Decision details

With the approval of the Chairman of the ScrutinyCommittee, urgency, special urgency procedure, and waiver of call-in procedure have been invoked to suspend the requirement to publish the decision on the Forward Plan, to suspend the requirement to publish the decision for five days and to waive the requirement for the decision to be subject to a three day call-in period. The contract that is being referred tocan be extended for two further twelve month periods until the 31^st of May 2024 and does not require any further work from a procurement perspective, but a new CMDN is required to cover the term of the extension. 

These procedures have been invoked in order to mitigate the impact of not extending the contract as this would mean that staff would not be able to access critical business systems. 

Unfortunately, there was an oversight which meant this contract was not added to the forward plan. The overall strategy for how and where our infrastructure sits is currently being reviewed as part of our overall IT strategy and wewill ensure any future decisions go through the appropriate process. 

The Leader: 

1.     Extended the 2021 contract for cloud-based services from Amazon Web Services UK Limited (AWS) by up to the two years agreed within the contract to a further value no greater than £1,000,000   

2.     Authorised the Corporate Director: Resources to vary this Contract if the Council has to amend its detailed business requirements,but subject to a maximum aggregate value (i.e. including the 2021 contract) of 150% of the approved value of the 2021 contract, being £1,460,000 (BPS). 

Operationally AWS continues to offer the best value and continuity of service to the council,  also benefiting from; high availability server capacity, modern server technology, switching off servers when not in use to reduce cost, a level of disaster recovery and improved business continuity.

The council is therefore provided with an effective ICT service which is:

·         Stable;

·         Flexible;

·         Adaptable;

·         Resilient; and

·         Appropriate to the needs of the Council in the medium to long term.

The current contract expired on 31st May 2022 therefore a new contract is urgently required in order to continue use of AWS cloud-based services.

The recommended option is to continue the cloud-based services directly through the council  via the Crown Commercial Service Call-Off Contract, G-Cloud 12 Framework Agreement (RM1557.12).

This is considered to be the preferred procurement route, as opposed to renewing the contract via any third party, as it removes any handling charges or mark-up that may be applied by a third party.

This contract for cloud-based services is procured via the GCloud 12  Framework Agreement and was made in accordance with the procedures for awarding a  supplier.

This award is for the continuation of an existing service. The server room in Sand Martin  House has been sized to accommodate a limited number of servers, with the overall design based on continued reliance on the cloud-based service and the capacity provided by AWS.  

An alternative would be to move the services to another provider. This is feasible but would take 1-2 years to complete, as it did to move to AWS in the first place, and would incur additional charges from all parties involved. The longer term approach to using a blend of cloud-based services alongside the server room in Sand Martin House is currently being reviewed as part of the IT Strategy work that is underway between Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council. 

None.

Extension of the Amazon web service