Hounslow Council is set to save £312,000 over three years by migrating more of its computing infrastructure to cloud services. The council is migrating on-premises server-based computing capabilities and data storage
from the Hounslow House data centre to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The move was approved by Councillor Shantanu Rajawat, Leader of the Council and Portfolio holder for Strategy, Resources and External Affairs, through a three-year contract with Cirrus Limited for AWS, with a revised total contract value of £1,226,000. The decision is documented in the Public reports pack and the Award of Cloud Computing Contract.
The contract leverages the One Government Value Agreement (OGVA) to secure discounted pricing for public sector organisations. The decision aims to reduce costs and improve efficiency as the council continues its digital transformation.
The council is moving a significant portion of its computing infrastructure from the Hounslow House data centre to AWS. The OGVA guarantees a minimum 22% discount against the standard pricing model, potentially reaching up to 24%. According to the Public reports pack, the council anticipates meeting its commitment through planned migration and future growth in data and service adoption, including Artificial Intelligence.
In addition to the £312,000 savings in AWS expenditure, the move to cloud computing is expected to reduce the power bill in Hounslow House by £14,580 per year. This will contribute to the council's climate emergency goals, specifically its commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2030, as outlined in the Public reports pack.
Mark Lumley, Director of Digital, IT and Resilience, confirmed that the management of personal data will be robustly governed by the new contract, with internal controls to ensure compliance with data protection legislation. The specific details of these internal controls and how they will be monitored were not provided.