When it comes to hurricanes, it’s only a matter of time before the next big storm will strike Florida. That’s one reason why, in 2007, Florida’s Legislature created The Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center at Florida State University. Housed in the College of Business, the Center coordinates critical research in catastrophe risk management to help facilitate decision making by state policy makers.

One important way the Center fulfills its directives is by providing quick access to research findings and storm risk-related resources through an intuitive web interface, http://stormrisk.org.

Sue Ellen Smith, Program Director at the Center, manages the content on this site. “Given our state’s growing vulnerability to tropical storms and hurricanes, the importance of a resource like this will only increase in the future.”

The Center’s site is hosted on the Research Computing Center SKY Virtualization Cluster. The SKY system is a good fit for the Storm Risk Center, since its database needs are moderate for now. But since the Center’s research is rapidly expanding, its work will likely require higher computing needs.

“It means a lot to have a resource like this on campus whose staff, not only understands our current computing and research needs, but will be there for us as we grow.” said Ms. Smith.