2024: Police national options for use of Cloud Technology
12-week focussed commission as part of a wider consortium where BlueprintCo’s focus was police engagement and analysis
Challenge
Policing in the UK faced significant barriers in adopting cloud technology, despite its potential to enhance efficiency, security, and operational agility. Forces operated with fragmented IT infrastructures, legacy systems, and inconsistent digital strategies, making national coordination difficult.
Concerns around data sovereignty, security, and legal compliance further complicated cloud adoption, particularly for handling sensitive law enforcement data. Additionally, a lack of clear national guidance led to varying levels of understanding and confidence in cloud-based solutions.
The client sought to establish a coherent national picture of policing’s cloud readiness and identify how cloud capabilities could best support law enforcement operations.
Approach
We conducted a structured, multi-phase study. This included national stakeholder engagement, bringing together policing leaders, technical specialists, and operational users to capture diverse perspectives. We carried out in-depth interviews, surveys, and workshops to assess current cloud usage, barriers, and future needs across forces.
Our team also examined legal, security, and operational considerations, aligning findings with national digital policing strategies.
By mapping out challenges and opportunities, we developed practical options and recommendations for how cloud capabilities could be effectively deployed to support law enforcement at scale.
Impact
The commission provided policing with a comprehensive, evidence-based understanding of cloud adoption across UK law enforcement. It highlighted key barriers, from security concerns to operational challenges, and offered clear, actionable recommendations for overcoming them.
A critical outcome of this work was the recognition that operational need must drive cloud adoption, rather than technology shaping requirements. To support this, the team developed a structured assessment framework to help forces evaluate their needs and determine the best-fit solution—whether on-premises, private cloud, public cloud, or a hybrid approach. This framework ensures that future cloud decisions are aligned with policing’s mission-critical requirements, balancing security, scalability, and operational effectiveness.