Earth Networks is growing after Sandy
After storm Sandy hit and flooded the Northeast, a variety of businesses have come contributed to help the community including Earth Networks, a weather diagnostic provider, now has about 8 thousand sensors and cameras within the nation.
Earth Networks is known to provide detailed information on the Northeast such as population density and density of the power grid. Though such a provider is useful, troubles in obtaining these detailed information becomes almost impossible to reach if the headquarters are within the storm’s path. Thankfully, Earth Networks found a solution to this issue and is moving data and technical operations to “into the cloud, off-site in life servers” where data can still be gathered regardless of the office power goes out or not.
Within the Earth Networks team, a select group of meteorologists provide twice a day updates to paying companies, sports teams, and government agencies. Content producers are constantly giving out data, video, and alerts through the company’s Weather Bug Web site and mobile applications, though it has been verified that the Web site is more reliable for “richer” data since the mobile application has to provide information within a time frame that is too short to allow it to update.
Earth Networks has been found to be very beneficial for government and businesses, such as the NFL, who are now paying for “ in depth weather consultation.” Chief executive, Robert Marshall mentioned that, “ As the climate changes, the frequency and intensity of these severe weather events is increasing…it just means the product and services we deliver are going to be in greater [demand].” Likely so, Earth Networks has been prognosticated to have a great future due to Hurricane Sandy now that the new users utilize the web site or follow the company on Twitter. Even ComScore demonstrates that the company’s Weather Bug gained 15.1 million users in September, getting each time closer to competing with The Weather Channel’s 46.6 million web visitors.
Earth Networks to a very reliable and useful source and it is reassuring to know that there are other resources working to reach The Weather Channel’s level that can also be relied on if The Weather Channel doesn’t provide as “in depth” information that users might be searching for, if the mobile application fails to function or update properly, or even if users wish for a second opinion on weather forecasts for reassurance. This article and topic relates to our class because, it touches upon competing companies and how each may need to make alterations to attract more users and maximize profit.
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