Sherif A. Mazen

Towards a Conceptual Framework for Early Warning Information Systems (EWIS) for Crisis Preparedness

This paper highlights the need of many organizations nowadays for early warning information systems (EWIS) that can predict the future and help prevent crises or reduce their negative effects. These EWIS should be based on a reliable and consistent framework. The frameworks currently available are mostly deterministic, simplified or inconsistent in application and assumption; thus making them unreliable and impractical. The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it provides guidelines for system analysts, designers, engineers and experts seeking to deal with crisis or disaster information systems. Secondly, it aims to present a novel framework for EWIS that can be adapted to the dynamic needs of the field of crisis management, and that can also be used efficiently in crisis preparedness. Finally, the paper will describe a case study in the law enforcement sector as a proof-of-concept for the conceptual framework; to demonstrate both the theoretical and practical approaches.

Datacentre Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Models : A Survey

Datacenter total cost of ownerships (TCO) tools and spreadsheets can be used to estimate the capital and operational costs required for running datacenters. These tools are helpful for business owners to improve and evaluate the costs and the underlying efficiency of such facilities or evaluate the costs of alternatives, such as off-site computing. Well understanding of the cost drivers of TCO models can provide more opportunities to business owners to control costs .In addition, they also introduce an analytical structure in which anecdotal information can be cross-checked for consistency with other well-known parameters driving data center costs. This work focuses on comparing between number of proposed tools and spreadsheets which are publicly available to calculate datacenter total cost of ownership (TCO) ,The comparison is based on many aspects such as what are the parameters included and not included in such tools and whether the tools are documented or not. Such an approach presents a solid ground for designing more and better tools and spreadsheets in the future.

Using a Multi-Criteria Approach in Early Warning Information Systems (MCEWIS)

A great deal of research has been conducted and numerous software programs have been created around the world in order to monitor events that cause threats. Such efforts had sought to predict possible disastrous events and help minimize their adverse effects on human life and property. The authors have developed a multi-criteria early warning information system (MCEWIS) to detect risks or expected hazards in the law enforcement sector. The distinguishing feature is using the EWS with a multi-factor/ multi-criteria approach to select the most important factors affecting the risk or even stimulating it. The EWS will automatically calculate the weight of each criterion/indicator and compare all criteria according to this weight. If one criterion has more weight than the others; this reflects the importance of this criterion in stimulating or increasing the risk. The paper describes the new approach and demonstrates the proof-of-concept.