Half of London councils to refresh outdated IT

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request conducted by HyperGrid has revealed that over half of London boroughs are currently planning to replace their IT infrastructure.

The Enterprise Cloud-as-a-Service leader found that of the 30 London boroughs that responded to the FOI request, 53 per cent said they are currently planning an infrastructure refresh project, with a further 20 per cent in the process of rolling out a refresh.

Additionally, 16.5 per cent of local authorities in the capital cited outdated infrastructure as the biggest challenge in the data centre, which was more than any other challenge listed in the survey.

Off the back of 43 per cent of boroughs claiming that they would consider a consumption or subscription-based model, Doug Rich, vice president of EMEA at HyperGrid, recommended that local authorities give a thought to take a consumption-based approach to IT, as it provides a ‘more agile’ method in updating infrastructure - whether that be in the form of ‘cloud-based services, including email, apps or the government’s G-Cloud procurement system’.

Rich said: “The FoI findings provide a clear indicator of a need for change and modernisation in local government IT estates. Legacy systems are no longer capable of coping with the challenges brought about by budget cuts, increased demand for higher-quality services and reorganisation to fit the changing role of local government.

“The focus on quality is a crucial one: local government can no longer afford to settle for solutions that simply ‘get the job done’. The demands of digital transformation and ever-increasing workloads mean that IT infrastructure needs to be high-performing yet flexible to rapidly changing requirements.

“Local authorities should be aiming to consign the old ways of consuming IT to the past. Casting off traditional vendor lock-ins for a more flexible approach brings greater opportunities for a more cost-effective service. Digital transformation is placing a significant amount of strain on both public and private sector organisations, and local government cannot afford to be left behind.”