Catch up on this month’s round-up of the latest hosting and tech news. Here’s what we’ve uncovered since our last edition.
Drone First Responders
Norfolk Constabulary is to start a five-week trial of a new ‘Drone as First Responder’ system in a bid to improve how it responds to incidents. The trial will see drones based across the county flown remotely to incidents, giving officers live aerial views before teams arrive on the ground.
Operated by specially trained officers, the drones can help find missing people, follow suspects, search large areas and assess incidents as they develop. With live footage, the police can better understand what is happening, spot possible risks and send officers and other resources where most needed.
The new system will be used alongside Norfolk Constabulary’s existing drones, which are already regularly deployed to support police operations across the county.
NI Tech Boom
Strong demand for data centre equipment is helping to drive growth in Northern Ireland’s manufacturing sector, according to new official figures.
While UK manufacturing output grew by 1.2% in the second quarter, compared with the same period last year, Northern Ireland’s output rose by 9%. In the tech sector, meanwhile, NI companies manufacturing computer, electronic, electrical and optical products saw output increase by almost 28%.
Northern Ireland also has several businesses that produce specialist power systems for data centres. With data centres needing large, reliable electricity supplies to run AI systems and cloud-based services, these companies have expanded as demand for their equipment has risen. The strong manufacturing figures also reflect a growing demand for the data storage equipment produced at Seagate’s Londonderry factory.
Robot Boat Crosses Atlantic
A robotic sailing boat built by Plymouth-based maritime technology company, Oshen, has crossed the Atlantic Ocean unaided. Travelling almost 3,000 nautical miles, the 4ft C-Star PC13 spent more than four months at sea as it completed the Microtransat Challenge from Gran Canaria to Barbados.
Using solar panels to power its sensors and control its fixed sail, the boat can respond to changing wind conditions while travelling on its own. At sea, Oshen’s C-Star boats can also carry sensors for defence and monitoring work. This includes protecting undersea cables and pipelines, detecting illegal fishing, tracking other vessels, and collecting information about the ocean, climate and wildlife.
The successful crossing shows that small autonomous boats, like the C-Star PC13, can offer low-cost, long-term monitoring in remote areas.
AI Overspending
According to research by Spendesk, while European businesses are spending much more on AI and software, many are struggling to keep costs under control. AI spending has increased by 340% over the past year, with companies also spending an average of about £213,000 a year on software.
The research found that the main issues were duplicate spending and unused software. Around 72% of organisations that use AI pay for two or more tools that do similar jobs, while, on average, businesses only use 49% of the software licences they pay for.
By removing unnecessary overlaps, Spendesk estimates that European businesses could save almost £6 billion, including nearly £400 million for small UK businesses. AI costs are also becoming less predictable, with many companies seeing large changes in their bills from one month to the next.
The findings suggest that businesses need a clearer view of how they buy and use software and AI as adoption grows. Instead of simply cutting the number of tools, organisations should look at whether their spending is delivering worthwhile business benefits, such as improving efficiency, supporting customers or contributing to commercial growth.
School Cyberdefence
The number of cyberattacks on schools and colleges in England has fallen for the second year in a row, according to new figures from Ofqual. About 27% of schools experienced a cyber incident during the 2025 to 2026 academic year, down from 29% the year before and 34% in 2023/2024. Schools are also recovering at a quicker pace, with 66% able to restore systems immediately after an incident.
Despite the improvement, schools remain common targets for cybercriminals as they hold large amounts of personal information and have limited budgets for cybersecurity. Recent incidents have disrupted school networks and, in some cases, resulted in data loss.
In response, more than half of secondary schools have already introduced measures such as formal cybersecurity policies, risk assessments and backup and recovery procedures. Ofqual is also encouraging schools to strengthen their cyber resilience further by making sure staff know how to respond when incidents occur and ensuring that important systems and data can be recovered quickly.
Visit the WHUK website for more news, knowledge base articles, blog posts and information on our wide range of services.
