Agenda item

Data Centre Business Case

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Resources.

Minutes:

Councillor W. Hodgins declared an interest in this item but remained in the meeting whilst it was discussed.

 

Members considered the report of the Chief Officer Resources.

 

The Chief Officer Resources spoke in detail to the report and highlighted the salient points contained therein. The purpose of the report was to:

 

     i.        Present the Business Case for the relocation of the SRS Data Centre at Blaenavon to Next Generation Data (NGD) in Newport.

    ii.        Agree the transfer of Blaenau Gwent’s Data (currently housed at the Computer Room in the Civic Centre and the Data Centre at Blaenavon) to NGD.

  iii.        Agree the Blaenau Gwent element of the capital and revenue investment required to progress the project.

 

The Chief Officer Resources explained that the physical data centre at Blaenavon was established to house the IT servers required to host the software systems for the original partners of the SRS and it also currently housed the NHS Wales Informatics Service, however, this contact would shortly be coming to an end.  However, upon Blaenau Gwent and Newport joining the SRS, the business cases for both Blaenau Gwent and Newport had included an agreement that all servers would be transferred to the data centre at Blaenavon but to date there had been limited progress made.

 

The physical data centre at Blaenavon had been an asset for the SRS and partners for the last 10 years but without investment the data centre was assessed as a very high risk for all SRS partners as a result of environmental factors.  It was noted that £2.6m investment was required over the next 4-year period.  In addition, the computer room at the Civic Centre was not built to data centre standards and wasalso considered a very high risk due to building concerns and age of the equipment (coming to the end of its useful life) and would require investment to improve the resilience of the provision into the future.   Furthermore, the Council was currently considering the future of the Civic Centre which may result in alternative location(s) needing to be considered to house the IT infrastructure supporting all Blaenau Gwent services.

 

In July 2020 the SRS Strategic Board agreed an SRS Strategy to 2026 with a shared aspiration towards a ‘cloud’ based provision away from an on premise data centre and as a consequence of this it was expected that there would be a decreasing need but an increasing cost for an on premise data centre provision, therefore, future alternative provision had been explored.

 

The Chief Officer Resources, thereupon, gave details of the 4 options outlined in the business case together with the revenue/capital and decommissioning costs and funding arrangements attributed thereto.  The 4 options were:

 

-      Option 1 – Business as Usual

-      Option 2 – Do Minimum

-      Option 3 – Reduce to a Single Hall in Blaenavon

-      Option 4 (Preferred Option) – Alternative Provision

 

Paragraph 5.1.9 (table 1) summarised the financial implications of each of the options. The SRS Strategic Board and Finance and Governance Board had considered the business case and recommended Option 4 because the other options were considered to be too high a cost.  Both options 3 and 4 would result in reduced costs, however the capital investment required for option 4 was significantly lower.

 

For Blaenau Gwent, this would result in a slight increase for Option 4 in revenue costs of £11,000 for the first few years - this was based on the current assessment of rack space but as services moved to the ‘cloud’ it was expected that this cost would reduce over time.  In addition, Option 4 would require an initial capital investment of £361,000 compared to £508,000 for Option 3.  

 

It was noted that the Council had agreed £240,000 capital funding allocation in October 2019 for electrical and IT works at the Civic Centre and there was currently £209,000 remaining within that allocation.  It was, therefore, proposed that this allocation be repurposed and supplemented by £152,000 from capital contingency to fund the initial investment requirements.  It was also proposed in order to ensure the sustainability of the core infrastructure, that £61,000 be built into the capital programme moving forward to allow for necessary equipment replacement.

 

The views of Members were, thereupon, sought regarding the business case.

 

The Chief Officer Resources confirmed that the business case had been approved by the other SRS partners.

 

In reply to a question, the Chief Officer Resources advised that she was unsure with regard to the future plans of Gwent Police and stated that the business case had been developed, treating SRS partners and Gwent Police separately.  The proposed move to NGD would have no impact on future costs for Blaenau Gwent and other partners as a result of any change to operations by Gwent Police because if agreed and the move to NGD took place, the authority would only pay for servers that would actually be used.  However, this would be a different situation if the infrastructure remained at the Data Hall in Blaenavon and Gwent Police relocated because other partners would have to fund an additional proportion of the fixed operating costs.

 

It was unanimously,

 

RESOLVED, subject to the foregoing, that the report be accepted and Option 4 – Alternate Provision be endorsed, namely the Data Centre Move to NGD Newport (including the move of existing services from the Civic Centre) and associated investment required (capital & revenue).

 

Supporting documents: