Atlas Consortium scores for New Style of IT and Fujitsu wins Global Connectivity contract
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed two contracts worth a total of £1.45 billion to upgrade its IT and communications infrastructure, with a forecast that they will provide savings of more than £1 billion to be reinvested into defence.
The larger of the two deals is for the Atlas Consortium – comprising HP, Fujitsu, Airbus Defence and CGI – to provide a workplace infrastructure under the New Style of IT (NSoIT) banner. It is worth £933 million over 10 years and comes from a renegotiation of the consortium’s original extension of the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) contract, which it has held since 2005.
The other is a £550 million five year Global Connectivity contract with Fujitsu to provide relevant services.
A third contract, Integrated User Services to cover voice, video and mobile phone services, is expected to follow soon.
Efficiencies and capability
Defence secretary Michael Fallon said the contracts will provide efficiencies and enhance the UK’s fighting capability in response to new conventional and cyber threats.
The NSoIT contract is scheduled to provide a raft of services for defence users in offices, headquarters and deployed bases by September 2016. They will include standardised workplace management systems, smart self-help functions and secure mobility.
It will be based on HP Enterprise Services for Microsoft Office 365 and the HP Elion managed private cloud platform, and give users access to the DII through an increased range of devices and networks. These will include HP Unified Communications based on Microsoft Skype for Business for video conferencing and instant messaging.
Users will have the ability to subscribe, amend or remove services through a persona-based catalogue. This is expected to contribute to the savings by enabling the MoD to pay for the services as they are used.
Mike Stone, chief digital and information officer of the MoD, said: “I want to deliver information capabilities that are a force multiplier for both the business space and battle space through closer strategic alignment with industry partners.
“By September 2016, our users will experience information capabilities that are tailored to their mission, location and role, and that can be accessed at the right time, through a choice of devices, over a cost-effective, modern and adaptable infrastructure.”
DFTS replacement
The Global Connectivity contract has been set up to replace the Defence Fixed Telecommunications Services deal, held by BT since 1997 and which is due to end in July of next year. Fujitsu said it will involve local area network, wireless local area network and wide area network services.
The MoD has recently indicated that it is moving towards a Defence as a Platform approach for its IT systems, making use of a set of common services. It reflects the Government as a Platform strategy promoted by the Cabinet Office.
Picture from GOV.UK under Open Government Licence v3.0
