The rewards and risks of British Library's move to cloud

26 March 2024 Consultancy.uk

Legacy systems have been blamed for the British Library’s slow recovery after a high-profile hack, prompting a migration to the cloud. However, CloudClevr Chief Technology Officer Rob Smith warns that a move to the cloud alone does not necessarily solve all the institution’s problems.

The close of 2023 saw the British Library make headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Rhysida hack of its systems saw cybercriminals make off with 600GB worth of data, and destroyed many of the Library’s servers in the process.

In the months since, the British Library has admitted that many of its systems cannot be repaired because of their age. They no longer work on the new infrastructure or there is no longer any vendor support. This means that the damage done by the hack has had a huge impact on the ability of the Library to undertake its day-to-day work.

As a result, it is now turning to cloud-based technology, and is expected to rely on it more than ever before. This is a positive move and one that will certainly help the security and day-to-day business of the Library. But, as much as there is some excitement within the Library about the move to the cloud, Rob Smith believes this should be tempered with some caution.

The rewards and risks of British Library's move to cloud

“The British Library has learnt a valuable, but expensive lesson in ensuring that IT is given some priority when it comes to budgets. While holding onto legacy systems can seem like the cheaper option, once compromised it quickly becomes apparent that any cost savings are immediately negated. The decision to move to the cloud is therefore a sound one. The benefits of cloud are well-recognised and will help the library bring services back online and move forward more confidently. However, like many organisations moving towards the cloud, the British Library has to ensure that the migration and day-to-day are well managed.” 

Cloud is now an integral part of many organisation’s systems, the CTO of CloudClever – a cloud communications and IT consultancy – explained. But without effective management it can quickly spiral out of control, leaving companies with complex, expensive services.  

“We have seen lots of companies move to the cloud with enthusiasm only be disappointed with results, ROI or uptake from employees,” Smith continued. “Such massive restructuring has to be carefully managed and without insight and data this can be a difficult if not impossible task.”

Pointing to ways around this, Smith noted that some companies are “turning to intelligent management software” to provide insight to ensure that their cloud experience is a positive one. For example, an often unmanaged financial drain on organisations adopting  cloud is inactive or over-assigned licences. Intelligent management software can give organisations a ‘big picture’ on how many licences or hardware assets they hold and “what might be able to be used reused elsewhere or even removed.”

Smith added, “Securing an overview using the right data across multiple technologies and services can make a real difference for companies. As well as financial issues, the overview can allow management to pinpoint areas where employees might need additional training, identify potential vulnerabilities that can be closed before cybercriminals can take advantage (particularly pertinent to the British Library) and ensure the best use of the new system.”

“Cloud can provide a real advantage to companies, but like any major overhaul, the process and the ongoing management has to be done effectively using the right, most accurate data. The British Library will have learnt some valuable lessons since the hack and preceding difficulties that legacy systems left them with. However, unless they can manage the migration and ongoing management of the new cloud systems there is a danger that they fall into an expensive and complex cycle,” Smith concluded.