Part of Infrastructure hosting standards for the NHS
Leadership and governing standards
Standards you should meet on senior leadership and ownership of networks and connectivity.
1. NHS organisations should have senior leadership team (SLT) responsibility for Infrastructure Hosting
Importance of meeting the standard
Having clearly defined roles and responsibilities and an owner will help focus the organisations infrastructure hosting strategy. Without this focus, there’s a risk that:
- the use of hosting technology will only meet short-term needs and could lead to additional unplanned costs
- digital strategies do not account for hosting requirements for new digital services and there is insufficient hosting capacity available, delaying implementation
When to meet the standard
You should meet this standard when
- the use of hosting technology will only meet short-term needs and could lead to additional unplanned costs
- digital strategies do not account for hosting requirements for new digital services and there is insufficient hosting capacity available, delaying implementation
How to meet the standard
NHS organisations should assign a member of their SLT to
- have strategic oversight of infrastructure hosting and how it fits with wider digital strategies
- ensure the organisations position against the NHS England Infrastructure Hosting standards is reviewed annually
- create and manage a hosting strategy led by the needs of staff and patients
- ensure infrastructure hosting requirements are included in disaster recovery and business continuity plans
- regularly review and update all relevant strategies and plans
IBM to NHS infrastructure hosting standards mapping
This mapping shows derivation, not strict equivalence. Multiple IBM controls are often collapsed into a single NHS outcome‑based standard.
2. Power and cooling
3. Environmental and physical protection
4. Rack, cabinet and space management
5. Hosting architecture and resilience
6. Back up
7. Disaster recovery and business continuity
8. Maintenance, monitoring and operational management
(Post‑merge structure: Monitoring, maintenance, incident and change)
9. Asset lifecycle and configuration management
Last edited: 18 June 2026 2:27 pm