Purpose

The programme will migrate suitable applications and services from legacy on-premises infrastructure to cloud-based solutions.

Decision

Approval to proceed with the Cloud Migration Programme with a total capital budget of £1,100,000, as outlined in the Initial Business Case submitted. Fully funded from an earmarked capital reserves approved by Cabinet in February 2025 (£150,000) and February 2026 (£950,000).

Ongoing revenue costs for migrated systems will remain with the original system owner.

The cost of each migration will be confirmed through supplier quotes, for approval by the Cloud Migration Programme Board.

Reasons for the decision

The decision supports the Technology Strategy 2025–28 by enabling planned migration to cloud-based services, reducing technical debt and future data-centre dependency, improving resilience and security, and preparing the technology estate for future organisational change.

Alternative options considered

Approval reflects the preferred option (Option 3 – Do Maximum): migrate all applications where possible from the data centre.

Other options considered:
Option 1 – Do Nothing: rejected because it would retain legacy infrastructure risks and require further major data-centre investment.
Option 2 – Do Minimum: rejected because a partial migration would retain a complex hybrid estate and still require future hardware and operating-system refresh.