FEMA's Cloud Priority Upscaling for Readiness

Published Date: 16/06/2024

FEMA CIO Charlie Armstrong discusses the agency's cloud strategy to modernize its infrastructure and improve disaster response.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is shifting its focus towards cloud-based services to enhance operational readiness, modernize its infrastructure, and improve disaster response. As part of its IT transformation strategy, FEMA is emphasizing cloud migration in 2024, with key objectives to use cloud services to enhance disaster response capabilities, increase resiliency of its operational systems, and boost response time.

Charlie Armstrong, FEMA's CIO, is prioritizing customer-centric delivery models, data-driven decision-making, and emerging technologies like cloud computing and artificial intelligence to modernize FEMA's infrastructure and systems. Armstrong aims to strengthen partnerships and collaboration with leaders across the agency, federal government, and state, local, territorial, and tribal nations to ensure the readiness of FEMA's workforce and the resilience of its operations.

FEMA's cloud strategy involves two workstreams  re-hosting and re-platforming. Re-hosting involves the 'lift and shift' of business applications from legacy data centers into the FEMA cloud environment, while re-platforming focuses on migrating existing applications from legacy platforms to more modern, cloud-based platforms. The agency aims to achieve a 95% migration of legacy system assets to the new cloud environment by the end of fiscal year 2024.

Additionally, FEMA is establishing the FEMA Enterprise Cloud (FEC) service, which provides program offices access to cloud computing resources quickly and securely. This initiative enables coordination between multiple cloud environments, allowing users to allocate resources quickly and offer a level of flexibility and agility in deploying services.

Data strategy is also a crucial aspect of FEMA's modernization efforts. Armstrong emphasizes the importance of data and good data stewardship in successfully migrating to the cloud and smartly enabling artificial intelligence. FEMA's data strategy is a collaborative effort that aims to better leverage data as a strategic asset, working hand-in-hand with programs, analysts, and partners to manage data, govern systems, and care for resources.

Furthermore, FEMA is launching a generative AI pilot, called Planning Assistant for Resilient Communities (PARC), to support its mission in conducting response, recovery, and mitigation of disasters before they occur. The pilot focuses on streamlining the hazard mitigation planning process using generative AI, allowing communities to focus on increasing the quality and impact of their plan through public engagement and buy-in on mitigation strategies.

FAQs:

Q: What is FEMA's cloud strategy?

A: FEMA's cloud strategy involves leveraging cloud services to scale disaster response capabilities, build greater resilience through cybersecurity and accessibility, and enhance the stability of services provided to survivors.

Q: What is the goal of FEMA's generative AI pilot?

A: The goal of FEMA's generative AI pilot, called Planning Assistant for Resilient Communities (PARC), is to support FEMA's mission in conducting response, recovery, and mitigation of disasters before they occur by streamlining the hazard mitigation planning process using generative AI.

Q: What is the importance of data in FEMA's modernization efforts?

A: Data is critical for FEMA, as it informs decisions that impact the lives of millions of people before, during, and after disasters. Good data stewardship is essential for successfully migrating to the cloud and smartly enabling artificial intelligence.

Q: What is the FEMA Enterprise Cloud (FEC) service?

A: The FEMA Enterprise Cloud (FEC) service provides program offices access to cloud computing resources quickly and securely, enabling coordination between multiple cloud environments and allowing users to allocate resources quickly and offer a level of flexibility and agility in deploying services.

Q: What is FEMA's aim for cloud re-hosting effort?

A: FEMA aims to achieve a 95% migration of legacy system assets to the new cloud environment by the end of fiscal year 2024 as part of its cloud re-hosting effort.

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