How the Cloud is Making Smart Cities Safer

Smart city development is expected to generate a sizable amount of business in the post-pandemic world. According to research by Frost and Sullivan, the market value of smart city business opportunities will hit 2.46 trillion by 2025. The idea of enhancing a city with cutting edge technology has been discussed for some time, but interest has increased exponentially over the past year due to the pandemic.

While the coronavirus still looms large, the world is showing signs of a return to normalcy as vaccine production and distribution rates continue to grow. The last 12 months have been nothing short of devastating, but the world has managed to push through with technological ingenuity and digital transformation. Through it all, one fact became absolutely clear: cloud solutions are a driving force for business success and technological innovation. That’s why government institutions and city planners are ramping up cloud-driven infrastructures to enhance their cities’ smart initiatives.

Smart city perks are not just about public Wi-Fi and electric car charging stations. These solutions are undoubtedly useful, but COVID-19 has given governments and health officials one main priority: public safety.

Cloud managed infrastructure will bring massive advancements to the way public information is communicated in smart cities. Over the past year, news organizations have created a great deal of confusion about guidelines and safety precautions for dealing with the coronavirus. Citizens in different sections of the country were uncertain about restrictions and mandates, and it became challenging to find information that didn’t conflict with other reporting. Cloud managed networking could be a key factor for connecting massive populations in an emergency setting, by allowing government programs to send out updates and guidelines instantly without interference. This would allow a uniform spread of information and could prevent misinformation from unreliable sources.

Contact tracing can also be enhanced through the cloud, using analytics and tracking to determine points of a contagion spreading in a specific area. Rapidly spreading diseases, like the coronavirus, require  government agencies to discover a point of origin to prevent further development. Without cloud capabilities or data to reference, contact tracing is slowed down and puts more people at risk. Public cloud networks enable health officials to quickly establish the location of an infected individual, providing citizens with confidence that infectious diseases won’t spiral out of control.

Cloud solutions will be the key component to creating smarter and safer cities in the post pandemic world through seamless connection, real time data analytics, and instant communication.