It has been a tough year for UK police forces. Faced with some of the worst-ever budget cuts due to the COVID-19 crisis, they have had to do more with less, continuing to protect citizens, while also needing to spend extra money on protective equipment and computers to allow officers to work from home. With depleted resources, forces have had to find more efficient ways to work. One positive outcome of the situation is that the number of UK forces using a hybrid-cloud model to access and manage their data has more than doubled in the past 12 months.
The knowledge was obtained through a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, which was issued by Citrix to 48 police forces across the UK, with 34 of them responding. A similar request was sent to the same number of forces in 2019, of which 24 responded, providing us with some valuable year-on-year comparisons. The most notable of which is that almost half (47 percent) of UK forces say they are currently using a hybrid-cloud model — a figure which has more than doubled since this time last year, when the number stood at 21 percent. In addition, almost all (94 percent) of the responding forces say that their police officers are able to access data files and applications when working in the field.
A hybrid-cloud solution is a good starting point for police forces and allows them to adopt cloud services at their own place, balancing the cost with their ability to move. However, the Government’s “Cloud First” policy, published in 2013, suggested that public cloud should be the preferred deployment model, or ambition. The FoI request shows that just 12 percent of responding forces are currently accessing and managing their data in a public cloud environment.
Data security and sovereignty will always be an issue for police forces, but it is important to recognise how much more secure public cloud can be than an on-premises solutions. This year, amid a global pandemic, cloud technology became central to the data-driven, app-based technology environment that was so vital in helping public sector organisations to adapt and survive. The police force is no exception, and moving forward, forces should feel confident and reassured in becoming more reliant on cloud-based technology.
Currently, according to the FoI request, almost three quarters (74 percent) of forces are continuing to access and manage their data and applications on premises. Additionally, 62 percent of forces store less than a quarter of their data and applications in a cloud environment currently, although this has decreased from a total of 75 percent a year ago. These figures suggest that despite sizeable growth, there is much work still to be done before UK police forces can fully realise the potential of cloud.
In 2021, it will be crucial that forces focus on getting their network and infrastructure cloud-ready, and the FoI request suggests this is very much on the cards. The majority (91 percent) of responding UK police forces say they are considering investment in cloud infrastructure and technologies, such as software, platform or infrastructure as a service (SaaS, PaaS or IaaS), within the next 12 months. As part of this, half of responding forces are currently in the process of outsourcing or downsizing their physical IT infrastructure in favour of a cloud model, with a further 24 percent planning to do so in the next year.
Last year a report from The Institute for Government (IfG) suggested that outsourcing IT can deliver substantial benefits for public sector organisations, including cost savings and improved services. Based on the information shared by 28 of the 34 responding forces, UK police forces have collectively spent an average of £21 million on outsourcing IT over the past five years.
Amidst positive change, it can be helpful to take a step back and consider the bigger picture. This year has been like no other, and the case for cloud has most certainly been felt in all areas, but most importantly within the public sector — a vote of confidence for any force that remains sceptical of the technology. To sustain longer-term progress, police forces will need to continue to challenge the status quo and consider technology solutions that are cost effective, scalable, secure, and flexible, compared with legacy IT systems that they may be dependent on. Police work still requires an immense amount of human time, from preventive to investigative work, and public cloud is a clear enabler in allowing forces to operate more efficiently, particularly in the face of unforeseen disruption.
