HM Income & Customs (HMRC) has secured an improved score for its £300m datacentre migration programme from a authorities watchdog that this month printed a report stating the venture was unlikely to succeed, Pc Weekly has realized.
The UK authorities’s Infrastructure and Tasks Authority (IPA), which oversees the supply of recent railways, colleges housing and IT transformation tasks, printed its 2021/2022 report on 20 July 2022.
The 80-page doc gives an replace and perception into the standing of large-scale programmes which are listed below the Authorities Main Tasks Portfolio (GMPP), with every venture graded utilizing a “Pink, Amber and Inexperienced” (RAG) site visitors light-style system to point how possible they’re to succeed.
For instance, tasks which are graded “Inexperienced” are ones which are more likely to be delivered efficiently on time, inside funds, to a excessive customary and don’t have any main points which are more likely to threaten supply.
On the different finish of the dimensions are “Pink” tasks that current with main scheduling, budgetary and high quality management points that seem like unmanageable or unresolvable, which means a profitable venture supply is unachievable.
HMRC’s ongoing datacentre migration programme, often known as Securing Our Technical Future (SOTF), is among the many tasks listed on the IPA’s GMPP, and, in its report, its standing is listed as transferring from “Amber”, which suggests “profitable supply of the venture is unsure”, to “Pink” over the course of the previous 12 months.
The datacentre migration portion of the five-year venture was initially scheduled for completion in June 2022, and centres on the decommissioning or migration of servers and companies hosted in three HMRC datacentres to both the general public cloud or the federal government’s Crown Internet hosting colocation facility.
Undertaking approval
The venture was formally given approval to proceed by HMRC CEO Jim Harra in February 2020, and in late January 2022 it emerged that IBM had secured an £11m contract to help the division with exiting three datacentres operated on its behalf by Fujitsu.
In line with the IPA report and its accompanying documentation, round 55% of the companies concerned within the transfer have both been retired or migrated thus far, however the 244 companies that also require consideration are a supply of concern for the Authority.
“Examination has uncovered that the remaining companies, related enablement and decommissioning work are extra complicated, costly and time-consuming than beforehand thought,” the IPA’s evaluation acknowledged.
Because of this, the standing of the venture had been modified from Amber to Pink, in keeping with the report, whereas the accompanying documentation states the venture is within the technique of being reviewed, with revised costings and a brand new completion date.
The venture has been topic to a “variety of pauses” owing to the UK’s extrication from the European Union, the documentation acknowledged, which have affected its completion.
“Whereas the baseline entire life prices stay at £312.06m, the programme enterprise case is at the moment being up to date, which is able to improve the entire life prices for varied causes, together with elevated complexities, [new] datacentre necessities and extra scope,” the documentation added.
Nonetheless, whereas the IPA’s report states the venture is assessed as Pink, Pc Weekly has realized that HMRC has efficiently had the SOTF reclassified as Amber.
In a press release, a spokesperson for HMRC mentioned: “Shifting companies to public cloud and Crown Internet hosting helps us rework how we function, enabling us to construct and run extra resilient companies, replace them simply the place we have to, and scale up rapidly at peak occasions of the yr,” the assertion learn.
“We all the time plan any adjustments to our IT property completely and, though this can be a extremely complicated venture, we’re assured within the migration plans we now have in place.”
These plans embody a revised end date for the venture, which is now on account of conclude in December 2023, and a rejigged marketing strategy for it.
“In view of this progress made, the RAG score has now improved from Pink to Amber, which was confirmed by an IPA Gate 0 evaluation performed in early Might 2022,” the spokesperson added.
Pc Weekly contacted the IPA for affirmation on this modification, however the authority declined to remark.