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Managing the data explosion
The traditional architecture for data storage involves estimating how much data will be required in the future and then migrating everything in the current system to a new one. But is this the best way to approach data storage in this data-hungry world, and are there any alternative solutions that are more cost-efficient? Jose Sanchez de Muniain talks to Jeff Ready, CEO of Scale Computing, a US company that addresses this issue and which has announced its first UK customer – the London Metropolitan Archives.
Monitoring patient turnaround time
South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) is the first NHS Trust to install a new patient handover system developed by ambulance services technology specialist Intergraph – and is measuring patient turnaround performance improvements of 50.7% (at Queen Alexandra Hospital), 47.1% (at Wexham Hospital) and 29.4% (Southampton General Hospital) where the system has gone live.
Welsh Ambulance hits the Airwaves
The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust (WAST) has recently completed the roll out of the Ambulance Radio
Replacement Project (ARRP) across the whole of Wales. All emergency medical service (EMS) vehicles, patient care
service (PCS) vehicles and all three air ambulance helicopters are now using the Airwave service for all operational
communications. Jim Abernethy, Principal Communications Consultant, Hyder Consulting, writes.
Maximising resources
Dr Socrates Varakliotis, Mohamed Ahmed, Renzo De Nardi, and Stephen Hailes of UCL write on the potential usage
of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems that have been enhanced with cognitive ratio resource management
techniques to operate autonomously in flash-crowd scenarios.
Share large documents securely
Whether it is medical information, military reports or other large confidential documents, government agencies continue to struggle with growing e-mail security and bandwidth concerns, writes Dr Paul Steiner, Managing Director (EMEA) of secure file transfer specialist company Accellion.
Testing your sat links
The fact that not all satellite phones are suitable for all applications was acutely highlighted by a comparison report carried out recently by Frost and Sullivan. Jose Maria Sanchez de Muniain interviewed Don Thoma, executive vice president (marketing) of Iridium – the company who commissioned the independent evaluation report – to find out why differently satellite solutions can vary so widely.
FireLink goes live
Mark Pearson, Account Director, Airwave, discusses the benefits that the FireLink programme is bringing to the fire and rescue services across Britain as the service goes live across the nation.
Policing in times of austerity
Can police do the same job on a much lower budget? Intergraph’s Nick Chorley says they can – and explains how.
The days of the ICCS are numbered
Many legacy control room technologies will need to be refreshed within the next five years, but are ICCS platforms
still fit for purpose? Analysys Mason suggests that a new technology – the ESB – could deliver systems that are
simpler, more powerful, more flexible and more cost effective. John Wittams, Lead Consultant with Analysys Mason,
explains why the days of the ICCS as we know it are numbered.
Q&A: The view from the ground
Just getting to where it is today has taken a tremendous amount of work for all parties involved. Jose Maria Sanchez de Muniain talks with Kevin Robson, North East Regional Control Centre Director, FiReControl, about some of the challenges.
FiReControl – where next?
The Labour flagship project to move England and Wales’s fire service’s command and control rooms into nine dedicated high tech facilities – FiReControl – hovers in limbo as high level discussions continue between the various parties involved. A decision is imminent and the question on everyone’s lips remains – has FiReControl died, survived, or will it be revived? Jose Maria Sanchez de Muniain gets the views from some stakeholders.
Exemplary data integration
Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service has recently been presented with a prestigious national award for the work it has done integrating address data across its back office systems and frontline service delivery – the only emergency service organisation to be selected as a recipient of a 2010 NLPG Exemplar Award. Business Information Manager Nicola Smith explains what it’s all about and what it means to the service.
