UKCloud goes into liquidation
Troubled provider to the UK public sector is wound down
UKCloud, a major supplier of services to the UK public sector, has been placed into compulsory liquidation.
The company announced on Tuesday in a brief notice on its website that UKCloud Limited and its parent Virtual Infrastructure Group Limited were to be wound up.
"On 25 October 2022, the Companies were placed into Liquidation with the Official Receiver appointed as Liquidator and J Robinson and A M Hudson simultaneously appointed as Special Managers to manage the liquidation process on behalf of the Official Receiver," the notice says.
A notice on GOV.UK on Tuesday said "The Official Receiver will wind-down the affairs of Virtual Infrastructure Group Limited and UKCloud Limited in an orderly manner", adding that it "also has a duty to investigate the cause of the companies' insolvency and the conduct of current and former directors."
Headquartered in Farnborough, UKCloud had contracts with the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, local and central government and private businesses, in areas such as data centre design and management, professional services, disaster recovery, security and cloud services. The company's partnerships included QinetiQ, Dell, Cisco, Oracle, Red Hat, Microsoft Azure and Ark Data Centres.
The company has been in financial difficulties for some time, and last year it was reported that the Cabinet Office was recommending that government departments employing UKCloud look for alternative suppliers.
In January the company was bought for an undisclosed amount by chairman Jeff Thomas via a new investment company called Hadston 2, backed by UKCloud's existing institutional investors including BGF Group plc and Digital Alpha.
A partnership with HPE planned for this summer was postponed.
Update
A government spokesperson sent the following statement.
"We regularly monitor the health of key suppliers and we have contingency plans in place to ensure the continuity of public services. The vast majority of departments which used UKCloud have already moved onto alternative systems. Those who remain on UKCloud will find alternative arrangements as soon as possible, while continuing to operate. We do not expect disruption to everyday public services."