NHS Digital has agreed a deal to give NHS organisations a discount on access to the Splunk Enterprise data monitoring and analytics platform.
It said it will help them to obtain operational insights from machine data, help to minimise service outages and provide extra protection from cyber threats.
The deal is an extension of an existing arrangement in which NHS Digital, which provides technology services to the NHS in England, uses the software across its own services and programmes including the NHS Spine, Secondary Uses Service, e-Referral Service, NHS 111 and the Care Identity System.
It will run until March 2022 with no specified limit on the number of licences for an individual organisation. No details on the extent of the discounts have been made public.
NHS Digital said the platform can now help other organisations in the health service to reduce system incidents by 15-45% and improve detection and investigation of security threats by 70-90%, as it has found over a number of internal programmes.
Mike Flintoft, associate director for platforms and infrastructure at NHS Digital, said: “Splunk Enterprise has been a key strategic product for NHS Digital for several years and has had a real benefit to ensuring the systems and platform that the NHS rely on are monitored and available to support patient care.”
The new deal also provides IT and technical staff with nhs.net email addresses with access to Splunk Fundamentals 1 and 2 training sessions, which teach the basics of the software through scenario based learning. It will also give staff access to other Splunk educational sessions and events.
