There is no doubt that accelerating urbanisation presents huge challenges for cities when it comes to matters of infrastructure and safety. It is therefore logical for city officials to turn to new technologies as a way of helping to protect the public, via end-to-end public safety solutions.

Such technologies, when combined with cloud platforms and intelligent analytics, can significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of emergency management services (EMS), thereby ensuring a safer urban environment.

Peter Goulding, global public safety expert at Huawei, points out that, for example, EMS personnel could use collaboration technologies to reduce rescue and emergency response times, and that such collaboration could encompass a multi-agency effort, driving better co-operation between entities such as the police, ambulance service, social care department or even local government.

"Traditionally, such entities maintain their own ICT information in siloes, but collaboration, sharing and exchange of data across different, related agencies is critical if these services are to achieve their ultimate aim. And this aim should be delivering the right information, to the right person, in the right department, so they can make the right decision, at the right time," suggests Goulding.

"This is where a cloud platform comes into the picture, as it is the ideal solution for overcoming these siloed positions and enabling the easy exchange of relevant data, while still maintaining the required levels of security. Cloud delivers the kind of agility and flexibility that reduces the complexity generally associated with multi-agency collaboration."

The goal from Huawei's point of view, he continues, is to develop a single platform that is designed in such a way as to allow the applications developed for the different departments to easily and effectively run on top of it.

"Take, for example, a scenario where a senior citizen, possibly in the first stages of dementia, falls and hurts himself in a public space. The police would need to be called, as would an ambulance crew. However, such a scenario might also require his local GP or medical specialist to be advised of the situation, as well as the social services department to follow up and ensure he was alright after being discharged. True collaboration would mean each of these departments received the relevant information relating to the patient, at the correct time, to ensure they were able to play their part in the overall patient care plan.

"With the important information stored in an underlying cloud infrastructure, it becomes a simple matter to ensure that everyone knows the history of the patient, where he lives and what support he has. This is delivered in a single view that provides any person in the chain the information they need, provided, of course, they are entitled to see it, according to the security policies governing it."

Another good example, he adds, could be the health aspects related to having so many people in a close-knit urban environment. Thanks to the benefits of the Internet of Things (IOT), sensors monitoring air-conditioners could warn of dangers like Legionnaire's Disease, while pollution monitors could ensure that if, for example, a noxious gas leaked out, authorities would be able to predict its movement and the areas it would impact. Thus, they could be proactive in approaching the disaster, rather than reactive. In addition, the knowledge provided by such sensors around potential health impacts could even assist local government authorities when planning future industrial zones.

"Such a cloud solution would not only be about eliminating siloes and fostering greater collaboration – it is also an extremely cost-effective solution, meaning it would significantly impact on the bottom line as far as operational costs go. Moreover, if the person controlling the ICT budget can reduce costs related to power and infrastructure, it will free up budget for future collaborative developments, such as Smart Cities. And, of course, because the underlying platform is software- rather than hardware-driven, it will have the longevity and adaptability to play a role in these future cities for a long time to come," he concludes.