Cyberattack Inspires Agency to Move to Cloud in 5 Days
July 26, 2024 by Lexi Belvis
In public safety agencies throughout the United States, IT departments are stretched thin. The city of Germantown, Tennessee — a suburb of 40,000 outside of Memphis — faced that same constraint.
On top of regular support duties for the Germantown PD and local government agencies, the complex and time-consuming server and infrastructure maintenance required for security compliance was difficult to manage.
Because of these staffing constraints and security concerns, the Germantown IT’s department’s sights were set on migrating all systems to the cloud. However, the timeline for moving their public safety systems to the cloud was blown out of the water when the worst-case scenario struck: a cybersecurity incident.
“We had planned to move our public safety systems to the cloud in 2025, but a cybersecurity incident accelerated our plans,” Tony Fischer, director of information technology for the City of Germantown, said. “The incident took our systems down, and we were pretty much dead in the water.”
While the city’s 911 systems were still available, the core network that hosted several key systems — including the Germantown Police Department’s computer aided dispatch (CAD) system — was taken offline, severely impacting the agency’s ability to serve its community. The agency took the opportunity to move its Enterprise CAD system to the cloud as a recovery option.
“After the incident, we engaged Tyler for help,” Fischer said. “They suggested moving to the cloud as a way to get our systems back up and running, and we ran with it. It was something we had already planned to do.”
After finalizing the contracts, Germantown and Tyler worked together to migrate the CAD system to the cloud in just five days.
“We delivered 30 years of data to Tyler on a Monday, and by Friday, we had a working CAD system,” Fischer said. “I certainly wouldn’t recommend that timeline for a migration, but in this case, Tyler was there for us when we needed them, and we were able to recover and get back up and running very quickly.”
Fischer noted that there was a significant difference in how the city’s cloud-based systems were impacted by the incident verses on-premises systems. "All of our existing cloud-based systems — both Tyler and non-Tyler — were available again within a day. It was a very different experience.”
The best advice I can give to any agency considering the cloud is: Do it. Life really is much better in the cloud.
Tony Fischer
Director of Information Technology, City of Germantown, Tennessee
Although the cybersecurity incident was harrowing, the shift to the cloud had a silver lining. Aside from getting systems up and running during a time of need, the extended benefits of cloud-hosted public safety software have been evident.
“For one, I’m sleeping a lot better at night,” Fischer said. “As a small organization, it’s difficult to compete against well-funded, well-trained cyber criminals. I never want to go through that again, so we’re glad our cybersecurity posture has been greatly improved.”
Fischer shared that the city’s IT staff has also recognized the value of the cloud.
“My team is ecstatic about being in the cloud,” Fischer said. “Many agencies and IT folks might be hesitant, but my team is thrilled not to have to deal with late-night reboots or 2 a.m. calls. Those disruptive phone calls in the middle of the night aren't happening anymore. They're able to focus on strategic tasks and make sure our clients are getting the most out of their software.”
Since the transition, the city has also experienced a more proactive approach to software issues.
“We've only been in the cloud for a short time, but even in that period, we've encountered issues that were resolved automatically. I come in the morning, check my email, and see a notice that a problem was detected, a ticket was generated, and it was fixed — all without anyone even knowing there was an issue,” Fischer said. “The best advice I can give to any agency considering the cloud is: Do it. Life really is much better in the cloud.”
Interested in exploring cloud technology for your agency? Learn more about Tyler’s industry-leading, cloud-hosted public safety suite.