AWS Mexico cloud region to help boost earthquake detection services

Seismic alert company SkyAlert will use the cloud region that AWS is building in Mexico to improve the latency of its alerts.

SkyAlert has deployed 180 earthquake detection devices in Mexico City, along the coast and cities such as Oaxaca that are at risk of seismic activity.

Currently, processing is done in AWS datacenters in the US and data passes through several nodes until an alert can be delivered. The process takes about 300 milliseconds. In 2018, it could take up to one second.

The new AWS cloud region in Mexico will further reduce latency.

AWS will invest US$5bn this year in new cloud regions in Mexico, which will be launched in 2025.

The company uses machine learning to study each earthquake and offer increasingly accurate alerts.

“We have 10 years of information that we have been accumulating,” SkyAlert founder Santiago Cantú said at a press conference. “Every time we use that information, we close the gap in precision and time,” he said.

SkyAlert has 500 companies as clients that are looking for more information to prepare for an emergency.

The company also offers its clients a connection to their emergency systems to automatically stop operations in the event of an earthquake alert. "We have clients who have factories and we have automation processes that allow us to open emergency doors or suspend production," Cantú said.

Alerts are delivered to personal computers or mobile phones via an app. SkyAlert is also working with Amazon to bring the service to Alexa devices.

Expansion

The company has begun to include alerts for natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods, and plans to cover related services.

It is also considering expanding. Currently, the company operates in Mexico and the US.

SkyAlert is looking for partners who understand civil protection, construction and urban distribution to begin operating in countries with seismic zones such as Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala or Chile.

Initial contacts were established with partners in all four countries, but agreements have not yet been signed.