COUNTRY FOCUS: UK
“
THERE IS SO MUCH VALUE
TO BE GLEANED FROM THE VAST
AMOUNTS OF DATA THAT THE
PUBLIC SECTOR HOLDS THAT COULD
HAVE AN INCREDIBLY POSITIVE
SOCIETAL IMPACT.
removing that hurdle. Providing the public
sector with the ability to capitalise upon a
secure, legally compliant public cloud means
it can innovate at the same pace as industry
and drives better decision making. Put into
practice, these things could have huge
benefits across the public sector.
Chris Huggett, Senior Vice President, EMEA
and India at Sungard AS
Sentiment aside, regulatory measures
demonstrate that when it comes to data
held on the cloud, data privacy and its
management are more than just an ethical
commitment, but a legal obligation. Case in
point, current legislation in place is designed
to ensure that data with a level of sensitivity
is both properly protected and kept
sovereign by virtue of it remaining within the
UK and only accessible by British citizens.
The General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR), implemented within the past year
stipulates that mandatory breach reporting,
requiring data controllers and processors,
is needed in order to introduce appropriate
technical and organisational measures
protecting personal data.
The big decisions
The introduction of new sovereign public
cloud services like our own that allow
the public sector to store sensitive and
official sensitive data on the public cloud is
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INTELLIGENTCIO
Organisations with access to broader,
larger data sets can make better decisions
and all of this can be handled much more
affordably in the public cloud. Decision
making processes such as where to build
roads, hospitals and schools, through to
identifying where to increase policing levels,
even military deployments, can rapidly take
into account a huge variety of disparate
data. This creates insights that simply
cannot be derived in any other way in an
acceptable time frame or at an acceptable
cost. Ultimately, this can make the UK safer,
better educated and healthier.
Who’s driving my car?
The information stored by the DVLA includes
a considerable amount of confidential
data about the UK’s population and on
the nation’s vehicles. With 8,500 cameras
recording approximately 35 million number
plates every day, the possibility exists of
being able to identify the location of a
stolen vehicle more quickly. However, using
techniques similar to the way banks identify
fraudulent transactions, combining known
data about the vehicle’s owner, other
insured drivers and the vehicle’s information
and location, it may be possible to identify
a potential theft having happened even
before the owner realises it has taken place.
Imagine how that could reduce car thefts
and lower insurance premiums.
Beyond the world of insurance, the
government’s recent declaration of intent
to support the advent of driverless vehicles
will undoubtedly be influenced by the
adoption of sovereign cloud practices.
This came in the form of government
initiative, The Centre for Connected and
Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), creating a
new joint fund of £30 million to support
connected and autonomous vehicle
development in the UK.
When it comes to vehicles on the road,
nearly every piece of information
that they siphon has the potential to
qualify as being personally identifiable
information. Alongside requiring all
future projects to establish a solid path
towards commercial viability, in order
to guarantee funding, they’ll need to
convey a robust approach to data ethics.
This includes outlining compliance with
GDPR and the Data Protection Act – a
role that sovereign cloud capabilities will
undoubtedly play a major part in.
www.intelligentcio.com