DVLA Relying On AWS To Drive Cloud Strategy

Another company that is betting big on AWS, another success for the leading cloud provider! DVLA has confirmed its intention to move multiple systems to the Amazon platform.

In a move that the firm believes will not only enable innovation, but bring cost saving benefits.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is, of course, one of the most widely used government agencies in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for maintaining a database of the drivers and vehicles in the country — with nearly 50 million driver records on its books.

Dave Perry, the CTO of the organization explained the reasoning for adopting the public cloud, while speaking at the AWS London Summit at the ExCel Center:

“Three quarters of what we spend our money on is just keeping the lights on. We want to invest in new, innovative services and we won’t be able to do that so we’ve got to change the balance between how much it costs to keep the lights on and how much we can spend on change.

In order to do that we need to change our legacy systems to a modern approach and that’s quite challenging. We’ve got 48 million driver’s records, that’s 9 out of every 10 people in the UK over the age of 16. We’ve also got 41 million vehicles that we have to license across the UK and 33 million people renew their vehicle tax online. So we still have to manage those systems while we’re changing them.”

The DVLA currently has multiple systems running the Amazon Web Services platform, ranging from the tax calculation engine to the payment service, as well as the car hiring system.

This shift, Perry believes, will enable the DVLA to move away from legacy systems, and reduce the cost of running IT by 40% over the next three years. The organization is already working to roll out digital driver licenses on smartphones in 2018, and this cloud migration comes at just the right time.