06 February 2024

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has signed a £4.86 million deal to update equipment installed in data centre facilities.

The three-year contract has been awarded to Computacenter and extendable for two additional 12-month periods.

“This contract provides DWP with the required network infrastructure, software, and support services to refresh the existing ageing infrastructure within the department’s on-premises hosting (OPH) data centres,” said the DWP in a statement.

Computacenter will complete a design for the new OPH and Secure Data Centre Exchange by Week 16 of the contract; once this has been signed off, delivery of the equipment will be before the end of the fiscal year 2023/24.

Computacenter is tasked with planning the transition from the current network to the new one post-installation. The provider is also required to be prepared to minimise risk and ensure there are no adverse impacts on the DWP’s business operations. Computacenter will then be tasked with removing redundant equipment like the current network switches.