Avanade completes cloud migration at Hinkley Point C

Microsoft provider Avanade has completed phase one of its cloud migration project for EDF Hinkley Point C (HPC), the UK’s first nuclear power station to be built in over 20 years.

Avanade has successfully provided a secure cloud platform to support the construction of HPC, supporting thousands of workers, and will migrate additional applications in future phases. 

Avanade and HPC overcame challenges unique to the nuclear power industry, including intensive security, data retention and regulatory considerations. This was made possible through Avanade’s unique and robust Cloud Foundations methodology combined with the Microsoft Azure platform. 

Peter Jennings, Project Lead, Avanade, said: “The state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure underpinning HPC’s construction will enable thousands of workers to better collaborate and manage the UK’s biggest sustainable energy project in a generation. With our partners at Hinckley Point C, we have built an extremely secure and scalable IT infrastructure, with a high degree of automation that delivers greater efficiency.”  

Given the scale of the HPC project – it is one of the largest construction projects in Europe and will provide an estimated 20% of the UK’s electricity following its opening in 2025 – it needed an IT infrastructure with security and scale at its core. HPC can now support a rapidly expanding workforce that includes thousands of contractors, vendors and international collaborators.  

Working in close collaboration with HPC, Avanade designed and built the new secure cloud environment through bringing together components from HPC’s existing infrastructure and the Azure Cloud to control access to information. This provided a secure foundation for the migration of key services, new servers and document storage.  

Today there are many thousands of additional field personnel utilising the platform and information to support build activities. Avanade has also streamlined processes so that over half the tasks required across Avanade, EDF and other third parties are automated.

Additionally, Avanade now provides support services for the infrastructure from the Azure Operations Centre in its Newcastle Engineering Hub. 

The UK Energy Security Strategy released last week pledged increased emphasis on nuclear along with renewables.

EDF’s UK CEO Simone Rossi said: “The fastest way to get more nuclear in Britain is get on with the next two units at Sizewell C. It’s a copy of Hinkley Point C, the design is approved and ready to go, and British manufacturers are experts in how to build it. Building more of the same design is the best way to bring down costs and develop a strong UK supply chain.”