Modern crises require cloud-based collaboration tools 

Global pandemics, staffing shortages, extreme heat waves, wildfires, floods, and droughts. These are just a few of the crises of our day. In the face of these modern crises, the need for public safety agencies to have robust and flexible collaboration tools that allow them to work together virtually has never been more apparent, writes Nick Chorley, director of EMEA Public Safety and Security for Hexagon’s Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial division.


Image by Freepik 

The cloud has emerged as a critical enabler of such collaboration, offering scalable, accessible, and secure platforms that allow agencies to respond with unprecedented agility.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, cloud services enabled millions of people to work from home, ensuring business continuity amid lockdowns. Schools and universities used cloud-based platforms to move to online learning.

Now, as organisations become more comfortable with the cloud, usage is steadily increasing. By the end of 2025, cybersecurity firm AAG estimates, the world will store two billion terabytes of data in the cloud.

Secure in the cloud

Organisations and agencies are getting past cybersecurity fears and realising that the major cloud providers invest heavily in security measures, including encryption, access controls, and regular security audits, to protect their clients’ data. Furthermore, cloud services often comply with various international standards and regulations, which is essential for organisations that need to maintain compliance while responding to crises.

Public safety agencies have traditionally been careful in adopting new technologies, but protecting the public might be among the most important areas where cloud-based collaboration can make a difference.

Virtual visuals

In a crisis, you often have multiple public safety and public works and relief agencies – sometimes dozens – on the ground at once. A cloud-based collaboration platform allows them all to share a virtual common operating picture, from their operations centres and out in the field. Imagine a video conference with maps of the area and icons depicting deployed resources and significant landmarks. Anyone invited to use the platform – even outside organisations such as hospitals or public works departments – can have access to the same maps, video, deployment information, and alerts from assistive artificial intelligence embedded in the system. With the leadership of each agency on the same page, coordinated decisions can be made with full intelligence available to all involved. This is a critical improvement when time is of the essence or the nature of the crisis prevents access to one central command post.

Assistive AI

Amid a life-threatening weather event, terror attack, or raging fire, overworked dispatchers and commanders can use an extra set of eyes. That is assistive artificial intelligence – an extra set of eyes with super-sensory peripheral vision. While the dispatchers are focused on handling the crisis at hand, AI can alert them to developments on the periphery they might not have time to notice or remind them of related issues that may have happened hours earlier before they were on shift.

In the background, AI is monitoring every call and every report, taking in all available data. In a rain-wrapped storm, the expected flash flooding is happening, but not where it was predicted. With an alert from assistive AI, which has been monitoring all incoming calls and sensor data, commanders can deploy public works employees with sandbags to keep the water at bay.

The AI could also detect reports of traffic jams and alert transportation and police officials when one affects an evacuation route. That heads-up allows officials to quickly issue orders to open more lanes, provide an alternate route, or deploy more assistance vehicles to clear the scene.

Crossing boundaries

Perhaps the most significant contribution the cloud has made to crisis management is the ability to facilitate seamless collaboration across geographical and organisational boundaries. Weather emergencies or wildfires, for instance, are not contained within county, state, or even national borders and often require multiple agencies from multiple jurisdictions to communicate and share data without being stuck in their own information silos.

The cloud also makes it easier to communicate and share the common operating picture with first responders in the field. A police officer or firefighter with a smartphone or tablet and an internet connection can get the same intelligence that is being seen by supervisors in the command centre. Conversely, supervisors in the command centre can track deployed officers and firefighters in real-time.

Detailed dashboard

Today’s cloud-based solutions can also provide real-time digitised reports that offer fast insight into the scope of the incident and the deployed response. Data detailing response times and other key performance indicators for after-action reports can easily be shared across multiple jurisdictions or segregated when necessary to protect proprietary information.

Respond and recover

As the world becomes more interconnected and complex, collaborating effectively during crises is increasingly important. Cloud-based collaboration portals can help us respond to and recover from modern crises. By embracing cloud-based technologies, public safety agencies can enhance their resilience, agility, and capacity to navigate the uncertainties to come.

• For more information on cloud-based collaboration and Hexagon’s solutions for public safety, please visit hxgnpublicsafety.com