Data Backup Dilemma

When the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011, several municipalities lost their residential data including backup. Since none of them had ever considered the total loss of data, data backup policy had been paid little attention. In many cases, the backup tapes were simply stored inside the server room, just beside the server rack. Following the calamity, the Japanese national government tried to introduce a data backup system to municipalities using the cloud. The purpose was to secure the safekeeping of backup data. However, municipalities were reluctant to go along with this since overcoming the loss of network connectivity during an earthquake remained foremost in their minds. The…

A Capital Model for Disaster Resilience

Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town: Panasonic’s Challenge in Building a Sustainable Society

How do organizational processes recover following a disaster? - A capital resiliency model for disaster preparedness -

This paper explores how organizational processes are recreated following their destruction in unexpected disasters. It applies the notion of an organization as a capital conversion and capital creation system. It also focuses on systems resilience, the measure of a system's persistence and ability to absorb disturbances while reconstructing relationships between system entities. Based on the analysis of empirical evidence collected from the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster in 2011, we propose a resiliency model incorporating a broader interpretation of the notion of capital. The model consists of five dimensions of capital: economic, social, symbolic, human, and organizational. Once a g…