Surrey County Council Pioneering Innovation and Operational Excellence: A Data Centre Success Story


The landscape of data centre management is evolving rapidly, and Surrey County has set a benchmark for others in the sector. By embracing innovation and focusing on operational excellence, they transformed their data centre operations into a model of efficiency, sustainability, and resilience. Here’s how they did it and why it matters for the data centre industry.

About Surrey County Council

Surrey County Council (SCC) is a leading South East local authority providing education, social services, environment, transport, library, community and emergency services with over 200 locations across the County and employs over 23,000 staff.

 Local partners include 11 district councils, health, fire, ambulance, police and voluntary services as well as central government departments and agencies.

 The Council provides services to over one million residents with a budget of over £1billion and is the fifth most populous non-metropolitan Council in England.  Surrey has the highest GDP per capita and is home to more organisations and company headquarters than any other County in the United Kingdom.

 The Council operates 2 dedicated, purpose built, state of the art data centres which provide secure hosting space, application and infrastructure services to over 8000 users across the Councils internal business teams and partners, as well as external partnerships for public sector clients.

 These data centres are based within the County and are solely owned and operated by the Council.

The Challenge

Like many organisations managing complex IT infrastructures, Surrey County faced escalating operational costs, aging equipment, and growing demands for compliance and security. The council’s legacy primary data centre facility had not had any significant investment for more than 20 years and was already at the limit of its power and air conditioning infrastructure. 

There were also a number of issues which were a major source of pain for the Councils business teams including frequent outages caused by equipment failures which affected the stability of the  Councils critical business services and their outsourced services were expensive and inflexible. 

The Councils IMT team needed to be able to deliver existing and new services but they were faced with the conflicting expectations of not compromising service levels, especially in critical public facing areas and reducing costs.

Their goal was clear: overhaul their data centre operations to provide a secure and available environment to support the IT infrastructure for its critical business services while delivering tangible cost and performance benefits.

The Solution

In an effort to address these demands, the Council decided to replace its existing primary data centre with a new state-of-the-art facility and a dedicated team to support it as part of the their strategy to develop partnerships across the public sector which are intended to deliver the following objectives;

  • Reduction of operational costs 
  • Increased levels of service
  • Growth through partnerships
  • Reduce the Councils carbon footprint

The data centres feature free cooling technology which provides low cost, low carbon alternative to traditional cooling technologies.  Both sites benefit from secure locations with guaranteed power availability and a fully resilient infrastructure design.  The sites are fully managed to ensure reliable, highly efficient operations. 

The data centres also feature connection to a dedicated wide area network which provides a converged Ethernet Connect Any-to-Any connectivity which links over 200 Council sites across the County. 

All of this is intended to guarantee 24x7 operations, reduce costs through energy efficiency, help to reduce the Councils carbon footprint, create opportunities for partnering with other public sector organisations and provide greater flexibility for the Council and its business teams.

With the collective experience of the Critical Facilities team, the Council is able to meet these objectives and offer cost effective solutions to its partners which match their needs.

Key Achievements;

  1. Cutting Costs Without Compromising Quality
    Surrey County implemented a series of upgrades and operational changes that resulted in substantial cost savings. By optimising existing assets and delaying major capital expenditures, they unlocked millions in savings while maintaining service quality.
  2. Boosting Energy Efficiency
    A cornerstone of this transformation was improving energy efficiency. The team upgraded critical infrastructure, slashing energy consumption and reducing their carbon footprint. This not only lowered operational costs but also positioned the data centre as a sustainability leader.
  3. Enhancing Resilience and Continuity
    Through a proactive approach to disaster recovery and compliance, Surrey County strengthened its ability to handle disruptions. Investments in robust recovery systems ensured uninterrupted service delivery for critical county operations.
  4. Driving Cross-Functional Collaboration
    This transformation was more than just a technical upgrade—it was a team effort. By bringing together IT, procurement, and management teams, Surrey County ensured the project aligned with organisational goals, fostering innovation and shared success.

The Benefits

The results speak for themselves:

  • Financial Impact: The Council has consolidated all of their IT infrastructure into these facilities, thereby reducing their operational costs through insourcing of IT services.  This included all of its critical social care services as well as its back office operational systems and infrastructure services.  Long-term savings have freed up resources for other county initiatives. By deferring capital investments and cutting operational costs, Surrey County ensured their financial sustainability.
  • Operational Excellence: The increased reliabilty of the new data centres has also resulted in a greater stability for the Councils critical systems. Surrey’s data centres now operate at a higher capacity and efficiency than ever before. This improved reliability and uptime have strengthened service delivery and public trust in the Councils services. 
  • Sustainability Leadership: The data centres were a massive investment for SCC that has provided energy efficient and scalable environments. They have provided the Council with significant cost savings as well as saving 150 tonnes of carbon per year through increased energy efficiency. By reducing energy consumption, the data centre is contributing to broader environmental goals, a growing priority for both public and private organisations.
  • Future-Ready Infrastructure: These improvements now provide a cost effective, reliable and secure environment that has laid the foundation for improvements in the Councils services and made the Data Centres a compelling alternative to traditional IT suppliers for their customers and partners.

Key Takeaways;

Surrey County’s journey offers valuable lessons for the broader data centre community:

  • Prioritise Sustainability: Investing in energy efficiency can deliver immediate cost benefits while supporting long-term environmental goals.
  • Embrace Collaboration: Cross-departmental teamwork is critical for aligning technical projects with organisational strategy.
  • Focus on Resilience: Building robust disaster recovery and compliance frameworks is essential for maintaining trust and continuity in a digital-first world.

Conclusion

Surrey County’s transformation is a powerful example of how innovation, efficiency, and teamwork can drive success in data centre operations. By addressing today’s challenges with forward-thinking solutions, they have not only achieved their goals but also set a standard for the industry to follow.

For those in the data centre field, this case study underscores the importance of balancing cost, performance, and sustainability—an essential trifecta for future-ready operations.