CASE STUDY
Kern County is a citizen-centered government that serves and protects nearly a million residents . Protects is the operative word because the county , like most in California , is vulnerable to earthquakes , wildfires and ransomware .
California averages more than 100 earthquakes daily , and while the majority are low in magnitude , many are not , including the earthquake that struck Kern County in 1952 . Registering 7.3 in magnitude , it killed 12 people and caused tens of millions of dollars ’ worth of damage .
As if earthquakes weren ’ t enough , more than 62,000 wildfires destroy homes , businesses and property throughout the state each year . Ransomware is another on-going threat . In 2020 , ransomware cost US government organizations approximately US $ 18.88 billion in recovery and downtime .
“ We take the threat of disasters very seriously , which means we take data protection very seriously too ,” said Mac Avancena , Chief Information Technology Officer for Kern County . “ When we moved from a legacy email system called GroupWise to Microsoft Office 365 , we worried about data protection because Microsoft doesn ’ t offer comprehensive backup . Like all governments , we depend on data to serve and protect the public . All 40 of our departments , including fire , sheriff and public health , require continual data access to keep residents safe .”
Transitioning to Microsoft Office 365 was the first step in Kern County ’ s Digital Transformation . A short while later , the county implemented ReadyKern , a state-of-the-art emergency notification system that alerts residents and businesses to natural disasters and crises . Next the county will transition from a traditional enterprise resource planning ( ERP ) system to Oracle ERP Cloud .
IT ’ S NOT A MATTER OF WHETHER A
DISASTER WILL OCCUR ; IT ’ S A MATTER OF WHEN .
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