Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs), also known as Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), are the lifeline of public safety, responsible for answering distress calls and dispatching emergency services promptly. As technology evolves, many ECCs are exploring cloud-based call handling solutions to enhance scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. However, a critical concern remains at the forefront of this transition: local survivability.
Local survivability refers to the ability of an emergency call center to continue operating independently and effectively during outages or failures of cloud services. This capability is not just a technical preference but a fundamental necessity for ECCs considering cloud migration. Several emergency call center directors have emphasized the importance of local survivability in ensuring uninterrupted emergency response.
Tom McLaughlin of Henrico County, Virginia, highlights the essential nature of local survivability, particularly in scenarios where cloud solutions might fail. He values the ability to reroute calls to neighboring jurisdictions during outages but insists that maintaining some local hardware or redundancy is crucial. According to McLaughlin, “Local survivability is essential, especially if cloud solutions fail.” This perspective underscores the need for novel approaches that combine cloud benefits with on-premises resilience.
Similarly, Dominick Nutter from Raleigh-Wake, North Carolina, states that local survivability is a mandatory requirement for any cloud migration. He points out that ECCs must have on-premises backup systems or the ability to fall back to local systems if the cloud becomes unavailable. Nutter identifies the lack of guaranteed local survivability as a primary blocker preventing many PSAPs from moving to the cloud. His stance reflects a broader industry concern: without assured local failover, the risks of cloud dependency outweigh the benefits.
Daniel Koenig of Palm Beach County echoes these sentiments, stressing that local survivability is critical. He advocates for ECCs to operate independently if the cloud is unavailable, whether through on-premises solutions or regional backup systems. Koenig’s emphasis on operational independence during cloud outages highlights the need for robust contingency planning in emergency communications.
Chris Spooner from Snohomish County, Washington, adds another layer to the discussion by focusing on the operational aspects of local survivability. She insists that failover to local systems must be seamless and automatic, without requiring manual intervention, especially during off-hours when staffing may be limited. Spooner agrees that having on-premises equipment as a fallback is essential for reliability, ensuring that emergency call centers remain functional under all circumstances.
Emergency call centers cannot afford downtime. Every second counts when responding to 911 calls, and any interruption can have life-threatening consequences. Cloud-based solutions offer many advantages, such as scalability, easier updates, and cost savings. However, they also introduce new challenges, including dependency on internet connectivity and cloud provider uptime.
Local survivability addresses these challenges by ensuring that ECCs have a reliable fallback mechanism. If the cloud service experiences an outage, network disruption, or cyberattack, the call center can continue to operate using local systems. This redundancy is vital for maintaining public trust and ensuring continuous emergency response capabilities.
Moreover, local survivability supports interoperability and collaboration between neighboring jurisdictions. As Tom McLaughlin notes, the ability to reroute calls during outages helps maintain service continuity across regions, which is crucial during large-scale emergencies or disasters.
To enable local survivability while migrating to the cloud, emergency call centers should consider the following best practices:
1. Edge Compute Architecture: Adopt a deployment model that combines cloud-based call handling with on-premises hardware. This approach ensures that local systems can take over seamlessly if the cloud fails.
2. Automatic Failover: Design failover mechanisms that activate automatically without manual intervention. As Chris Spooner emphasizes, this is critical for maintaining operations during off-hours or staffing shortages.
3. Regional Backup Systems: Establish regional backup centers that can support multiple ECCs in case of localized failures. Daniel Koenig’s recommendation for regional backups enhances resilience and operational independence.
4. Regular Testing: Conduct frequent failover drills and system tests to ensure that local survivability mechanisms function as intended during real incidents.
5. Inter-Jurisdictional Collaboration: Develop protocols for rerouting calls to neighboring jurisdictions during outages, as highlighted by Tom McLaughlin, to maintain service continuity.
One of the primary barriers to cloud adoption in emergency call centers remains the concern over local survivability. Without guaranteed local failover, ECCs risk service interruptions that could endanger lives. By prioritizing local survivability in their cloud migration strategies, emergency call centers can overcome this barrier and confidently embrace cloud technologies.
Dominick Nutter’s assertion that local survivability is a “mandatory requirement” reflects the consensus among emergency call center leaders. Cloud providers and technology vendors must address this requirement by offering solutions that integrate robust local failover capabilities.
The migration of emergency call centers to cloud-based call handling solutions promises significant benefits but also presents unique challenges. Local survivability stands out as a critical factor that can make or break the success of this transition. As Tom McLaughlin, Dominick Nutter, Daniel Koenig, and Chris Spooner have articulated, ensuring that ECCs can operate independently during cloud outages is non-negotiable.
By adopting blended architectures, automatic failover systems, regional backups, and inter-jurisdictional collaboration, emergency call centers can achieve the resilience needed to protect public safety in the digital age. Local survivability is not just a technical feature—it is the foundation upon which the future of emergency communications must be built.
Tom McLaughlin is a Technology Manager at Henrico County Department of Emergency Communications.
Dominick Nutter is an Emergency Communications Director at City of Raleigh Emergency Communications Center.
Daniel Koenig is a Senior Manager at Palm Beach County Public Safety Department.
Chris Spooner is an Application Support Analyst at Snohomish County 911.
Calin Foale is a Senior Product Manager at Intrado.