With hybrid models gaining traction, AI integration accelerating, and multi-cloud strategies redefining enterprise IT, cloud technology stands at the forefront of digital transformation.

Industry leaders share their insights and predictions for the trends and challenges that will dominate the cloud ecosystem in the year ahead.

The AI cloud revolution

John Bradshaw, director of cloud computing technology and strategy EMEA, Akamai

“In 2025, AI will become integral to Cloud-driven operations, with more tangible applications than before. Organisations will begin to realise the potential of changing company headcounts by automating repetitive tasks and decision-making processes.

However, many companies may face challenges due to underbudgeting for AI implementation and the substantial data requirements necessary for these systems to function effectively.

As AI moves from buzzword to business imperative, many organisations will find that their Cloud infrastructure (essential as the backbone of AI advancements) is not yet equipped to handle the intensive data and computing workloads that AI demands.” 

Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies

Sergei Serdyuk, VP of product management, NAKIVO

“The adoption of the hybrid cloud model will continue in 2025 due to its flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency. The hybrid model has highlighted the need for cost optimisation as data volumes grow, as well as the necessity of robust cloud security.

“New tools like standardised APIs, self-service portals, and cloud storage gateways have made it easier to manage hybrid cloud environments. However, more work is still needed to streamline cloud and on-premises systems integration.

“Nevertheless, new challenges are bound to arise, such as the need for consistent security practices across hybrid cloud infrastructures to manage risks effectively. Additionally, the complexity of managing a hybrid cloud infrastructure will increase data sprawl and waste resources and will require skilled professionals to manage it.”

Steve Ellis, head of Amdocs cloud division, Amdocs 

“In 2025, enterprises that initially made big bets on a single cloud hyperscaler will begin to diversify by introducing secondary providers, adding competition, and unlocking capabilities their primary provider may not offer.

“While the major cloud players still dominate enterprise spend, there will be a noticeable shift toward multi-cloud strategies as businesses seek to complement their existing investments. This trend and the evolution of cloud networks from the enterprise to the application portfolio level will drive greater self-service capabilities for both tech and business teams.

Additionally, as  cloud continues to mature, AI’s regulatory compliance and technical tooling will also improve, enabling public-facing AI interactions to become more commonplace.”

Andrew Beal, chief architect, Markerstudy

“In 2025, the adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud environments will continue to accelerate, driven by organisations seeking to optimise costs and avoid vendor lock-in.

As more providers embrace multi-cloud strategies, we will see significant growth in platforms offering a single pane of glass for platforms such as API management, firewalls, data, and Kubernetes. This move would reduce the overheads associated with managing multiple cloud environments.

To support the drive for standardisation, Kubernetes will become the default hosting platform for many, ensuring software engineers have a consistent development experience, regardless of the cloud provider.

Much of this shift will be driven by platform engineering, as organisations transform their DevOps teams into platform engineering teams that focus on the entire developer ecosystem. This transformation will enhance the efficiency and productivity of development processes across different cloud environments.

Overall, 2025 will be a pivotal year for cloud technology, with advancements in hybrid and multi-cloud environments providing businesses greater flexibility, security, and control over their digital infrastructure.”

Data protection and security in the cloud

Johan Paulsson, CTO, Axis Communications

In previous years, we’ve highlighted how hybrid architectures, those making the best use of edge, cloud, and on-premises technologies, have become the de facto choice for security solutions.

The drivers for the choice of architecture will be unique to every organisation, considering technological, legal, ethical and governance concerns and requirements.

Whether demanded by emerging local and regional regulations or concerns over data control, cost, or energy efficiency, hybrid solutions will continue to offer the greatest flexibility in creating architectures to suit specific organisational needs best and allow a system to be scaled.”

Sergei Serdyuk, VP of product management, NAKIVO

“Data protection will always be a top priority for cloud environments. More businesses are using strong cloud security measures to protect against ransomware attacks, including encryption, access controls, and immutable storage to combat cloud-specific cyber threats.

There’s growing understanding of the shared responsibility model between organisations and cloud service providers (CSPs), though some companies are still catching up. The focus will be on implementing robust backup and recovery solutions, encryption, and access controls to protect critical data across hybrid cloud infrastructures.”

Andrew Beal, chief architect, Markerstudy

“The current geopolitical climate, marked by uncertainty and the potential for a global trade war, will bring cloud sovereignty to the forefront. Discussions around data sovereignty and localised cloud services will become more prevalent, with major hyperscalers already exploring solutions in this space.

This shift will be crucial for businesses looking to ensure compliance with regional regulations, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)  for UK financial services and Insurance companies and mitigate risks associated with geopolitical tensions.”

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The virtual machine firm cited a study from Barclays that found 83% of enterprise tech leaders were planning to repatriate some workloads from the public cloud in 2024 to make its case for its suite of private cloud services.

The survey marked a significant swing from 2021, when just half of respondents were looking to repatriate workflows, although it did not reveal the scale of their repatriation efforts.

Taking to the stage at VMware Explore in Barcelona, Broadcom (VMware’s parent company) CEO and president Hock Tan claimed that companies were currently being confronted by three  “public cloud Cs”: Cost, Complexity and Compliance

He added“ Over eight out of 10 CEOs today are moving workloads back on prem, a huge change from the beginning of the pandemic four years back. What does this mean? The future of enterprise is private cloud, and private AI, fuelled by your private data.”

Hock Tan revealed that over 70% of the core capacity that VMware has sold in the last 12 months is based on the firm’s private cloud solution, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).

Hock Tan also took a swipe at enterprise customers and running concerns that VMware would up its pricing after it was bought by Broadcom over a year ago.

During the acquisition, reports emerged claiming the firm would look to increase the cost of its services by up to 150% due to the decision to shift to a licencing model.

Facing backlash from existing customers, Broadcom has attempted to explain the new product and licensing model with a hope that current customers can manage the transition.

This transition included the re-do of the previous channel partner structure, with Broadcom focusing on a smaller number of value-added resellers and direct relationships with its largest customers.

However, during his keynote, Tan also pointed fingers at demanding enterprises who “don’t like to pay for the value of the technology we all love.”

“What I hear is how VCF is a great product, solid and reliable, but you want our products ot be easy to use. You want them to work well together, and you’re asking us to do the had work to make that happen,” he explained to thousands in attendance at Barcelona’s Gran Fira.

“But will your company pay for it?”

His keynote address came as Broadcom unveiled a raft of updates for its VCF private cloud platform, with a focus on the growing adoption of artificial intelligence, national digital sovereignty and cyber resilience.

This included a new recovery service in partnership with Google Cloud and a number of AI solutions.

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In a blog written by Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, Rima Alaily, the software giant claims Google is about to launch a lobby group, or “astroturf organisation,” with a handful of smaller European cloud providers.

This group of ten will serve as the public face while Google remains a “backseat member,” as stated by Alaily.

“It remains to be seen what Google offered smaller companies to join, either in terms of cash or discounts,” Microsoft ‘s legal exec added.

Alaily also claimed that Google hired the advisory firm DGA to establish the group.

The blog stated that one firm which decided not to join the group told Microsoft that it would receive financial backing from Google if it chose to. The firm felt that the group’s purpose was mainly to criticise Microsoft’s practices in Europe.

The group, named the Open Cloud Coalition, is said to campaign for a fairer and more competitive cloud landscape across the UK, Europe, and beyond.

However, Alaily alleged this is part of Google’s broader attempt to undermine its competitors, with the purpose of “attacking Microsoft’s cloud computing business in the [EU] and the [UK],” according to Microsoft’s source.

The lawyer also accused Google of trying to turn the non-profit Cloud Infrastructure Service Provider in Europe (CISPE) against Microsoft. Bloomberg reported that Google offered CISPE half a billion dollars to “derail” its antitrust settlement with Microsoft. “Wisely, they declined,” said Alaily. “And, instead, the CISPE members endorsed the resolution we had developed together.”

Alaily then claimed that Google’s efforts against Microsoft are “to do with the fact Google is facing a reckoning.” “By our count, there are at least 24 antitrust investigations against Google in the leading digital markets around the world.

The latest investigation includes one by the UK’s CMA over Google’s partnership with Anthropic.

“At a time when Google should be focused on addressing legitimate questions about its business, it is instead turning its vast resources towards tearing down others,” she added.

“It is disappointing that, with the foundation of their business facing jeopardy, they have sought to bolster their cloud computing service – Google Cloud Platform – by attacking ours,” Alaily concluded.

TechInformed has requested Google for comment.

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In October alone, AWS announced an agreement with Energy Northwest to develop a quartet of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) that will eventually deliver 960MW of power. It is also investing in SMR maker X-energy and concluded a deal to locate a data centre next to a traditional nuclear facility in Pennsylvania.

This came as Google inked a deal with Kairos Power covering a “fleet of advanced nuclear power projects”. And Microsoft has struck a deal to restart a mothballed nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, site of a notorious partial meltdown at another reactor in the 1970s.

The Three Mile Island disaster put the seal on nuclear energy’s problematic reputation. And this was amplified by the Chernobyl disaster in the 1980s. A decade ago, there was a drive to shutdown aging nuclear facilities – Germany has since eradicated its nuclear sector completely.

But the energy landscape has changed, in part, due to the focus on reducing carbon emissions, and a drive towards electrification, not least in transport. The geopolitical environment has also changed dramatically, with energy sovereignty a priority for many governments.

So, nuclear has been reborn as an, if not utterly green, certainly carbon free energy source. Which is precisely what data centre operators desperately need – and by implication, what their enterprise customers and consumers or enterprises, are demanding.

The International Energy Agency expects electricity consumption by data centres to double by 2026, fuelled by GenAI, as well as cryptocurrency. While data centres sucked in an estimated 460TWh worldwide in 2022, this is likely to stand at 1000TWh in 2026, roughly the equivalent of Japan’s entire electricity consumption.

Data centre industry veteran, and president of the European Data Centre Association, Lex Coors says the industry is already facing a shortage of capacity, so “It’s about what are the options. What energy sources can I find? How do they fit in zero carbon emissions?”

The smaller nuclear option

Nuclear raises particular concerns, such as radiation and disposing of waste. But, he added, other options also present problems. “Even if I would put in fields and fields of solar, they also have an issue. There’s nothing growing underneath. There’s always a counter side to the benefit.”

But it is also clear that traditional nuclear plants aren’t going to fill the gap anytime soon. Even if a traditional gigawatt nuclear plant could be fast-tracked, the grid networks in many major economies are creaking, making it hard to get the energy to where it is actually needed.

Hence the appeal of small modular reactors, explains Philip Vaughan, a Policy Fellow of the Nuclear Institute. These produce from 20MW to 470MW, enough to directly power a hyperscale data centre, while sidestepping the need to draw from the grid. They are largely built in factories, Vaughan explains. This should ensure more consistency around quality and delivery.

Vaughan says big tech is recognising how this can meet their needs of providing permanent power, reliably, with a much smaller footprint. And they don’t have to worry about that power being diverted somewhere else. “Fundamentally they can own that power, so they have complete control over it.”

Likewise, SMRs give the ability to produce not just electricity but “high temperature energy”, which can be used in other industrial processes, or for district heating. “There’s a versatility that is new to the nuclear industry.”

Not everyone is convinced. Dr Doug Parr, Policy Director for Greenpeace UK says, “The examples of SMR development we have seen so far have had the familiar delays and cost overruns common to new reactor designs, and the only solution they offer to the drawbacks of nuclear power is to distribute them across a wider area.”

Moreover, as Coors points out, SMR designs also need approvals. There are still local planning issues to surmount. The effort to rebrand nuclear energy as green might crumble in the face of local opposition, already unhappy about the prospect of a data centre being thrown up on their doorstep.

But there are also broader challenges, Coors says. “Think about security, transport of fuels, storage of the fuels? How many rings of security do I need to put around my data centre?”

At Greenpeace, Parr asks, “Will Silicon Valley be taking responsibility for their own nuclear waste disposal and site decontamination as well as power generation?”

That’s assuming operators can secure fuels in the first place. There’s a drive to boost uranium mining in the US, but as energy systems firm Schneider Electric’s chief advocate for data centres, Steve Carlini says, this has resulted in local opposition.

And there’s a skills issue to tackle. As Vaughan says, the nuclear industry is greying. SMRs, by their nature, will not require so many highly skilled nuclear specialists on site, he suggests.

However, Coors adds, the industry still needs to train people up and convince them that it will stick with nuclear as a power option into the future. “We need to make sure we don’t send people to university to get a degree on nuclear, if this is just a trend of 10 to 15 years.”

Power up

And timelines are a problem. AWS’s announcement says delivery of the Energy Northwest SMRs will “help meet the forecast energy needs of the Pacific Northwest beginning in the early 2030s.” It will be 2035 before Google’s first tranche of SMRs are fully online.

This means that big tech will be looking to other options to fill a widening energy gap in the meantime. Carlini says this could see data centre operators turning to the sort of gas turbines X reportedly installed to power its xAI project. Being gas-based, they are hardly green.

At the same time, data centre operators are putting in more and more energy storage systems in their facilities, raising the potential of “microgrids”, he says. “Once you get two hours of energy storage, then you’re going to be able to collaborate with utilities.” This could mean storing excess energy from renewables in data centres, and even pumping it back into the network when the utility needs it.

Either way the data centre sector is facing an energy crunch right now and it’s only going to get worse. Carlini says the big operators are stepping up and investing their own money in solving the energy gap. And right now nuclear does seem to be the long-term destination.

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EUC technologies already play a significant role in many organisations’ tech stacks, helping businesses manage complex issues such as remote and hybrid working, which has grown significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pain points, like hardware management, application control, and security concerns, can be addressed by the flexibility EUC offers. But, despite its rise in recent years, why are so many businesses undecided if it will benefit them?

At the IGEL Disrupt 2024 conference in Munich, Germany, earlier this month, we spoke to experts in the field to find out more.

What is End-User Computing (EUC)?

EUC, or End-User Computing, comprises a range of tools, policies, and technologies allowing employees to access company resources from various devices in any location in a secure and scalable fashion — either on-premises or via the cloud.

This may include virtual desktops, application management, or, more recently, the increasing use of enterprise browsers.

As Brad Peterson, field CTO at Workspot, describes: “Instead of installing a bunch of applications and an operating system (OS) onto a laptop and then giving it to an employee — for them to walk away leaving you wondering what shape it’s in, or how to upgrade it — the IT team installs the OS and applications on virtual machines, on servers in a data centre.

“Then, wherever you are in the world, whatever device you have, you can open a browser and log into your work desktop or apps via the data centre and display it on your screen.”

Though the popularity of EUC has increased in recent years, the technology has been around for a while.

The evolution of EUC

In the early days of EUC, companies distributed physical PCs to employees. Then, IT teams had to install and manage software on each individual device.

This decentralised model made it difficult for IT to control and support remotely, placing a high management and support burden on internal tech teams.

This created a number of challenges, including configuration issues, outdated software, and device retrieval when an employee left the business.

Peterson, who has over two decades of experience in the field, explains that in that time, the most transformative development in endpoint management has been the evolution of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

“If IT can virtualise and centralise everything, they can own it. They can secure it, keep an eye on what’s going on, and have no crazy laptop issues, outdated version issues, etc. And if an employee leaves, they just disconnect them from it.”

The rise of VDI and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) has fundamentally reshaped the EUC space, according to Peterson, especially with the proliferation of the cloud.

How did cloud technology transform EUC?

“The only way to do EUC 20 years ago was to take Citrix or VMware software and install it in your data centre. They would drop off complex software, and you were on the hook to make it work,” says Peterson.

He explains that managing Citrix software in data centres was so complex that people built their entire careers on it — himself included.

“Then, about ten years ago, we had access to cloud computing. The cloud is just another data centre.”

Instead of setting up your own data centre, purchasing servers, and managing everything yourself, you can use a cloud provider like Azure, GCP, or AWS.

These providers have numerous data centres and offer their capacity for rent over the Internet. This means that IT doesn’t have to handle software installation, operation, patching, or updating for VDI.

Instead, they can centralise and virtualise VDI with enhanced security and flexibility through the cloud.

How did Microsoft’s entry into the space change EUC?

Andy Tynes, VP of sales at virtual desktop interface Apporto, agrees that the shift toward VDI reduces the need to maintain a large fleet of physical devices, which also leads to substantial savings in hardware costs and IT staff hours.

However, Tynes acknowledges that businesses still face significant challenges in adopting desktop virtualisation, particularly when it comes to cost and complexity. This is where Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) offerings are gaining traction.

He explains: “The market had already been around for 30 years with Citrix and VMware. However, once Microsoft entered, it further validated the market and redefined it to a degree with this second offering — Windows 365.”

Tynes adds that when Microsoft entered the EUC market with Windows 365 and its Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), it wasn’t going after traditional VDI customers, which had always been around 10 to 12% of all business users.

Microsoft’s updated framework for building secure AI systems

“Microsoft made it very clear that the objective was to grow this market. The Windows 365 offering provides something a little easier to use out of the box.”

Microsoft’s subscription-based model eliminates much of the capital expenditure associated with traditional VDI setups.

Businesses can now opt for a pay-as-you-go service, aligning costs with actual usage and reducing overhead, which Tynes predicts will lead to Microsoft’s domination of the market.

“As a consumer, you can’t tell the difference between a regular laptop and a Windows 365 cloud desktop. As they continue to build out that offering, it will allow them to dominate the market more and more,” he says.

The emergence of Enterprise Browsers

Tynes also predicts that Enterprise Browsers could become a major part of the desktop virtualisation solution set every organisation adopts over the next 5-10 years.

Indeed, a 2023 Gartner report stated: “By 2026, 25% of enterprises will be using managed browsers or extensions, up from less than 10% today. By 2030, enterprise browsers will be the core platform for delivering workforce productivity and security software on managed and unmanaged devices for a seamless hybrid work experience.”

For businesses that rely heavily on VDI, enterprise browsers can reduce the need for complex setups by allowing secure access to applications without the overhead of virtualising the entire desktop environment.

Traditional browsers, like Chrome and Firefox, often require additional layers of security, such as firewalls and VPNs, which increase operational costs and complexity.

Kurt Tomaschko, regional director at Island.io, an enterprise browser, explains that enterprise browsers provide operational efficiency by consolidating security measures directly within the browser itself, reducing the need for external solutions.

This is particularly beneficial for companies dealing with unmanaged devices or integrating new teams during mergers and acquisitions.

“Let’s say you acquire a company with 1000 people. You don’t know their applications or technology, but you want to integrate people as soon as possible. When using a browser, you can give them granular access to critical applications in your organisation to quickly onboard newly acquired employees,” he says.

The future of EUC

Gavin Connelly, field CTO at Nerdio, predicts that the DaaS market will reach $50 billion by 2030 as more organisations adopt virtualisation to support remote work.

“Research by Nerdio showed that over 84% of companies in the UK have used virtual desktops, which is a massive share of the market. The most common use cases are in healthcare, finance, local government, and developer environments.”

He adds: “Many organisations leverage virtualisation to give their developers a sandbox environment where they can test and develop their software and capabilities. We’re seeing huge success with that in particular.”

Connelly spoke about a particularly successful use case for EUC, when Nerdio helped the Make-a-Wish foundation manage their high flux workforce.

“They needed a solution that was scalable with their business model. They have periods where they inflate their volunteer workforce, so they needed a solution that could burst at times but then scale back down when those volunteers were no longer participating.

“Normally, they would have to procure a piece of hardware, bring that in-house, configure that, optimise it, secure it, and then ship that out to wherever that volunteer’s location is — whether that’s a satellite office, somebody working from home, etc. That’s very slow. It’s often unreliable and costly. With Nerdio and AVD, they could scale and flex as they needed.”

He explained that Nerdio has seen organisations save up to 80% by optimising their cloud costs, offsetting procuring expensive hardware, and the human resources, cost, and time of shipping devices.

EUC technologies address the pain points of managing remote workforces, ensuring security, and maintaining operational efficiency.

As businesses increasingly adopt cloud-first strategies, solutions like VDI and enterprise browsers could become central to providing flexible, secure, and scalable desktop delivery.

TechInformed sat down for a coffee with IGEL’s CEO, Klaus Oestermann, to discuss EUC. Watch the full video below.

The post The evolution of End-User Computing: virtualisation, secure browsers, and Microsoft’s growing influence appeared first on TechInformed.

It’s a challenge that police forces have been looking to address, according to Rob Brind, a digital silver commander (a senior officer in the force’s Gold-Silver-Bronze command hierarchy) at Hampshire & Isle of White Constabulary, and Thames Valley Police.

“We’re able to maintain our emergency 999 call answer times, but we’d got to the point where our non-emergency 101 call rates were taking, on average, seven minutes to answer,” says Brind.

“To just handle a call now takes longer. Most crimes are digitally enabled, be they phishing scams or a stalking harassment case via social media…All this increased complexity of gathering information is usually done by the call handler, which has seen the number of calls drop from four-to-five an hour to two-to-three,” he explains.

Brind found that half of all calls coming into the police were incident descriptions after conducting analysis of the types of non-emergency demand that was coming in.  Another 20% of demand was from callers looking for updates on reported crimes, while an additional 30% of calls were harder to predict.

“In these cases, we don’t really know what the demand looks like,” Brind admits.

According to the commander, tackling the 20% of people calling in for updates was critical – as this was the category which police could anticipate and therefore cater for more efficiently using automated technologies.

“We were looking for something that could either push automated messages to these victims of crime who were looking for updates or allow them to access messages or policing services in a different way that would keep them informed and engaged,” Brind explains.

After looking at a range of technologies that could assist the force in sensitively automating a crime victim’s journey, the force chose Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud solution.

“This allowed us to create a journey, and send automated messages, text messages or emails to those victims over a period of the crime lifecycle so. So, info about the crime number, the officer assigned to the case and crime prevention advice.

“Now, instead of the victim having to call us they’re getting that info straight away over a period of time. This information is coming either from our contact management system or our record management system.”

Messaging portal

Since the force went live with the system last August, Brind says that the system has sent over 400,000 messages to victims of crime.

Thames Valley Police also worked with Salesforce to build a portal where victims can self-serve information and monitor the progress of the investigation.

“On the portal, there’s a chevron at the top that tells you what status your crime is at. Whether it’s being investigated, or whether stuff is out for forensics etc”

“We’ve also built a two-way messaging service between officers and members of the public. So instead of victims of crime having to phone up for an update or wait for the officer to contact them, they can now contact the officer and the officer can message back through the portal,” Brind explains.

Following the portal’s launch in February, it has already exchanged 8,000 messages between officers and members of the public. “We’ve also seen over 40,000 people access the portal over that period as well,” Brind adds.

The portal has also been designed to host useful information: from victim code of compliance; knowledge articles complied by the Home Office around support services; as well as a list of NGOs and specialists that victims of crime can speak with.

Brind estimates that since the technology was installed there has been a call reduction of 30,000 across Hampshire and Thames Valley in the last quarter.

“That’s a significant number of calls reduced. If that continues that’s 120,000 calls reduced to call centres which allows us to focus on other areas of demand – people who are victims or witnesses of crime and recording it and dealing with that in a timely manner.”

Brind adds that speed-to-answer times have reduced from seven minutes to three-to-four minutes over the last month or so. He enthuses: “We are giving members of the public a more efficient service because they are getting updates in a timelier way, and they are getting a choice now of how they get updated on what’s happening.”

The commander admits that not all sections of the public likes automated messages, but the aim is to address a significant portion of the demand.

“Around 90% of people are quite happy being pushed info, another 9% will want to self-serve because they need further info.  And 1% will always want to call up and ask for more. If we can tackle a portion of that 90%, we are halfway there to dealing with a much better service,” he says.

Roadmap

Of course, there are more things on the list. The automated service does not yet work in other languages, but Brind adds “AI is getting better at doing that” and he’s hopeful that this is something they can add soon.

The force would also like to extend its automated service to other parts of the law enforcement system such as witness care.

“There’s an attrition rate of victims and witnesses not going to court because they haven’t been updated. Post-Covid those waits are longer because there’s a backlog in the courts.

“So, how do we deal with those witnesses and people better, so we get those cases to court? Pushing info or self-serving on a portal could support this process better,” he says.

Another challenge the force would like to address is the 30% of calls which are harder to predict. These are calls that neither fall under the category of ‘crime’ or ‘incident’ but might be related to healthcare, mental health services or the local authorities.

“Over the next 12 months, we want to look at how to get better at diverting those calls away from 101 to the right person at the right time.”

Thames Valley Police is currently working with AI-powered speech analytics software company Sprinklr to address this challenge and create a chatbot that can deal with multiple calls at any one time.

Brind is also looking at how the banking sector uses AI-powered bots, like NatWest’s Cora, to see how it can be applied to policing.

The commander adds that these bots would also help with crime reports made online.

Bots for cops

“We use robotics to process crime reports and that info goes into our record management system. But those that can’t be processed by a robot need to be done manually. So how do we automate that process going forward? In a way using AI and running AI over the top…”

While budgets are tight, TI asks Brind what he’d like to do if he had a larger budget. Like many organisations, he replies that in an increasingly AI-driven world, a deep data cleanse would benefit the force.

He explains that much of the force’s data has been moved to a Microsoft Azure cloud, but tasks like sorting out structured data from unstructured data and releasing siloed data so that crime reports, can be brought together with contact data or HR data would be “hugely powerful”.

He adds: “I’d like to see greater investment in being able to pull together our data: how we cleanse it; use it to inform our long-, medium- and short-term decision-making.

“The vast majority of our budgets go on people so our expenditure on digital and technology is limited. But it would be great to bring together our datasets and our partnership data sets, bring that together and use it to inform our decision making.”

“That sounds simplistic but that’s all we want to do in police – be a bit more proactive around making sure we’ve got the right resources in the right teams with the right skills to do what we need to do in the future.”

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According to the Wall Street Journal, a source familiar with the acquisition said it would be funded mostly in cash and would be the biggest acquisition the technology giant has ever made.

Founded in 2020, Wiz is led by former Microsoft exec Assaf Rappaport and has raised roughly $2 billion in funding. It was recently valued at $12 billion and is headquartered in New York.

The startup provides cloud-based cyber security solutions with real-time AI-powered threat detection.

It ingests data from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, alongside other cloud platforms and then scans for security risk factors.

There has been speculation that Alphabet views the deal as a means by which to strengthen its Google Cloud business, which grew almost 30% in the first quarter of this year to just over $9.5 bn.

Customers of Wiz include technology firms such as Siemens, Slack, and DocuSign, retailer ASOS and car manufacturer BMW.

According to its website, it generated about $250 million in revenue last year, and works with 40% of Fortune 100 companies.

Alphabet and Wiz did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Recently, TI spoke with fintech firm Soldo on how observability is fortifying its cloud, and why this is so crucial in protecting customer data.

To read more about the cloud, click here.

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Customers affected include those on mobile virtual network operators that use the AT&T network such as Cricket, Boost Mobile, and Consumer Cellular.

Data from between May 1^st, 2022, and October 31^st, 2022, may have been exposed, as well as records from a “very small number” of customers on January 2^nd, 2023.

The attackers obtained the information through the firm’s cloud provider, Snowflake, AT&T’s spokesperson Alex Byers told The Verge.

The telecoms firm knew of the breach in April, but an FBI spokesperson reported to TechCrunch that itself, AT&T, and the Department of Justice “agreed to delay notifying the public and customers on two occasions, citing ‘potential risks to national security and/or public safety.’”

According to Byers, the stolen data includes phone numbers customers interacted with, counts of those calls/texts and total call durations for specific days or months.

It does not include the content of the calls or texts, time stamps, or Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or other identifiable information – however, a name can be matched to a phone number by simple actions taken with online tools.

AT&T said in a blog post that it does not “believe that the data is publicly available” and it has “taken steps to close off the illegal access point.”

“We will provide notice to current and former customers whose information was involved along with resources to help protect their information,” AT&T added.

“We sincerely regret this incident occurred and remain committed to protecting the information in our care.”

Recently, TI spoke to fintech platform Soldo on how it uses observability to make its cloud more secure: read here.

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According to the deputy service manager at Refuge’s contact centre, Ellen Patterson, the charity’s network of employees and volunteers delivers 147 support sessions every day.

“Around 70% of the people we speak to are survivors of domestic abuse,” Patterson explains, “and 10% are from third parties – friends and neighbours etc and another 10% are from professionals from a variety of sectors who are usually looking to make a referral. Around 139 referrals are made to Refuge each week.”

In 2019 the UK government’s Home Office awarded Refuge the contract to run the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline as its sole provider – a role it had previously jointly run with allied charity Women’s Aid.

As well as the initial four-year £1.2m contract, Refuge secured additional funding to develop new digital and mobile resources to support survivors. This led to the introduction of a live chat service in 2020 and an improved email support service, which now sees the team make 430 supportive emails per month.

During this period, Refuge also introduced a dedicated referral line, so that women can enquire specifically about refuge vacancies, as well as a BSL interpreter line.

According to Patterson, while the extra platforms were a welcome addition, it did lead to a bolt-on approach in terms of networking infrastructure. Legacy systems included a disparate collection of separate applications which provided telephony, chat and reporting, including Horizon Collaborate and ResourceConnect.

“Just because of the capacity within our team and the funds that we had available, all of these things had been kind of tacked on as we’ve gone along,” she recalls.

“We got to a situation where all these platforms became quite difficult to manage, it was taking time to navigate each platform for each different part of our service – both from a management perspective but also for the helpline advisers,” she adds.

The time taken to manage the navigation of this set-up, remembering the different logins for different platforms etc, was also taking away from time supporting survivors and it prompted the charity to consider a contact centre solution capable of “bringing everything into one place.”

Another reason to switch to a cloud-based comms system was the need to cater for remote workers: during and after the pandemic Refuge staff and volunteers had transitioned from a central contact centre in London, to working remotely or hybrid, from anywhere in the country.

“We largely work remotely now, and it’s good to be able to draw from a wider pool of experienced people – but managing this can be challenging,” says Patterson.

“Workers need a dedicated space where no one else can hear, no one can come into the room, it’s confidential. The technology needs to be reliable in terms of sound deadening and ensure that the line is clear – it’s important that someone on the other end of the phone who is in a really difficult situation trusts that this line is secure and can hear you properly.”

Another requirement was to be able to keep the continuity of the number: 0808 2000 247, as Patterson explains. “Even when the contract changed, and Women’s Aid ceased to be involved the number has stayed the same. Some people commit it to memory so it was important that it couldn’t change.”

Cloud-based CX

Refuge selected Genesys Cloud CX platform, powered by AWS Cloud, which offers a full range of contact centre capabilities for remote and on-prem workers from a single platform.

Explaining why Genesys won the contract over other providers at the CX orchestration vendor’s London customer event Xperience last month, Patterson explained that, at first, they thought that the technology was beyond their budget.

“It was clear that we had champagne tastes on a beer budget! Fortunately for us (and for the survivors we support) Genesys made it possible for us to close that gap.”

She added that the fact Genesys made the effort to speak their language was also important. “It may not seem that significant but the difference between referring to our service users as ‘customers’, or even ‘victims’, instead of the survivors we know them to be was very important to us.”

Refuge’s internal team worked closely with the Genesys professional services team to implement the helpline on the platform, which the charity reports has been “highly configurable”, with “a minimum of software development needed.”

Patterson adds that staff training took place over a couple of weeks, with no real issues in terms of user take-up.  “Our team are incredible and do a difficult job, some of them for over 20 years. So, while it is easy to get ingrained in the process that we had and there was some anxiety around learning to use a new system, as soon as they start using it, they found it intuitive and not scary at all.”

Visibility

According to Patterson, there are several advantages to moving to a cloud-based contact centre system including the additional visibility of being able to see instantly how many callers are waiting and where they are calling in from.

“If a call drops while we’re speaking to a survivor, for whatever reason, we want to make sure that we can get the number back to call them (unless they’ve withheld their number) and that’s easier now we can see the customer journey.”

Managing the flow of calls and the type of calls better also has benefits for helpline staff and their managers too, says Patterson.

“We’re now able to create different pots of callers because the new system gives us more visibility as to who is calling and from where and how long they’ve been waiting.”

She adds that if a support service worker is on their last ten minutes it might not be the right time to take a call from a survivor calling in for the first time; but it may be long enough to take a call from a professional looking to make a referral.

“We can also now see if a member of staff has been on three days of taking phones every single day – which can be exhausting –  as a manager I can now make that decision to give them a break by moving them onto one of our written platforms,” she adds.

The system is also better able to deal with language barriers. The previous system did not allow Refuge to take three-way calls, and non-English-speaking survivors were referred to an interpreter service. “We would have to give them the survivors’ number – but that function now sits with us. And we hold all the data ourselves,” Patterson explains.

The system has been live now for just over a month and Patterson says that it is on track to increase the number of interactions it has with service users by as much as 30 to 40%. “That’s 300 or 400 more survivors a week being supported as a result,” she adds.

An eye on AI

Now Patteson says that the Refuge team is firmly focussed on consolidating its implementation although it is looking at a range of future AI-enabled possibilities, that it hopes to embrace eventually.

In the US,  the National Domestic Violence Hotline – another Genesys Cloud user – is using selective, survivor-centric AI support to keep pace with a threefold increase in daily calls, chats and text.

Survivors phoning in have the option of providing a voice bot with non-identifiable demographic data and the outcomes they want to get out of the conversation, taking care to use their words and language. That information is then presented on screen when the call is routed to help prepare the support worker.

For Patterson, these sorts of applications are a little further down Refuge’s roadmap  “We’re a little bit nervous about using AI – the inherent biases of those who write the data, build on that and learn. But when we first started talking to Genesys and the things it has on the roadmap for the future – then to not consider AI would be a disservice to our users

“It’s a big thing to pick up the phone, for instance, and speak to someone about something so personal and it may be that AI can help them get a little bit of info first to understand what their options and avenues are before they feel ready to speak to a person. We never want AI to replace that human interaction, but I can see a place for it.”

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