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Grainger clarified that the next emphasis when letting the police make use of their cloud storage against crime fighting, is to make the systems mobile so that officers can get access to the tools while out on patrol. The force is carrying out tests with mobile device management (MDM) tools and devices for the workforce to use around the Newcastle area.

He mentioned that numerous devices have been tested, comprising Android and Windows phones, and that around 200 of these gadgets should be in use inside of the next three months when the entire management structure up and running.

As part of this momentum to move to mobile and the cloud, Grainger also said that the use of PCs at police stations can’t last continually, as it’s not possible to arm officers with PCs, tablets and smartphones all at the same time.

“I don’t think police services can have three machines per officer. It will be unavoidable to some degree that, just like we’ve condensed our server storage real estate through virtualisation and cloud computing, so we will do the same with the devices,” he said.

The force around Newcastle is also looking to allow flexible work when conceivable, even though security is of paramount importance given the nature of the data being accessed.

Grainger clarified that staff use three-way verification to access systems. These consist of a user name, password and electronic key fob.

Struggles to improve cloud storage technology in police forces around Newcastle also saw the Metropolitan Police Service announce a £200m IT renovation to take advantage of new tech and skills, while also replacing ageing software, which sometimes dated back to the 70s.

This plan took another step forward after an agreement was hit to use Vodafone's 4G network for mobile cloud storage connectivity via the use of iPad Minis used by officers on the beat around Newcastle.

Our systems here a Concept IT operate on fully resilient server clusters but in the unlikely event of a failure, all users are redirected to a mirror site within seconds. Concept have been providing quality solutions to local businesses for the past decade; many of our clients are still with us from the day we started. Knowing your data is stored securely in the Newcastle area and who is actually looking after it gives you the reassurance you need to achieve what the Police force throughout Newcastle have also accomplished.