Crown Hosting

The NHS is undergoing a profound transformation. The UK Government’s 2025 priorities and the Fit for the Future 10-Year Health Plan call for a shift from analogue to digital, from reactive to preventative care, and from fragmented infrastructure to integrated, sustainable systems.

To deliver this vision, the NHS must modernise its digital estate starting with the rationalisation of legacy server rooms.

This service is for anyone in the NHS who cares about improving patient services, while also saving money, reducing energy consumption, and transforming how digital services are delivered across the health system.

If you are 

• planning to modernise legacy infrastructure
• seeking to reduce costs and carbon emissions
• preparing for cloud adoption
• looking to reinvest in frontline digital services

This page explains how Crown Hosting can help you achieve those goals securely, sustainably, and at scale.

If you are a Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, transformation manager or NHS leader, this is your opportunity to act. 

Every NHS application is different. That’s why the Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE) supports a structured assessment process to determine the right hosting destination for each workload:

• public cloud ready: Applications that can be rehosted, refactored, or rebuilt in the cloud
• non-public cloud ready: Applications that require physical compute, legacy support, or specific compliance ideal for Crown Hosting

Each application is mapped to one of the 7 Rs of transformation:
Rehost, refactor, rearchitect, rebuild, replace, retire, or repurchase.

This approach enables:

• consolidation of infrastructure
• data sharing across NHS systems
• reinvestment into digital transformation

Crown Hosting is a shared national service, available to any NHS organisation and its suppliers, alongside any other public sector body. It harnesses the collective buying power of government to deliver exceptional value, security, and sustainability without the complexity of traditional procurement.

Already, 15% of NHS trusts and nearly all NHS Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) are using Crown Hosting to modernise their infrastructure. Publicly named users include:

• NHS Business Services Authority (BSA)
• NHS England
• Arden & GEM Commissioning Support Unit
• NHS Ambulance Radio Programme (ARP)
• Genomics England
• Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Luton ICT Shared Services (HBL ICT)

This growing adoption reflects the trust placed in Crown Hosting to deliver secure, resilient, and cost-effective hosting for critical NHS workloads.

Across the NHS, thousands of server rooms sit in basements, cupboards, and back offices each consuming energy, requiring maintenance, and limiting digital progress. These rooms are often:

• poorly cooled and inefficient
• costly to maintain and upgrade
• vulnerable to outages and security risks
• Isolated from cloud and modern networks

Crown Hosting offers a smarter alternative.

National scale, local impact

Crown Hosting operates multi-acre campuses with:

• over 11 data centre buildings
• more than 55 data halls
• electrical capacity equivalent to 12,000 homes

This scale allows NHS organisations to consolidate their infrastructure into a shared, secure, and sustainable platform, unlocking:

• immediate savings on electricity, maintenance, and estate costs
• £235,000 saved annually per 20kW server room migrated
• £1.5 billion saved per year across public sector customers
• £12 billion in aggregate savings since 2015

Consolidation enables transformation

By combining fragmented infrastructure into Crown Hosting, NHS organisations can:

• retire legacy systems and reduce technical debt
• enable cloud adoption and hybrid architectures
• improve data reliability and availability
• free up estate for clinical or operational use
• reinvest savings into frontline digital services

This is not just about hosting it’s about creating the foundation for a digital by default NHS.

Crown Hosting offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to support NHS organisations throughout their digital transformation journey. Whether you're relocating legacy infrastructure, consolidating data, or preparing for cloud adoption, Crown Hosting provides the tools, expertise, and facilities to make it seamless.

Migration services

Crown Hosting delivers full lifecycle migration support:

• planning and preparation: Scope definition, risk management, and scheduling
• physical relocation: Secure transport, installation, and post-move support
• data migration: Logical and secure data transfer
• decommissioning: Secure disposal, recycling, and facility dilapidation
• exit management: Support for future transitions

All services are governed by the Cabinet Office and delivered with assured security, performance, and value.

Colocation facilities

• racks available in shared data halls, private halls, or dedicated data centres
• suitable for all data criticalities and NHS confidentiality levels
• flexible capacity from 4kW to 250kW per rack
• designed for resilience, sustainability, and scalability

Network connectivity

• high-speed, low-latency connections to public cloud hubs and NHS networks
• optical Inter-DC WAN, DWDM, Ethernet private line, and cloud on-ramp
• carrier-neutral infrastructure with diverse fibre routes
• supports AI, HPC, and large-scale data workloads

On-site services

Crown Hosting provides skilled, SC-cleared technicians on-site so your teams don’t have to be:

• tier 1 and tier 2 support for hardware, patching, troubleshooting, and installations
• rapid response within 15 minutes
• pay-as-you-use model with no volume commitments
• bespoke project work available

These services ensure continuity, security, and operational efficiency especially for NHS organisations with limited local IT resources.

Crown Hosting is deeply aligned with public sector values:

• equality, diversity, and inclusion embedded in operations
• zero waste to landfill and reduced water consumption
• EV charging infrastructure and support for local communities
• combatting modern slavery and promoting ethical practices

The Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE) is your partner in this journey. We offer:

• workload assessments to identify what can move
• migration planning and support
• templates, standards, and best practice
• community learning and peer support

Whether you're consolidating legacy infrastructure or preparing for a hybrid future, we’ll help you make the right move.

Some of the benefits to using Crown Hosting include:

• reduce risk by moving out of ageing, unsupported server rooms
• improve resilience with Tier III+ data centre availability
• free up estate and reduce operational overhead
• accelerate digital transformation by focusing on value, not infrastructure

“We used to spend £130,000 a week on maintaining fragile data hubs. Since moving to Crown Hosting, we’ve seen immediate savings, improved resilience, and regained control over our infrastructure.”
— Phil Turnock, IT Director, HBL ICT

“Crown Hosting helped us deliver the art of the impossible. We now have flexibility, predictable costs, and complete control over our data.”
— Usman Khan, Head of Financial Services, HBL ICT

“The experience of setting up our infrastructure at Crown Hosting was entirely painless. Their professionalism and flawless project management made it a model of how to do it well.”
— Genomics England

“You will be hard pressed to find another data storage solution that offers the performance, connectivity, location, and security—all combined with efficiency—as Crown Hosting.”
— Genomics England

Email or phone our Crown Hosting NHS team: 

• email [email protected]
• telephone 0333 207 0703