Less than one third of police forces storing data in the public cloud - FoI requests

Thirteen per cent of forces admit to storing no data in the public cloud, despite the government's 'Cloud First' policy

Three quarters of UK police forces are still using on-premise IT infrastructures to store and access their data, according to information obtained by Citrix via Freedom of Information (FoI) requests.

Citrix sent FoI enquiries to 43 police forces throughout the UK, of which 24 responded.

The vendor found that only 29 per cent of police units are currently accessing and managing their data in the public cloud, and 71 per cent of respondents are storing less than a quarter of their data in a cloud environment.

Additionally, 13 per cent of responding forces stated that none of their data is stored in the public cloud.

These figures run counter to the government's 'Cloud First' policy, which advises all public sector organisations to consider the cloud first and foremost when procuring new or existing services.

"Police forces today face enormous pressure from both central government and the general public to reduce crime rates, despite a drop in the number of officers on the beat," stated Darren Fields, Ctirix MD UK&I.

"Alongside this, the evolving cyberthreat landscape means all organisations are targets for cybercriminals - especially those with access to such sensitive information."

However, it wasn't all doom and gloom as the data revealed that 88 per cent of police forces are considering investment in cloud infrastructure and technologies within the next 12 months.

More than two thirds of respondents stated that they are planning to outsource or downsize their on-premise IT infrastructure in order to cut costs and adopt a more flexible work environment, with 79 per cent of UK police forces allowing their front-line officers access to data and applications while out in the field.

"With a reduction in funding from central government and council taxes since 2010/11, police forces are on the lookout for innovative, cost-effective technology to improve security and increase operational efficiency," Fields added.

"Yet, many police forces across the UK are held back by legacy IT systems - making it a challenging exercise to consolidate and transition data and applications to the cloud.

"However, the cloud will inevitably become integral to service delivery - due to solutions typically being cost effective, scalable, secure and flexible - and is likely to become an indispensable asset for police forces in the year ahead."