Issue details

The Council is migrating its ICT systems to the Microsoft Azure cloud as part of its exit from the Civic Centre’s data centre. However, some of the Council’s legacy systems are unsuitable for cloud migration due to technical limitations, the age of the applications, or unsupported software from third-party vendors. These systems are still critical to the Council’s operations and replacing them with modern cloud-compatible solutions is neither financially nor logistically feasible.

Given this, the most cost-effective solution is to procure scalable Dell hardware to host these systems on-site. This scalable approach allows the Council to maintain flexibility, as the proposed hardware solution can accommodate any future cloud optimisation reviews that demonstrate benefits in moving systems back on-premise—whether for cost efficiency or performance improvements.

The new Dell hardware will be installed in the Spindles offices to facilitate the planned shutdown of the Civic Centre’s data centre without disrupting the functionality of these legacy systems. It also offers a more modern, energy-efficient, and reliable infrastructure than the end-of-life/support hardware currently in place.