First Shared Data Centre

Ordnance Survey and Land Registry have announced a significant data centre shared service agreement, the first of its type for central government. Land Registry has leased to Ordnance Survey 219m2 of serviced and managed space, in its secure data centre in Gloucester, UK. This dedicated "data centre within a data centre" will house a proportion of Ordnance Survey's production IT infrastructure for the next five years as well as supporting the launch of a new database management system.  

It will facilitate essential IT Business continuity services in conjunction with Ordnance Survey's new head office and operations base, being built in Southampton. 

The agreement marks the culmination of months of negotiation and project activity. Ordnance Survey plans to start the migration of their infrastructure early next year and will phase the operational switchover throughout the spring and summer of 2010.

It is a deal that benefits both Land Registry, who are actively pursuing a shared service strategy by marketing extra capacity at their data storage centre, and Ordnance Survey, which will benefit from the existing modern facility.

It is also going to be carbon efficient. A venting system, which reduces overall energy consumption, has been installed on the site. The amount of energy saved will be monitored as the project progresses.