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Creating a new NHS England: NHS England and NHS Digital merged on 1 February 2023. More about the merger.

Part of NHS architecture principles

Public cloud first

Digital services should move to the public cloud unless there is a clear reason not to do so. 

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Summary

Digital services should move to the public cloud unless there is a clear reason not to do so. 

Rationale

Cloud services provide many advantages for NHS Digital, including a reduction in the time to deploy infrastructure and a significant reduction in emissions.

Implication

Digital services should be delivered from the public cloud unless there is a reason not to do so. For example:

  • service level characteristics, such as availability or recovery time objective (RTO) times, that cannot be met by public cloud
  • cyber or information governance that cannot be met by public cloud

This should be reflected in architecture designs and assessed by the Architecture Approval Group.

Last edited: 12 March 2021 1:27 pm

Previous Chapter

Internet First

Next Chapter

Build a data layer with registers and APIs

Chapters

  1. NHS architecture principles
  2. All digital services need to be delivered sustainably
  3. Put our tools in modern browsers
  4. Internet First
  5. Public cloud first
  6. Build a data layer with registers and APIs
  7. Adopt appropriate cyber security standards
  8. Use platforms
  9. Put user needs first
  10. Interoperability with open data and technology standards
  11. Reuse before buy/build