​NZ app developer overhauls emergency alert system on IBM Cloud

New Zealand-based application developer and emergency network provider, CLOUD M, has migrated its emergency alert tools and system to IBM Cloud, in a move designed to foster greater reliability and performance.

The Auckland-based company - founded in 2011 - develops and manages the cloud-based Alerter emergency communications system.

Through its mobile app, a web interface and backend database and distribution system, Alerter enables government agencies, communities and families to broadcast emergency updates in real-time - audio and visual alerts can be sent to emails, text addresses, smartphones or social networks.

After encountering increasing reliability and performance issues with its cloud network provider, CLOUD M has now turned to IBM for assistance through the company’s Global Entrepreneur Program.

Through that partnership, CLOUD M has adopted SoftLayer as its Infrastructure as a Service - reporting a 50 percent increase in performance for Alerter since.

“When you’re in the emergency alert business, seconds matter,” says Richard Gill, CEO and founder, CLOUD M.

“What we have now with the IBM Cloud infrastructure is a stable, always-on system that lets our software do its job for people in trouble.”

Gill says Auckland’s Civil Defense & Emergency Management (CDEM) deployed Alerter in 2012.

Up till then, the department had used an outdated process that called for sending emergency information in press releases and emails to local civil defence groups and the media for disseminating - those groups would alert citizens through sirens or TV and radio bulletins.

With Alerter’s increased performance on IBM Cloud, Gill says CDEM can now broadcast alerts and safety information to subscribers’ smartphones more efficiently.