In the Spotlight: NHS NEL ICB infrastructure modernisation with Nutanix
Background
NHS North East London Integrated Care Board (NEL ICB) plans and commissions healthcare services across a large area of London. Formed in 2022, the organisation inherited a complex legacy infrastructure environment that included NetApp storage, VMware virtualisation and two datacentres with significant power, rack space and management requirements.
As the inherited infrastructure approached end-of-life status, the organisation faced increasing operational overhead, growing technical debt and rising licensing complexity. It said the environment had also become difficult to manage efficiently across multiple systems and vendors.
NEL ICB therefore sought to modernise its infrastructure estate while reducing costs and simplifying operations.
Challenge
The organisation needed to replace its virtualised infrastructure environment without disrupting critical NHS services. Key challenges, it said, included:
- End-of-life NetApp infrastructure
- Operational complexity across multiple platforms
- High power and datacentre requirements
- Rising management overhead
- Fragmented administration and licensing models
- Technical debt inherited from legacy systems
The existing environment also relied on VMware virtualisation and Horizon virtual desktop infrastructure, which NEL ICB said created additional complexity and operational burden for IT teams.
Phil Cook, senior infrastructure manager at NEL ICB, described the environment as difficult to manage and costly to maintain. “It had been a nightmare to manage and we wanted to move to a ‘single pane of glass’ for easier management, reduced overhead and simplified licensing,” he said.
Solution
NEL ICB selected Nutanix to replace its legacy NetApp and VMware estate with a hyperconverged private cloud platform built on Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and AHV virtualisation.
The project consolidated infrastructure across two datacentres and replaced multiple layers of legacy hardware and virtualisation technology with a simplified software-defined environment.
The transformation included:
- Migration from VMware virtualisation to Nutanix AHV
- Replacement of NetApp storage infrastructure
- Consolidation of virtual desktop infrastructure
- Introduction of a unified “single pane of glass” management approach
- Reduction in hardware footprint across datacentres
The organisation also drew on existing NHS experience with Nutanix deployments elsewhere in the health service, helping support the business case for transformation.
According to Cook, wider market changes following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware reinforced the organisation’s migration strategy. “The Broadcom acquisition was almost perfect for us because it just went to validate that everything we had done was on the right path, and it saved us money,” he said.
Results
Neil Goodman, enterprise architect at NEL ICB, said the project delivered a strong business case through a combination of cost reduction and operational improvement.
Key outcomes included:
- Reduction from 22 NetApp nodes to eight Nutanix nodes across two datacentres
- Simplified administration through unified infrastructure management
- Reduced operational overhead and licensing complexity
- Lower power, rack space and datacentre requirements
- Reduced technical debt
- Improved efficiency and easier day-to-day operations
The move also simplified vendor management and provided a more scalable platform for future modernisation initiatives, said Nutanix.
Next steps
NEL ICB is continuing to evaluate hybrid cloud and modernisation opportunities while maintaining a strong on-premises private cloud foundation.
Future plans include potential expansion into Microsoft cloud services such as OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, alongside ongoing exploration of Nutanix NC2 hybrid cloud capabilities.
The organisation is also assessing how emerging technologies, including AI-enabled services, could support operational efficiency and future healthcare delivery requirements.
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