Saving lives at sea in the UK with cloud computing
26 April 2010
In this case study, you can read about how the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) worked with Active Web Solutions (AWS) to develop a cost-efficient, cloud-based application to help them save more lives at sea.
High numbers of deaths at sea is a major concern for anyone in the fishing industry, with an estimated 24,000 crew members drowning worldwide each year. To try and prevent these deaths the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) went to Active Web Solutions (Microsoft Gold Partner) to find a solution.
Active Web Solutions (AWS) developed GeoPoint, which transmits location data to a centralised tracking system, and MOB (man overboard) Guardian, which uses personal safety devices that can automatically trigger on-vessel alarms whilst sending a signal via satellite to the search-and-rescue service. In the first 18 months of operation, MOB guardian helped save nine lives.
“Our original architecture supported 10,000 vessels, but the Windows Azure platform enables us to support hundreds of thousands or even millions of vessels, without any capital expenses.”(Richard Prodger - Technical Director, Active Web Solutions)
Through migrating the system to the Windows Azure platform AWS was able to achieve massive scalability, richer functionality and lower infrastructure costs. It was important for the RNLI that the prices were low enough to encourage fishing crews to adopt the system and through using a hosted service AWS was able to avoid a million dollar data centre investment to scale the application.
Through moving the application to the cloud it also offered new market opportunities where the system can be expanded to other emergency services or even individuals sailing for pleasure.
“If a guy falls off a boat in the North Pacific, or a climber in the Colorado Rockies gets buried by snow, GeoPoint could immediately route the alarm messages to the appropriate search-and-rescue organization anywhere in the world.” (Richard Prodger - Technical Director, Active Web Solutions)
Through using Windows Azure and Cloud hosted services AWS was able to easily scale the application to meet the needs of the RNLI whilst also providing opportunities for future growth. To find out more about AWS and the RNLI please visit the links below:
http://www.aws.net/
http://www.rnli.org.uk/
Small & Medium Enterprises are the backbone of Europe’s economy. We work hard with governments and industry to ensure that SMEs get the most out of technology. Thanks to cloud computing that has pervasive benefits throughout the economy, SMEs can now exploit economies of scale, to rapidly expand their business and offer innovative solutions with less risk. This space on our website is dedicated to innovative European SMEs and the added-value of cloud computing to their businesses.