Zerocomms

A backup for your information architecture.

What happens when the cloud goes down? When a power outage, cyberattack, or severed cable takes out the systems your crisis response depends on?

Zerocomms keeps critical information available locally: plans, maps, procedures, contacts. Even when internet and cloud are gone. Think of it as an emergency generator, but for information.

The problem

Crisis organisations have become deeply dependent on a handful of central systems and commercial platforms. When those fail, more goes down than you'd think.

The dependency chain in a crisis Local locations Fire station First response Policy team Coordination Dispatch Control room Central systems Cloud, SaaS SharePoint, map layers, chat, procedures Outside your country Big tech Microsoft, AWS, Google One disruption in the chain = everything stops Outage, cyberattack, cable cut, power failure, geopolitics

We solved this for power. Not yet for information.

Every dispatch centre, every hospital, every critical location has an emergency generator. Not because the power grid is unreliable, but because the consequences of failure are too large to depend on a single source.

Emergency generator principle applied to information Power supply Power grid Primary source fails Emergency generator Local fallback, ready Accepted, organised, tested, obvious Information supply Cloud, SaaS Primary source fails ? No local fallback Not organised, single point of failure

For power we have the emergency generator. For information, we have Zerocomms.

How it works

A small device, about the size of a shoebox, sits at every critical location. It does three things.

The three functions of a Zerocomms device Zerocomms device At every critical location 1. Local copy Plans, maps, procedures, contacts News cache (text) Synced via uplink 2. Wifi hotspot Connect your phone, open a browser, done No apps, no accounts 3. Communication Via Starlink, 4G, microwave link Whatever still works A backup for your information architecture

Why this is different

Why Zerocomms is different from traditional platforms Aspect Traditional platform Zerocomms Code ownership Vendor Open-source, public Legal domain Often outside EU Dutch foundation If we disappear Product disappears Code stays yours Deployment time Months to years One morning per site Hardware Often proprietary Standard, replaceable Cost per location High, limited scale Low, broad rollout Sovereignty + speed + affordability = by design
Current status

Building a pilot

We are building a pilot project with Veiligheidsregio Noord- en Oost-Gelderland (VNOG), a Dutch safety region responsible for fire services, disaster response and crisis management in the Achterhoek and North Veluwe area.

About

Zerocomms is built and maintained by Stichting Elemental (Elemental Foundation), a Dutch non-profit. Fully open-source. No shareholders, no vendor lock-in.

Your hardware. Your data. Our code is public. If we disappear tomorrow, every IT department can carry on.

Elemental Foundation · Open-source · Dutch non-profit