of SDN to build a pipeline for students with the right skills to join the workforce after graduating.

The SDN Innovation Lab has been operating for several years and earlier this year became part of the New York State Center for Cloud Computing and Analytics.