{"id":12080,"date":"2020-09-11T17:46:54","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T17:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rax-stg-wp-aws.com\/case_study\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/"},"modified":"2024-09-09T16:09:31","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T16:09:31","slug":"central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust","status":"publish","type":"case_study","link":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/case_study\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNWL<\/a> provides integrated healthcare to a third of London\u2019s population, employing roughly 7,000 staff to provide more than 300 different health services across 150 sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNWL provides integrated healthcare to a third of London\u2019s population, employing roughly 7,000 staff to provide more than 300 different health services across 150 sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17083,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","seo_title":"CNWL Scales Remote Health Services with Rackspace Cloud","seo_description":"CNWL upgraded operations to provide essential health services remotely","banner_text":"What began as a digital transformation project quickly scaled into ensuring Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) could operate remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.","banner_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/case_study_images\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/Interior-Page-Banner-Template_1920x920_7.jpg","banner_cta_link":"","header":"CNWL upgraded operations to provide essential health services remotely","customer_overview":"Our customer","challenge":"CNWL primarily needed a reliable, robust and flexible partner to support a major transition from a legacy server-based system into a more modern private cloud environment. Once the initial infrastructure was in place the team had just six months to migrate all of the Trusts\u2019 data and applications.","outcome":"","mian_quote":"

The support we got from Rackspace Technology in that transition period filled us with confidence. Those projects are never without challenges, but what impressed us most was how maturely and willingly their team would help us to problem solve.<\/p>","mian_quote_attribution_name":" Owen Powell","mian_quote_attribution_title":"ICT Director","mian_quote_attribution_company":"CNWL","second_quote":"

All the pain has been removed from our usual processes. Now it all works like it should \u2014 which, most importantly, allows us to focus on our clinical work and our patients.<\/p>\r\n","second_quote_attribution_name":"Dr Simon Edwards","second_quote_attribution_title":"Divisional Medical Director","second_quote_attribution_company":"CNWL","second_quote_attribution_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/case_study_images\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/Quote-Background_1920x920b_3.jpg","tertiary_quote":"

The benefits of the Rackspace Technology partnership were felt instantly, with time taken for some routine processes reduced by two-thirds \u2014 time that can then be better spent on clinical work. The COVID-19 lockdown provided the most notable test, when CNWL was able to scale \u2014 in 48 hours \u2014 from 200 people working from home to 2,000 concurrent home users.<\/p>\r\n","tertiary_quote_attribution_name":"","tertiary_quote_attribution_title":"","tertiary_quote_attribution_company":"","tertiary_quote_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/case_study_images\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/Quote-Background_1920x920a_1.jpg","text_river_1_headline":"Removing technology barriers to become a modern and agile NHS Trust ","text_river_1_text":"

The Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) is one of the largest in the country, providing integrated healthcare services to a third of London\u2019s population and many others. Its 7,000-strong team providing expert and critical care, with the Trust overseeing more than 300 different healthcare services across 150 sites.
\r\n
\r\nThe majority of its services are provided in the community, treating people in their homes or from nearby clinics. Where community care is not possible, the Trust offers a number of facilities to treat people in hospital or residential environments, as well as providing healthcare in prisons within London and the surrounding areas.
\r\n
\r\n\u201cAs NHS Trusts go, we are a large one, which obviously means we have a lot of people relying on us for important and essential care,\u201d said Owen Powell, ICT Director at CNWL. \u201cWe offer so many different services, all with their own requirements in terms of technology support. Evolving into a modern, forward-thinking, digital-first organization was a challenge. Our patients are our number one priority, providing the best possible service for them, but to serve them better, we realized that we needed to overhaul our technological systems.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Making up for lost time<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Digital transformation plans had been under way for a while, but had stalled in the last few years, leading to CNWL exploring alternatives as a matter of urgency at the start of 2019. Having previously been with an all-in-one provider, CNWL decided to explore separate contracts and identify the right partners for each of its needs.
\r\n
\r\nCloud was a central pillar of the Trust\u2019s evolution plans, to support the management of diverse systems and data, as well as to help CNWL embrace new cloud based technologies and capabilities for a more effective, cost efficient and secure environment.
\r\n
\r\nCNWL chose Rackspace Technology\u00ae as its partner for the migration because of, among other things, its proven track record of exceptional support, its flexibility in scaling, and its agnostic approach to public cloud solutions. The initial migration included a private cloud deployment in VMware-RPCV: a resilient solution deployed in two data centers, as well as secure managed services. With strict penalties for failing to transition to the new system within a fixed timeline, the round-the-clock support from the global Rackspace Technology team was essential to delivering on time.
\r\n
\r\n\u201cThe support we got from Rackspace Technology in that transition period filled us with confidence,\u201d said Powell. \u201cThose projects are never without challenges, but what impressed us most was how maturely and willingly their team would help us to problem solve. Those working relationships we will have moving forward were forged under considerable pressure and their ability to deal with that, especially in how responsive they have been, was very impressive.\u201d
\r\n
\r\n <\/p>\r\n","text_river_1_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/case_study_images\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/Text-and-Video-Thumbnail-Image_600x338b_2.jpg","text_river_1_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/5q0mI9UM1sM","text_river_2_headline":"A noticeable difference\u00a0","text_river_2_text":"

Following the successful initial transition by November 2019, CNWL saw immediate improvements to its existing operations.
\r\n
\r\n\u201cThe impact on my day-to-day work was instant,\u201d explained Tracy White, Associate Director for Information and Business at CNWL. \u201cI think we had all been worn down by our existing technology and didn\u2019t think to expect any different, and all of a sudden we had systems that could actually do what they were supposed to do \u2014 it was an enormous relief! One particular task of mine was generally taking me the best part of a day to complete, so five or six working hours. When we moved to Rackspace Technology, that came down to two hours, just because the system was so much more responsive and could process everything as it should. When something is that immediately obvious and quantifiable, you have the confidence to know you\u2019ve made the right decision.\u201d
\r\n
\r\n\u201cAll the pain has been removed from our usual processes,\u201d added Dr Simon Edwards, Divisional Medical Director at CNWL. \u201cWe\u2019d all just grown weary of our previous systems and had built into our days the amount of time it took to file notes, for example. Now it all works like it should \u2014 which, most importantly, allows us to focus on our clinical work and our patients.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Underpinning online health services<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

The positive transformation in working practices supported by the migration was reinforced when the COVID-19 pandemic required the organization to quickly shift to a remote working model.
\r\n
\r\n\u201cTo be honest, I don\u2019t think we\u2019d have managed to function if we hadn\u2019t changed to Rackspace Technology so recently,\u201d said Powell. \u201cWe\u2019d have found a way, but the newfound confidence we had in our processes definitely helped. Most of what we do is on premises with in-person healthcare so while a few people might work from home throughout the week, we have not generally operated remotely because we\u2019ve never had to. Overnight, we went from about 200 people who work from home to 2,000 remote workers. Many of our clinics closed as staff were redeployed to help elsewhere. By any standards, that is an enormous upheaval, but there was never any issue with scaling to that requirement with Rackspace Technology and our operations were, from a technological standpoint, unaffected by the lockdown, which is remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The lockdown has in fact proved useful as a testbed for CNWL to identify how new technological solutions can support it in providing its core services. In particular, certain more personal or sensitive healthcare areas, like sexual health, could see a long term move to online solutions, retaining the discretion many patients desire far more easily than in-person visits.
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\r\n\u201cInformation security is a key part of providing sexual health services, and the move to an online model fully supports this, and is more cost-effective as well,\u201d explained Powell. \u201cThe pandemic has allowed us to make great advances in how we interact with these patients, with online tests and prescriptions as well as demos and consults over video calls. There are also transactional type services we provide that don\u2019t need a personal touch and could be automated.
\r\n
\r\n\u201cThe big change we\u2019ve seen is that our technology now allows us to lead the way with these changes, thanks to our interfaces and our system\u2019s robustness. We are doing more remotely than we ever thought possible, largely through necessity, but with technology no longer a barrier, we will keep a lot more of this going moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\r\n","text_river_2_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/case_study_images\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/Text-and-Video-Thumbnail-Image_600x338a_3.jpg","text_river_2_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/p47hHDeyQyU","text_river_3_headline":"Exploring the potential benefits of multicloud","text_river_3_text":"

The work Rackspace Technology has done with CNWL has already brought noticeable and quantifiable benefits to the organization, most notably in a clearer and more understandable model for costs, with outgoings and requirements now a lot more predictable. In time, this transparency over costs will help ensure CNWL continues to deliver cost optimization by extracting maximum value from its services and only paying for what it needs.
\r\n
\r\nThe next steps for the project are to continue the transition from server-based legacy systems and onto cloud services, as well as exploring the potential to move to a multicloud model by leveraging public cloud. Using Rackspace Technology as a broker for public cloud will present an additional opportunity to reduce costs as CNWL continues to move towards its desired model.
\r\n
\r\nThe support of Rackspace Technology will also afford CNWL the cloud native enablement required to then accelerate this multicloud transformation, with cloud native application, data and security all built in a DevOps culture. Data modernization will help CNWL to make predictive, data driven decisions that can ultimately accelerate innovation and leverage modern data analytics to ensure greater efficiency and value.
\r\n
\r\nAlongside this, the ongoing safeguarding of data and systems, as well as upgrades to existing services and applications, is a key focus to ensure the security of the sensitive healthcare information of those that use its services. \u201cThe nature of many of the services that we provide means that protecting patient data is of utmost importance,\u201d said Powell. \u201cThe support from Rackspace Technology throughout the migration and as our organization quickly transitioned to remote working gave us confidence that we could make these significant changes without compromising on security.\u201d
\r\n
\r\nFor CNWL, there are also organizational ambitions to explore further growth opportunities, many of which require the technological agility and expertise now available. External opportunities to provide outsourced services and expertise increasingly rely on technology that can support this and the reliability, speed and robustness enabled by working with Rackspace Technology will be crucial in pursuing these in the future.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

An ongoing journey<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

\u201cIn actual terms, we are still at the very beginning of our journey with Rackspace Technology,\u201d said Powell. \u201cObviously a lot has happened, much of it unforeseeable, and the support we have had has been invaluable. We now know we have a robust, agile and trustworthy partner with us every step of the way and we have enormous confidence in our ongoing project and the benefits we will gain, and most importantly our patients, will feel.\u201d
\r\n <\/p>\r\n","text_river_3_pull_quote":"","case_study_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/case_study_images\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/Related-Stories_480x360_12.jpg","customer_logo":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/case_study_images\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/Customer-Logo-Template_500px_3.png","case_study_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/qu6QoOEkGRk","insights_image":"","og_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/case_study_images\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/OpenGraph_1200x630_14.jpg","twitter_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/case_study_images\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/Twitter_Card_1200x600_12.jpg","rxt_industry":"Healthcare","region":"Europe, UK, DACH, Benelux, Nordics","rxt_platforms":"Cloud, VMware","rxt_solutions":"Cloud, Cloud Adoption & Migration, Private Cloud","rxt_professional_managed_service":"Managed Services, Fanatical Experience","business_size":"Enterprise","bu_categories":"","details_url":"https:\/\/www.cnwl.nhs.uk","teaser_title":"CNWL","teaser_flag":"Case Study","teaser_read_more":"Learn More","teaser_logo":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/case_study_images\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust\/Related-Stories_480x360_28.jpg","related_headline":"Related Case Studies","content_type":"case_study","nid":"","drupal_nid":"23838","drupal_path":"\/case-studies\/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust","related_case_studies":"arthrex,brooks-macdonald,plus500","tab_items":"General contact case study L2, Contact Tab 2, Combained Contact Us - Careers","view_all_case_studies":"{\"uri\":\"entity:node\\\/8886\",\"title\":\"View all Case Studies\",\"options\":[]}","breadcrumb_top":"{\"uri\":\"entity:node\\\/23443\",\"title\":\"Case Studies\",\"options\":[]}","breadcrumb_title":"Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust","display_quote":"1","form_headline":"Let\u2019s Talk Strategy","form_subtext":"

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