SaTScan on a Cloud: On-Demand Large Scale Spatial Analysis of Epidemics.

By using cloud computing it is possible to provide on- demand resources for epidemic analysis using computer intensive applications like SaTScan. Using 15 virtual machines (VM) on the Nimbus cloud we were able to reduce the total execution time for the same ensemble run from 8896 seconds in a single machine to 842 seconds in the cloud. Using the caBIG tools and our iterative software development methodology the time required to complete the implementation of the SaTScan cloud system took approximately 200 man-hours, which represents an effort that can be secured within the resources available at State Health Departments. The approach proposed here is technically advantageous and practically possible.