Clouds over the city

Smart cities can only play to their strengths if as much of the data they generate as possible is open and shared. To achieve this, the cloud needs flexible resources.

To a greater or lesser extent, the majority of Smart City applications used nowadays are island solutions in that the data they collect is not made available to other applications. Yet it is exactly this ability to share data that a Smart City needs in order to exploit its full potential; in fact, it is the only way for city processes to operate on multiple levels and become transparent to all stakeholders and for citizens to become full participants in the network. At the same time, however, the many cities undergoing rapid growth – particularly in emerging nations – require Smart City applications which can be simply and cheaply supplemented and expanded. With the right strategy, the IT required for Smart City services can be designed so as to be future-proof.

Working together to shape city processes

Cloud implementations deliver the flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness needed to implement Smart City applications connecting many thousands of end-points”, says Margaret Ranken, author of the Machine Research white paper entitled “Future-Proofing IT for Smart City Services”. City clouds of this kind aim to provide companies, organisations and inhabitants of modern cities with secure access to public data so that they can have a shared say in how city processes are developed. A city cloud can be used to drive communal services such as the fire brigade, ambulance or police and control traffic using “intelligent” traffic light systems.

Open data and flexible

IT All this requires data to be as open as possible, allowing the city to perform its role as a service provider more effectively. Open data includes commercial, public, current and context-sensitive data concerning city infrastructure and resources, as well as aggregated information. Citizens and companies have the opportunity to participate actively in the provision and use of this data and information. Providing and managing open data draws significantly on IT services and requires them to be flexible, making the process an ideal candidate for a cloud solution. A city cloud can also provide added-value services – in areas such as traffic management, power supplies, public services and waste disposal – with up-to-the-minute information. Transitioning from conventional IT infrastructures to cloud solutions is not something that can be achieved overnight, however. Margaret Ranken states that a hybrid cloud is the most cost-effective way of establishing an IT infrastructure: “As cities implement their Smart City applications, they will find that making use of cloud infrastructure for new applications, while maintaining existing in-house infrastructure, at least in the short term, is the only practical solution.”

(picture credits: Unsplash: Ian Simmonds)

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