A list of what we do!

STS is an established cloud service provider (CSP) and building the necessary infrastructure, software, and expertise to deliver cloud computing resources to customers. This involves setting up data centres with robust networking and storage capabilities, virtualisation technologies, and security measures. The CSP should also develop a range of service offerings, such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Software as a Service (SaaS), tailored to the needs of various customers. Ongoing management, monitoring, and support is essential to ensure high availability, security, and performance, while billing and customer support systems facilitate the provisioning and management of cloud resources. 

STS uses two council-located datacentres in Brent and Croydon to house the IT infrastructure. Redundant power supply and cooling are included to ensure a resilient stable environment with security-controlled access and CCTV to only allow authorised entry and monitor activity within. Platform services manage a virtualization environment for the server compute estate, 1 PB of SAN storage in each datacentre based on both SSD and HDD disks, server builds both physical and virtual, backup/restore services using a Rubrik cloud backup solution for both on-premise and Azure/O365 resource backups, print solution management with follow-me and remote printing capability, PKI management and certificate administration, Active Directory management and shared file/unstructured data management. More recently, Azure tenancy, resource and cost management has also been added to the portfolio of offerings in this area as the service expands into the cloud.

From safeguarding your assets through security architecture and assessment to offering a comprehensive suite of services, we ensure the utmost protection. Our approach is characterised by exceptional flexibility, tailoring our services precisely to your requirements. Our dedicated team possesses the expertise and experience necessary to comprehend your unique challenges and deliver optimal outcomes. With our security assurance services, rest assured that your systems and data enjoy robust protection.

We specialise in meticulous security testing, diligently pinpointing vulnerabilities in both your infrastructure and applications. Our seasoned experts conduct exhaustive assessments, enabling proactive resolution of weaknesses. In addition, our proficiency in business resilience guarantees swift recovery from any security incidents that may arise.

Network infrastructure installation, maintenance and management including routing, switching, firewalling, segregation, web filtering and Wi-Fi management. 10Gb Internet pipes are installed to each of the STS datacentres to handle all current and foreseeable future requirements for both cloud access and cloud backup capability, plus we have multiple 10Gb links between the STS Brent and Croydon datacentres to facilitate replication of the environments in each for recovery in the event of a datacentre outage. We provide a comprehensive proactive monitoring capability using enterprise-grade, multi-capability tools to alert us to any potential issues that may arise. Alongside this we have resilience built-in to our critical network components to guard against single component failure causing outages or service disruption. We also provide VPN services for secure remote access and connections to third-party suppliers. Load balancing, Internet traffic filtering and web application filtering are amongst the other services included as standard.

The Service Improvement (SI) Team supports STS and partner councils in service improvements, ITSM design, business analysis, data analysis and process design.

With a focus on Human-Centred Design, the SI Team collaborates with multiple stakeholders through various design methods such as workshops and user interviews to identify pain points and ways to enhance user experience.

Combining these qualitative elements with a data driven quantitative approach, the team co-designs new and/or improved processes and services to enable STS and its partner councils to achieve their business objectives.

The STS Enterprise Architecture team offers our partners a structured approach to aligning their IT infrastructure and business processes with strategic objectives, providing a holistic view of the individual organisation. Improving decision-making, mitigating risks, optimising costs, promoting interoperability whilst enhancing agility and adaptability, facilitating communication and collaboration among stakeholders, ensuring compliance and governance, and supporting long-term planning. It serves as a valuable framework for optimising operations and achieving strategic goals in a coordinated and efficient manner.

STS provides a single point of contact for the partner/customer within the Shared Service, to be the primary contact point for effective service delivery and partner engagement, to understand the changing demands and requirements for effective resource planning and to establish and drive relevant governance to support the partner in planning and prioritising strategic investment based on detailed roadmaps and an understanding of cross-partner and IT enabling interdependencies.

STS delivers IT infrastructure-related programmes and projects to planned dates and within budget across the Shared Service and ensures a high-performing, customer-focused, and cost-effective support service is provided across the supported organisations. We will also undertake investigative work to determine service opportunities and specify effective business solutions, including improvements in information systems, data management, practices, organisation and equipment.

We manage and lead on the procurement and contracts management function of Shared Technology Services, ensuring a high-performing, customer focused and cost-effective support service is provided across all organisations we provide services to. We deliver an extensive portfolio of contracts, including leading on major ICT-related tenders, from invitation to tender to award including transition into service delivery and business as usual.  STS provides supplier management functions to enable the successful delivery of BAU, projects and the ICT strategic roadmap across Shared Technology Services. STS will also deliver a comprehensive professional finance service that fulfils partners' statutory, corporate and operational requirements, ensuring high-quality financial services and management reporting to partners Councils, as well as managing the overall budget for Shared Technology Service.

The End User team is responsible for end user device management covering a range of devices primarily laptops, desktops, tablets and thin-clients. Standard images are created to provide accelerated build times internally and via third-party partners. We also build, manage and maintain a remote desktop server estate (including Citrix), which provides access to the network for partner organisations and third-party support companies. A large-scale Direct Access solution is used by our internal client laptop estate and end user compute group policy management, application packaging, client estate management and maintenance through SCCM and InTune complete the comprehensive set of solutions for this secure but flexible client compute environment.

The STS Service Desk offering uses a cloud-hosted Hornbill ITSM service for incident management and resolution, request management and resolution, and change and problem control. Users can interact with the service through a web portal including from mobile devices, email and also a 24x7x365 telephone service providing first-line support and escalation services. We work to agreed SLAs and provide comprehensive reporting against those SLAs. An engineer presence is maintained at all major offices to facilitate a face to face service for users as well.