Catastrophic events like the countless school shootings and acts of violence in public spaces have shown us that the threats we face are diverse and persistent, and that managing threats and consequences is a large undertaking involving a diverse set of stakeholders. Finding a way to stop these threats before they spin out of control is certainly no small task. Society’s explosion of “big data” from countless sources – smart phones, tablets, social media, digital maps, and other sensors – creates a huge data capture challenge. Handling enormous streams of data; processing, sorting and prioritizing it; and most importantly finding the threat in a pile of data is of utmost importance for public safety officials and the communities they serve. We live in a time when state and local organizations face difficult challenges in obtaining value from big data or even how to start evaluating its value. Given the limited resources and current budget climate, public safety officials struggle to modernize their own infrastructure and information sharing processes. So how do we solve for these issues with technology innovation that is budget and user friendly? By developing a results-driven solution that contains elements such as:

• Access to a one stop catalog of relevant data feeds that can be securely collected, stored, and analyzed to deliver better deliver better decision-making for the largest cities to rural first responders.
• Scaling infrastructure to meet peak demand driven by video, social media, and other data without costly capital investments or painfully slow IT upgrades.
• The ability to form networks or “ecosystems” of agencies that can collaborate within communities and regions or around common threat challenges.
• Creating a secure environment that fosters information sharing, collaboration, and ubiquitous access for users whether they be in the field, at their desktops, in command centers, in their vehicles or otherwise on the go.

The cloud, and all of its infrastructure and economic advantages, is both unmistakable and inevitable. Are you ready for the big data revolution?