Issue - meetings

To receive a report which outlines the requirement to deliver a new data centre solution.

Michael Lloyd (Head of Technology Strategy and Commissioning), Mark Garbett (Portfolio Assurance Manager), Rebecca Spore (Director of Infrastructure) and Vincent Godfrey (Strategic Commissioner) were in attendance for this item.

1.    Mr Hotson (Cabinet Member for Corporate and Democratic Services) and Mr Lloyd introduced the report which outlined the requirement to deliver a new data centre solution which would allow Kent County Council to exit from its existing primary data centre in Sessions House and backup data centre in Medway.

a)    In response to a question, Mr Lloyd said that by delivering the new data centre solution, Kent County Council’s projected costs and saving targets within the Medium-Term Financial Plan would be met. Resilience would be removed from County Hall and power outages would be avoided.

b)    In response to a question, Mr Lloyd discussed the data centre’s current arrangements and said that the new data centres would be set up in a commercial space in two geographic locations. If a system were to fail, data would immediately be transferred to the back-up location to prevent disruption.

c)    In response to a question, Mr Lloyd said that Kent County Council would buy data centre space from companies that supplied data centre services. He reassured Members of the Committee that external users would not be able to access Kent County Council’s equipment or data as it remained a closed network environment.

d)    In response to a question, Mr Lloyd explained the need for the new data centre solution and said that Medway had sought to withdraw from data centre services. He said that if there was no back-up data centre, the risk of losing data and experiencing outages would increase.

e)    In response to a question, Mr Hotson said that although there was a sufficient amount of space in County Hall, running costs were high. He said that a report would be brought to a future meeting of the Committee to discuss the utilisation of Sessions House.

f)     In response to a question, Mr Lloyd said that through cloud computing, the majority of Kent County Council’s services were hosted in Microsoft data centres in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He said that there were legacy applications within Kent County Council which could not be put into the cloud. Mr Lloyd said that the main saving would be through the decreasing amount of space required within the two separate locations.

g)    In response to a question, Mr Lloyd confirmed that the decision to exit the current Data Centre estate would cost £1million which would be spent over the duration of the contract, this cost was instead of what was currently being spent. Mr Lloyd said that he would provide a cost illustration to Members of the Committee outside of the meeting.

h)    In response to a question, Ms Spore and Mr Godfrey explained the savings that would be made, and the current utility costs incurred within county hall.

2.    RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Corporate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104