The National Grid has agreed to spend up to $44.5 million with Wipro to take on the energy infrastructure company’s data centres and mainframes with a view to introducing a hybrid cloud infrastructure. The global gas and electricity network firm contracted the India IT services provider to provide next-generation capabilities in the data centre network and improve the operating model.
The agreement is divided into four lots. First is the data centre co-location, which looks for a global approach to regional regulatory compliance and facilities in which to host IT hardware, including network services, maintenance, physical security and cybersecurity. Next is hardware managed services, including data centres and cloud estate, OS, hypervisor and all storage services, backup, patches and licensing. National Grid has also said it wants the company to manage co-location for mainframe services. Finally, Wipro will offer migration services including data centres and applications.
Previously, National Grid had published a digitisation strategy for its gas and electricity transmission businesses that argued digitisation would help the company’s efforts in cutting carbon emissions.
“It provides an opportunity for the energy sector,” Andi Karaboutis, group chief information and digital officer for National Grid, said. “Digitisation brings about cost savings for consumers, improves customer experience, enables greater whole system coordination and transparency, and accelerates the development and deployment of innovative technologies.”
