Surrey County Council meets business challenges head on; ensuring recovery & continuity of critical public services when it matters most

The Challenge

In local government, there is constant pressure to reduce costs. Surrey Council was facing exceptional financial challenges as a result of cuts in government grants and an increase in demand for services. IT & Digital needed to ensure business continuity and maintain service availability across its cloud datacentre environments but were faced with the conflicting expectations of not compromising service levels, particularly in the critical public-facing areas, and all whilst reducing operational costs. The council needed a reliable partner to provide specialised expertise and consultancy that would address the challenges it was facing:

• Reliable recovery for council critical business services
• Enhance & support in-house skills
• Specialised skills & expertise to advise, project manage & implement changes from conception to execution
• Guidance on compliance & governance standards

Solution

Celerity Professional Services engaged with the council to understand the challenges it was facing and provided expert consultancy to help alleviate pressures being imposed on the department:

• Disaster Recovery for IBM Power Environment including set up & quarterly testing with continual adaptation to changing business requirements
• SAP Assistance for system migrations
• Patch Management to gain visibility, continuous control & protection for critical assets
• Infrastructure Management – Systems & Storage Upgrade Paths, Planning & Implementation
• Compliance – Software & Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)
• Tape Library Patching & Upgrade
• Consultancy & Support – IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (now Spectrum Protect)

Results

• Surrey County Council is now able to provide the resilience required for the business. It has effective and reliable recovery plans in place in the event of a disaster, supported by a robust IT infrastructure to cope with such an event; ensuring business-critical services are protected and highly available when it matters most.
• Reduced operational overheads & future-proofing – cost-effective technology & support allowing the council to plan for the future; a high-value requirement of the Council
• Peace of mind and confidence in the knowledge that fundamental processes are now in place using ‘best of breed’ solutions running at highest availability.
• High-level technical & professional support to deliver value on technology and service-led projects with a firm focus on driving out both technical and commercial risk in order to maximise efficiency for the council.