Using AI to power low latency applications for operations at the edge

Military organizations, first responders and search and rescue teams working in dynamic and complex environments require timely and accurate data for better decision making.

In a recent interview produced by Google Public Sector, Jason Brown explained that Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) allows organizations to run low-latency applications for operations at the edge, whether at land or sea.

“One of the exciting things about GDC is that you are getting this incredible capability of Google Cloud at the edge that includes artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to actually bring that data together so that these operators can anticipate. They can actually see some of the patterns that will unfold,” said Brown, head of professional services for the Defense Department at Google Public Sector.

He points to a use case in which the Defense Department works to better support the National Guard when they work directly with firefighters on the ground and in the air. By providing low-latency applications to these services, operators in the field will have access to more timely information. In rapidly moving and growing fires, seconds matter to get accurate, high-quality information.

“Literally the firefighters that we were working with, they were still taking a paper map, putting it on the hood of a truck and then trying to make sense of the information that they had, which could be hours old,” he explained.

Making better decisions about using and prioritizing resources as a situation evolves is critical. It requires understanding not where the fire is now but where it could be in an hour and a half, which could be in different locations.

“That fundamentally comes down to a data challenge and being able to get that data from the edge back to those sorts of command and control [units] and those decision support systems that enable that anticipation,” said Brown.

For the Defense Department as a whole, anticipating threats, obstacles and current conditions in the field is a big challenge for successful operations, making modernizing edge capabilities more urgent today.

According to Brown, those applications that defense organizations develop should enable both the speed and the quality of the decisions that need to be made. And those decisions need to lead to the objective as fast as possible, with the highest quality information that can be obtained.

Jason Brown is the head of Professional Services for Defense in Google Public Sector. He leads a team that develops cloud-based solutions that accomplish for the Department of Defense.

Watch the full interview with Jason Brown and hear more from our government leaders on Accelerating the Mission with Artificial Intelligence. Learn more on Extend Google Cloud’s infrastructure and services to the edge and your data centers with Google Distributed Cloud.