Cloud Computing Environment for "Cash for Clunkers" Program
This summer's Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), commonly referred to as "Cash for Clunkers" and managed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), gave buyers up to $4,500 towards a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle for trading in their old gas-guzzling cars or trucks. When the program ended in August, dealers had submitted sales and financial data on more than 690,000 disposed vehicles totaling nearly $3 billion in rebates.
This entire CARS processing system was created, implemented, tested and then activated on extremely short notice. NHTSA turned to the Volpe Center to support development of the Cloud Computing and COLO Hosting System architecture for receiving and processing this data. NHTSA will use this environment to match vehicle disposal data with the original dealer invoices.
Volpe Center activities include server setup, patching and maintenance, interface with agencies, technical documentation and infrastructure support. The development cycle is currently in the second of three phases and will ultimately led to a flexible, complex architecture named CARS Computing Architecture version 2.0 that will remain for the next three to four years until all disposal data is investigated and reconciled. The results of NHTSA and the Volpe Center's first cloud computing project will be used as a template for future endeavors.
