Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE): Simplifying a complex IT estate with a single solution

Simplifying a complex IT estate with a single solution

How the Atomic Weapons Establishment uses Enterprise Architecture to understand its IT Estate AWE plays a crucial role in the UK's national defense. The organization has been at the forefront of the country's nuclear defense program for over 60 years and supports the 'Continuous At Sea Deterrence program' and national nuclear security.

A large complex IT estate of wide and varied systems and applications supports all of this work. Because of this, the need arose to move from PowerPoint and paper-based solution design into an IT modeling solution where dependencies and relationships are more explicit.

The main driver of the project was to understand the cost of IT software and applications, how IT is utilized across the business, and when technology needed to be refreshed. With so many solutions, vendors, and applications to map, diagrams and modeling was the most logical fit for this. They represented the best approach to the goal of complete business visibility into how everything fits together.

“The main driver of the project was to understand the cost of IT software and applications, how IT is utilized across the business and when technology needed to be refreshed. […] We selected the HOPEX platform for its strong IT portfolio management and architecture capabilities.“
Dr Sue Davison, IS Application Portfolio and Governance Manager, AWE

IT Portfolio Management meets architecture.

AWE decided to look for software that will support them in answering many overlapping questions:

• Understand the cost of IT and how it is used across the organization
• Providing a systematic modeling approach to capture design information
• Advanced awareness and planning for technology lifecycles and obsolescence
• Reduce costs through efficiency and avoiding technology duplications and redundancies
• More efficient regulatory compliance and audit preparation

They have selected the HOPEX platform for its strong IT portfolio management and architecture capabilities.

The IT portfolio management provides the platform to offer complete inventories of all systems, applications, and software, indicating dependencies, relationships, vendor support information, and costs.

Architecture provides the platform to enable model-based designs of how the inventory of "stuff” must be deployed, enriching the lists developed as part of applications and technology portfolio management activities.

A better understanding of the IT estate thanks to a complete overview 

Clear deliverables have been produced that are shared with various stakeholders across the organization in graphical form.

The outcomes of the project that have better-enabled AWE to understand its IT estate are as follows:

• A managed central repository of IT estate information providing essential information for decision-making and awareness
• A clear understanding of the relationship between systems, applications, and software, and how all of this supports the business
• Software obsolescence roadmaps to enable improved planning
• Required reporting available "out of the box,” reducing time to publishing the information

Solutions

• HOPEX IT Portfolio Management
• HOPEX Platform
• MEGA Services Team

About Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) 

Atomic Weapons Establishment's role in keeping the UK safe is to manufacture, maintain and develop the warheads for Trident, the country's ultimate deterrent, and use its unique skills and expertise to support nuclear threat reduction. The organization operates from four sites across the UK and has some of the world's most advanced research, design, and production facilities.