Headline – UK Government renews Crown Hosting agreement for a further seven years, featuring a new framework and shared hybrid private cloud model for the Public Sector.

Corsham, England – November 24, 2022 – Following an in-depth market assessment by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), Crown Hosting is proud to announce that one of the most successful joint ventures with the UK Government has been renewed for a further 7-year period, with extensive benefits to the UK Public Sector.

Since its inception in 2015, Crown Hosting has become known for assisting public sector organisations on their digital transformation journey by addressing the legacy technical IT infrastructure debt built up over a number of years. In addition, Crown Hosting has significantly over delivered in terms of savings; approximately £2 billion in taxpayer’s money and a 99% reduction in CO2 emissions.

Building on these successes, Framework II promises to go even further. Steve Hall, CEO commented “Since the setup of the first framework in 2015, we recognise that the market has matured significantly, particularly due to the challenges, dependencies, mapping, and complexity presented by IT infrastructure legacy debt. The expectation that everything will go to the Public Cloud has proven too complex for most organisations and is taking too long to deliver, so it’s imperative that the services we offer, evolve to reflect the needs of our clients and the technical solutions available in the market. We need to keep innovating”.

Under the new agreement, Crown Hosting can now provide additional discovery and Project Management skills along with migration services, designed to support customers who struggle with resource, data discovery, mapping estates, identifying interdependencies and find cost effective procurement routes. Other changes include the incorporation of new legislation (GDPR, PPN, updated procurement processes), enhanced support services, increased detailed reporting on security, social values, energy use, CO2 reporting, sustainability, and enhanced information assurance.

Bringing the cloud to Crown

The use of utility-based models through large hyper-scalers has proven to be challenging for the public sector, particularly for sensitive workloads. Potential loss of data control can inhibit transformation to the cloud, together with unpredictable costs, and lack of data sovereignty. The introduction of a new shared infrastructure in Framework II, allows hyper-scalers to bring the cloud into the Crown campuses, eradicating the traditional challenges of security, proximity and latency when transitioning legacy technology.

The new shared hybrid model also promises to give customers control and transparency of data, while enabling the ability to use cloud tools such as AI, machine learning, within the secure environment of government assured data centres. Creating one home for data sovereignty, combined with the opportunity for public sector organisations to choose the right cloud platform, to deliver the right outcome, at the right cost, while alleviating the pressure to rush services to the public cloud.

Further developments include a new Industry Customer Pathway (ICP) which opens the door for partners and systems integrators to benefit from the new framework on behalf of any public sector organisation.

Said Hall “Framework II offers plenty to be excited about. We know that even in a tough economic climate, we have managed to create an offering with nothing but upside for the public sector. In over 7 years, we have consistently helped our customers reduce their electricity costs by 75% and carbon emissions by 99%. The pricing has stayed extremely competitive, regularly benchmarked, helping protect tax-payers money, combatting the cost of living and empowering our customers to re-invest those savings into public services”.

“With the help of CCS’ market engagement and our customers feedback, we’ve listened and are in a unique position to provide a dynamic digital transformation platform, with a shared hybrid private cloud, enabling our customers to work at their own pace and to plan for predictable outcomes”.

“We’re proud of our achievements through the last 7 years. As we begin what promises to be a new, exciting period of transformation for the UK government, our aim is to ensure the new framework benefits everyone, from our existing customers to those yet to join us on our journey”.

About Crown Hosting

Crown Hosting Data Centres Limited is a unique joint venture between the Cabinet Office and Ark Data Centres dedicated to serving the Public Sector. Together we are the trusted partner of the UK Government delivering increased efficiency, improved value, and transparency of Data Centre Services.

Combined, we bring the Government assurance, integrity and capabilities of the Public Sector, unified with the speed of execution and flexibility of the Private Sector.

Our partnership empowers the UK Government aspiration for ‘Cloud Appropriate Digital Transformation’, regardless of the size of organisation or where you are on your journey.

We offer all Public Sector organisations the same foundation to create and inspire change, opportunities to transform, move forward, consolidate infrastructure, and migrate to new platforms using a more efficient and cost-effective model.

For more information please visit: https://crownhostingdc.co.uk/

Please send all press related enquiries to lee.harris@arkdatacentres.co.uk