UK Court System Completes Major Cloud Migration, Exits Legacy Data Centers
February 10, 2026
In a significant modernization effort for the UK's justice system, the HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has successfully concluded a multi-year project to migrate its critical applications out of aging, on-premises data centers and into modern cloud environments. This move marks a pivotal step in enhancing the resilience, security, and adaptability of the technological backbone supporting the nation's courts and tribunals.
The migration, which commenced in 2020, involved the complex transfer of 37 distinct applications that were previously running on approximately 2,500 pieces of hardware across two legacy facilities in Park Royal, West London, and Swindon. According to HMCTS, the outdated infrastructure had become a liability, with many components so old that replacement parts were nearly impossible to source, creating "a fragile environment with single points of failure that could disrupt access to essential court services."
Not all systems made the journey intact. As part of the rationalization, HMCTS decommissioned applications that were no longer needed, while others were upgraded for cloud deployment.
A third group was moved to a specially created temporary hosting facility to maintain operations while longer-term replacement plans are finalized. The department also undertook complete rebuilds of two key systems: the consolidated Juror Digital system and the Digital Audio Recording Transcription and Storage system.
The financial scale of modernizing this legacy estate is substantial. In 2023, HMCTS awarded IT services firm CGI a contract valued at £60 million (approximately $82 million) solely to maintain 35 of these "business-critical" heritage applications prior to migration. The broader Ministry of Justice, HMCTS's parent department, has also engaged in significant IT investments, including a £58 million ($78.48 million) platform services contract with Atos awarded in June 2025.
In a blog post detailing the project, HMCTS stated that the new cloud-based infrastructure "reduces the risk of system failures and enables us to implement security updates more efficiently."
The agency emphasized that the transformation builds "a foundation that enables continuous improvement, with new systems that are easier to update, more secure, and better connected." While HMCTS did not specify which cloud providers it now uses, the UK government is known to utilize services from all major hyperscale platforms.
For the public sector IT landscape, this completion signals a major benchmark in the government's "cloud-first" policy and provides a blueprint for other agencies managing complex, legacy technology estates.
The successful migration equips the courts with a more agile technological foundation capable of handling growing caseloads, introducing new digital services, and ensuring greater continuity. With the applications now live in their new environments, HMCTS's final task is the full decommissioning of the old hardware in the Park Royal and Swindon data centers.
Source: datacenterdynamics
