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A technology and IT partnership between a number of Gwent public bodies is to move its data to a cloud-based system.
The services are currently hosted on site at the SRS, or Shared Resource Service, which has a base at the Gilchrist Thomas Industrial Estate in Blaenavon.
Why is Caerphilly in Gwent?
Caerphilly County Borough was formed on April 1, 1996, by the merger of the Rhymney Valley district of Mid Glamorgan with the Islwyn borough of Gwent.
Administratively, for local services such as the police and health, the borough now falls under a wider region referred to as Gwent. This comprises the council areas of Caerphilly, Newport, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire.
The service supports Gwent Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office, along with Monmouthshire, Newport, Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent councils.
It will move to a cloud-based system that will cost around £475,000 a year – which can be achieved with no increase to the overall budget.
The move comes after the six partners consolidated their data centres at a cost of £1.44m when that project was completed in January 2023.
Continuing with on-premises infrastructure would likely require a significant future capital investment. A cloud-based system will also help the service reduce its carbon emissions, as there will be a reduction in energy use with it no longer operating its own data centre.
The SRS will transfer to the cloud-based service over the next 15 to 18 months with a three to five year contract at £475,000 a year. It will also reduce its annual capital budget to £169,000, a saving on the current £244,000 put aside annually for periodic hardware refreshes.
The total annual budget will remain at around £644,000.
Staff will also be able to access systems and data from anywhere, which will support more agile and remote working, while the partner bodies will no longer be at risk of relying on aging or unsupported hardware.
IT staff could also have to upskill to handle the cloud technologies but will receive training. The change is described, in a decision report, as providing an opportunity for more “interesting and strategic work”.
It also says “careful planning” and contractual safeguards will manage potential risks around data security, regulatory compliance, service outages, or vendor lock-in.
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