The AWS Disaster Response Program, launched in August 2018, is focused on helping public sector organizations (governments, NGOs, educational institutions) leverage AWS technology before, during, and after disasters. In this session, we will discuss how AWS services, such as AWS Snowball Edge, are enabling secure access to critical workloads and datasets in limited or disconnected environments to improve our customer’s response capabilities. We will share with you how Amazon Connect provided a scalable, virtual call center solution to ensure hurricane survivors can speak with volunteers about information on critical aid services. Come and learn from AWS employees’ experience deploying to disasters and how those lessons are helping to solve our customer’s biggest challenges

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WASHINGTON, DC

2. AWS Confidential – Do Not DistributeP U B L I C S E C T O R
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Enabling Resilience Through the Cloud:
AWS Disaster Response Program
Maggie Carter
Principal, Disaster Response
Amazon Web Services
3 1 6 6 3 9
Frank Paterra
Sr. Development Manager
Amazon Web Services
Joe Hillis
Operations Director
ITDRC

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Our Tenets (unless you know better ones…)
• Improve government and NPOs response and resiliency by
leveraging technology, expertise, cash, and credits to solve our
customers’ biggest infrastructure and technology challenges
during disasters.
• Invest in the build out and deployment of services for disasters
that could also have broader applicability.
• Train and support Amazon technical experts as volunteers to
deploy post-disaster.
• Position Amazon as a positive, proactive force in the global
community.

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Featured Use Cases
Rebuilding
Connectivity
Building Applications
for Good
Disaster Mapping

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Our Support to Date

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Program Focus Areas
Disaster Response
Action Team
Information Technologies

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Program Roadmap
• Identify how we can uniquely help
• Inspect our innovations for potential re-use in disaster response
and broader philanthropic efforts
• Scale program globally
• Collaborate with a partner network of relief organizations; help,
not harm existing operations.
• Use our program to engage employees to support the mission

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Coming Soon

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AWS Confidential – Do Not Distribute

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AWS DRT: What We Do
• Service designed to improve government and NPO response and
resiliency capabilities to solve our customers’ biggest
infrastructure and technology challenges during disasters
• AWS will deploy technical experts as volunteers to post-disasters
scenarios to enable customers to utilize AWS services to augment
existing response efforts
• Provides direct, on the ground, support for up to two-weeks

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AWS DRT: Why We Do It
• Preparedness and data protection is key; working with customers
to establish a playbook to deploy staff and technology solutions
in times of need
• Investment in the build out and deployment of services for
disasters that will also have broader applicability
• Partnership with the AWS Open Data Program to identify key
datasets that can be used in disaster response scenarios
• Philanthropic in nature, the program will provide Disaster
Response credits and cash to organizations who respond to
disasters

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AWS DRT: When We Do It
• Response levels will be based on the severity of the incident and
the customer need
• Customers must be on-boarded with the AWS DRT Program in
advance of any deployment
• Scope of Work must be drafted prior to deployment to ensure the
AWS DRT provides maximum value to response efforts
• Staff and/or technology resources will be based on an internal
assessment process

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AWS DRT: How We Do It
• AWS DRT maintains a roster of 40+ technical volunteers who are
skilled in networking, software development, and
communications
• Certified in National Incident Management System (NIMS) and
First Aid/CPR
• Critical data will be provisioned with predefined software stacks
to allow the customer to run workloads on the edge
• Delivers the hardware solution to the customer at the disaster
site and implements infrastructure based on customer need

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AWS DRT & AWS Snowball Edge
• AWS technical professionals will provision,
transport, implement, and redeploy AWS
Snowball Edge devices for customers deployed
to disaster zones
• Critical data will be provisioned with
predefined software stacks to allow the
customer to run workloads on the edge where
connectivity is limited / non-existent
• AWS DRT conducts field simulation exercises
with customers to ensure the technology
works when its needed most

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AWS DRT Technology
AWS Snowball AWS Snowball Edge AWS Snowmobile
• 80 TB capacity/10 G network
• Data encryption end-to-end
• Rugged 8.5 G impact case
• Rain and dust resistant
• 100 TB capacity/40 Gb network
• Data encryption end-to-end
• Rugged 8.5 G impact case
• Rain and dust resistant
• Compute and storage for
hybrid/edge workloads
• Rack-mountable, cluster-ready
• Exabyte-scale 45ft container
• Data encryption end-to-end
• Dedicated security personnel
• GPS tracking, alarm monitoring,
24/7 surveillance, and optional
additional security

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Device Features
• Ruggedized Device
• Collect & Process Data without
Connectivity
• Storage: 42TB HDD, 7.68GB SSD
• Compute: 52 vCPUs, 208GB Memory
• Supports Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
(Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage
Service (Amazon S3) and AWS IoT
Greengrass
• Run Multiple EC2 Instance Sizes
• Cluster SBEs for Storage & Resiliency
• Develop and Test on the AWS Cloud
• 10 Days of Usage Included in Job Fee

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Snowball Edge Capabilities
AWS Snowball Edge
AWS Lambda
Amazon EC2
Amazon S3

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Mitigating Disaster

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The “Art of Possible”: Connect to the disaster areas

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Localized Drone Operations

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Joe Hillis
Operations Director

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MISSION: We harness the collective resources of the technology community
to provide no cost Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT)
solutions that connect Responders and Survivors during a crisis.
WHAT WE PROVIDE:
Who We Are
• Voice/Network Infrastructure
• WiFi Hotspots
• Internet Café
• Phone Banks
• Charging Stations
• Compute Hardware
• SAT Video Programming
• LMR Radio / Repeaters
• Technical Force Multiplier
QUICK STATS:
• 1,500 Credentialed Volunteers Across US/Puerto Rico
• Major Disaster Responses: >85
• Communities / Population Served: >200 / 10M
• Largest Operation: Hurricane Maria

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ITDRC Capabilities
ITDRC is a trusted resource to Local, State, and
Federal Emergency Management Agencies and
National Nonprofits.
Clearinghouse for skilled technology volunteers and
in-kind ICT resources.
• Technical volunteers in 10 Regions across the United
States and Puerto Rico
• Distributed regional equipment caches
• NIMS Type I, II, III, and IV Mobile Command Centers
• ICS, NIMS, COMx, and AUXCOMM Trained Personnel
• Critical Information Systems (CIS) Response Team
• Disaster Tech Task Force Program

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Deployment History
ITDRC volunteers have
contributed tens of thousands
of hours, and deployed millions
of dollars of equipment on
local, state, and federally
declared disasters in more than
200 US communities.
The fair market value of our
contributions help offset a
community’s out of pocket
expense for Public Assistance
grants.

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Disaster Response
• Network Engineering, Installation, and Maintenance
• Voice / Telephony Installation & Management
• Systems Engineering / Administration
• Wireless Infrastructure Installation and Support
• End User Support – Hardware / Software
• Satellite Video Distribution
• VSAT Installation & Support
• RF Communications / Spectrum Management
• Audio / Video Installation & Integration
• GIS Mapping & Geospatial Technology Integration
• Aerial and Street View Imagery
• Data Collection / Management

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Remote Response Team
ITDRC’s Remote Response Team (RRT)
is an integral support component of our
field operations, and provides
volunteers with additional
opportunities to contribute during
disaster deployments.

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Logistics

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Service Priorities

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Service Priorities

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Hurricane Florence – North Carolina

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Hurricane Florence – North Carolina

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Hurricane Michael - Florida

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Hurricane Michael - Florida

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Hurricane Michael - Florida

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Hurricane Michael - Florida

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Camp Fire

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Camp Fire

38. www.itdrc.org
“Connecting Communities in Crisis”
PO Box 79146 ▪ Fort Worth, TX 76179
(817) 886-8550 ▪ info@itdrc.org
Activation: (866) 217-5777 ▪ support@itdrc.org

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More Information
• AWS Disaster Response: https://aws.amazon.com/government-
education/nonprofits/disaster-response/
• Post-Disaster Imagery: https://www.hotosm.org/updates/new-
technology-for-aerial-imagery-in-disaster-response
• Snowball Testing:
https://blog.werobotics.org/2018/08/23/testing-new-
technologies-for-humanitarian-drone-data-coordination-in-peru/
• Open Data on AWS: https://opendata.aws
• Contact: AWS-drp@amazon.com

40. Thank you!
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aws-drp@amazon.com

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