How a considered approach to digital transformation can enhance the cash-strapped public sector

IT infrastructure spending in the UK public sector is under scrutiny as the government tackles fiscal challenges, such as the £40bn in tax rises recently announced in the Autumn Budget.

Major projects have had to be cancelled, and even the smallest departmental expenditures have needed approval from ministers. But in the context of digital transformation, where do the government’s ambitions lie?

Digital transformation projects have seen slow progress. Central government IT infrastructure is siloed, outdated and costly, leading it to stifle innovation and prevent advances in service provision. Unlike the private sector, public sector organisations lack centralised technical teams, resulting in missed opportunities for economies of scale and shared expertise. This also means that the advantages posed by emerging technologies, such as AI, are not being considered.

The public sector, including Whitehall departments, has explored the advantages posed by public cloud providers to achieve cost, agility and innovation gains. However, as priorities change, these ambitions fall by the wayside. There are also significant concerns about the data implications, hidden costs and lack of data sovereignty that could result from such a move.

The value of a hybrid approach

The public sector shouldn’t react to these innovation challenges by delaying their digital projects. Instead, a hybrid approach can provide a balanced way forward. This method acknowledges the complexities involved in migrating to the cloud, especially for workloads that are extremely sensitive or critical to public services.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has already demonstrated the value of a careful, hybrid approach. Tasked with modernising its vast IT estate, the DWP transitioned back-office applications to the private cloud over nine months. This was achieved by combining cloud services with the efficiency of modern data centres, supported by Crown Hosting, ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted transformation.

Crucially, DWP benefit from Crown Hosting’s advanced and highly energy-efficient data centre cooling systems used in combination with private cloud. These centres house thousands of racks and spend only 15 pence of every pound on electricity for cooling, significantly lower than the industry average. According to the DWP’s analysis, this strategy has resulted in annual savings of around £150 million, enabling re-investment in further digital transformation and simultaneous public cloud adoption. DWP’s experience illustrates the substantial benefits that other departments could realise by adopting a similar considered hybrid approach.

The efficiency and sustainability gains from modern IT infrastructure

While the case of DWP reveals significant progress, most public sector organisations IT server rooms are tiny with 4 racks or less. The electricity required for the air-conditioning used in these rooms is many multiples of the considerable energy used to power the IT. Compared to efficient facilities, such as those of Crown Hosting, the inefficiency of small server rooms wastes electricity, and so money and carbon emissions. But this made worse by under-funded facility maintenance, security systems and under-resourced teams that don’t have the capacity to effectively manage the estate. These challenges are coming together to block progress towards the UK’s target of net-zero government emissions by 2050 and impedes organisations from meeting their own emissions reduction goals.

Instead, with workloads in efficient data centres, like those of Crown Hosting, that are powered by 100% renewable energy, digital transformation in the public sector can take tangible steps forward in a cost effective and environmentally-conscious way. Modern data centres also offer technical and security support overcoming the endemic public sector problems of under-funded facilities and overstretched IT teams.

The benefits provided by economies of scale

Another key benefit to the public sector of Crown Hosting is the ability to benefit from the economy of scale, for example the equivalent of 11,000 racks to a site. Crown Hosting is a UK public sector joint venture, providing services as if all the different organisations needing such space were a single procuring entity, prices are controlled, and profits are returned to the public purse. This enables the public sector to affordably access advanced technology, such as AI, services, security and important for the IT within data centres ‘electricity’. The low monetary and carbon emissions cost of Crown Hosting makes it a practical option for organisations trying to reduce both whilst also advancing their technological capability.

The sector is steadily moving towards public cloud adoption, but it still has a long way to go. While organisations determine their optimal path to public cloud adoption, relocating servers to more cost-effective and sustainable facilities provides immediate benefits. Over time, workloads can be moved into the cloud step by step (traditional, private, hybrid, public) – a process more likely to deliver the desired results, particularly for sensitive or complex workloads where rapid migration to public cloud without the application development to reduce costs, then often cost more per month than before migration.

Preparing for the future

With technology evolving at such a rapid pace, a hybrid approach to digital transformation also assists the public sector with integrating new solutions. Modern data centres utilise algorithms to manage energy consumption in cooling systems and servers. This enables sectors such as higher education to better manage power use with needed access to advanced computing on a 24-hour basis. This optimisation of energy is also highly suited to the intensive demands posed by AI solutions, which are offering capabilities such as improved decision-making, streamlined workflows and advanced data analysis.

The right partnerships are essential to achieving these benefits. Cost isn’t the only factor that departments need to consider when making this choice. Sustainability, contract flexibility and tailored solutions are also important, which all help to overcome the fragmented approach that has previously stifled digital transformation efforts.

A gradual approach, without spikes in expenditure, is a necessity in a time of significant squeezes on public finances. Now, the public sector can traverse their digital transformation hurdles with a considered shift away from inefficient, ad hoc infrastructure and a move towards incremental, strategic changes that lay the groundwork for achieving long-term digital ambitions.


About the Author

Jason Liggins is CEO at 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.

Featured image: Adobe Stock

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