EDITOR’S QUESTION
ISLAM ZEIDAN, GENERAL MANAGER UAE
AND MEAD, TERADATA
Smart Cities aim to provide a wide
range of benefits such as better
transportation, waste management,
energy management, which will
considerably improve the living
standards for the citizens. The challenge
is to acknowledge that there are a set
of issues and concerns that need to be
addressed, and to adopt solutions to
these that also enable the benefits of
smart city technologies to be gained.
Smart city models should boost
development while not compromising
on data privacy and security. Smart
city deployments involve multi-
faceted developments, carried out
by a diverse ecosystem of providers
involving cutting-edge technology
including critical and complex ICT
implementations.
A critical component of a well-run smart
city is its governance and management
structure and processes. Governance
provides the framework through which
strategic direction is deliberated and
set, and regulation and oversight
administered. On the other hand
management consists of leading and
driving forward initiatives and stewarding
the day-today running of services.
Public–Private Partnerships (PPP)
according to the World Bank are
typically medium to long term
arrangements between the public and
private sectors whereby some of the
service obligations of the public sector
are provided by the private sector, with
clear agreement on shared objectives
for the delivery of public infrastructure
and/ or public services. Smart PPP
www.intelligentcio.com
contracts including the use of smart
technologies may be established
in Smart City projects such as the
installation of a network of sensors or
the development of Open Data policies,
data leakage protection, analysing and
mitigating cyber threats etc.
In developing Smart Cities, the local
government may partner both with
big service and technology providers,
as well as with small and medium-
sized local enterprises or start-ups.
Smart PPPs may involve comprehensive
reforms of the legislation and
procurement procedures. There is a
wide range of legal arrangements
available for the different parties to
enter into a partnership for better
implementation of secure
Smart Cities.
However, increasing ICT complexity
implies increasing vulnerability, both
to malicious attacks and unintentional
incidents. By having a robust security
and information protection framework
and policies in place, safety for both
citizens and enterprises can be ensured.
It is now important to develop the
good practices identified so far, to
build on and conceptually enhance
the suggested solutions. Once the
solutions are deployed in practice,
these need to be evaluated in turn and
iterative learning processes needs to
be applied.
To aid in implementation and
governance of the smart city projects,
the government can enter into Public
Private Partnerships, to employ the
expertise of the private sector in order
to deliver the benefits of smart
cities efficiency. ¡
INTELLIGENTCIO
77