Ministry of Defence takes G-Cloud route for new data centre

G-Cloud data centre contract with Ark will save money and carbon emissions, claims MoD

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has turned to the G-Cloud framework to procure a new data centre - with Ark Data Centres winning the contract to build the new facility in Corsham, Wiltshire.

The contract, initially signed for a two-year period, is intended to support the delivery of IT services to the civil servants at the MoD, but will be smaller and more efficient, according to Ark.

"We surveyed the existing MoD data centre and designed an Ark environment that is far smaller, more flexible and accommodates all of the department's needs, future-proofed with room to grow," said Ark CIO Steve Webb.

"This includes a link to the MoD's Information Systems and Services (ISS) headquarters building at Corsham - which happens to be next door to our site - so that ISS can conveniently work with the new data centre. This is a great example of how the MOD can benefit from secure sharing in a very high efficiency environment. The location of Ark's Spring Park so close to the MOD's existing location at Corsham was really important."

A price hasn't yet been publicly disclosed, although such information will be released "in due course" by both the MoD and in G-Cloud's own monthly reports. Ark claims that its data centre solution includes a fixed power efficiency rating (PUE) that will enable it to save the MoD an estimate 14,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over the course of 10 years.

The G-Cloud was originally set up to help the public sector improve its procurement of IT and associated services. It was established following criticism that too many public sector organisations were paying too much for their IT.

It provides a standardised framework and pricing, in which suppliers are vetted and pre-approved by the Cabinet Office, cutting out such duplication from existing procurement processes. The large-scale, standardised market it provides has also injected competition into what was hitherto an opaque process.

In October 2014, the government disclosed that total G-Cloud sales had passed the £314m mark, after an initially slow launch in 2012.