1. The information be noted and the procurement of the Microsoft’s Cloud (Azure) as the Council’s Data Center with disaster recovery and increased resilience of the Data Centre for 5 years be agreed.
2. An increase in the IT Services revenue budget of £400k be approved to ensure Microsoft Cloud (Azure), Disaster Recovery and Cyber Security functions required are procured and available for the Council.This additional revenue budget requirement represents a forward commitment as part of the 2023/24 and future years budget. There will be part-year costs expected of c. £100k in 2022/23 which will need to be managed from within the existing approved IT Services revenue budget.
3. The use of the current IT service provider, BT, through the mechanism of the Westminster City Council Pan-London ICT Framework to procure the services detailed in the report be agreed. Where in the opinion of the Director of Corporate Services and Governance a separate procurement is required or desirable, agree to delegate authority to this Director in consultation with the Portfolio Holder, to authorise the use of an alternative procurement route in order to proceed to procurement and award the contract.