Centrica moves to the Cloud with HP outsourcing deal

UK based gas utility Centrica has signed a seven year, $400m outsourcing services contract with HP Enterprise Services UK - but the deal exposes yet again the fault line between outsourcing and Cloud Computing as Centrica is moving to a private Cloud and a utility-based computing environment.

The move has been on the cards since late last year when Centrica confirmed that it was restructuring an existing desktop and data centre management with T-Systems. While T-Systems continued to support Centrica's Dynamic SAP services, Fujitsu was to take over desktop management while HP stepped in to manage the data centres.

What has now been made clear is that the HP deal involves a flexible Cloud-service-led model which will see Centrica pay for service levels and not server infrastructure. Initially this These will be based on HP Utllity Services with a view to moving on to the recently launched ECS Compute public Cloud offering at some future date.

HP confirmed:  "Centrica will have access to next-generation technology with just the right computing capacity to meet its needs with minimum cost and environmental impact."

Dave Bickerton, group CIO at Centrica, says:  "Centrica is striving to improve our ability to respond to market changes to supply gas and electricity to homes and businesses more efficiently. We value HP's utility computing capabilities and quality solutions that are flexible, cost-effective and help reduce our carbon footprint."

Centrica has had some mixed fortunes with outsourcing in the past. In 2008, it sued Accenture for £182 million over a billing system that it says was delayed, fraught with glitches, lost the company customers and damaged the British Gas brand. That legal dispute is still ongoing.