Bank of England's Oracle cloud migration bill triples as project grinds on

The Bank of England has trebled the amount it is spending on its Oracle systems integrator amid efforts to migrate business applications to the cloud. The UK's central bank has planned the move since 2020, and a recent procurement note revealed it has increased financial outlay with Oracle implementation partner Version 1 to £ …

[Like a badger]

Which is worse?

That it's Oracle's infamously pricey and difficult to implement software, or that our central bank are placing all their data on Oracle cloud, within scope of the US Patriot Act data-theft-when-we-feel-like-it provisions?

[steviesteveo]

Re: Which is worse?

Plus the market influence - having to ensure interoperability with the BoE has justified a lot of oracle EBS sales over the years

It's one of the big soft powers the government and similar institutions have. If being 1:1 with your central bank involves UK made software then you're naturally encouraging sales of UK made software

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Which is worse?

I don't think UK software companies can afford wine and steak dinners with ministers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Which is worse?

I don't think any UK company could produce an EBS system that could compete with Oracle, at any price. Maybe 40 years ago but not today.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Which is worse?

Such system is the easy part. The hard part is to get on the tender gravy train.

[allyw]

Re: Which is worse?

*Sage enters the room*

[Roland6]

Re: Which is worse?

A direct consequence of the failure to invest in and (soft power) promote UK software 40+ years back…

Unfortunately, don’t see any of the major political parties currently trying to present themselves as being suitable to form the next Westminster having both the desire and determination to change this institutionalised mindset…

[hoola]

Re: Which is worse?

Anything worthwhile is simply hoovered up by the big US tech outfits and the execs that sold the company are laughing all the way to the Bank.

[[e-mail]]

Re: Which is worse?

or murdered by US special forces on their yacht

[Strahd Ivarius]

Re: Which is worse?

All the surplus money will soon be sent to Donny's coffer...

[elDog]

Surplus money? Ah, no - you're dealing with the Ellisons

They are as avaricious as the worst of them, including Donny TwoScoops.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Which is worse?

Why the absolute fuck are they running (a ‘complex implementation of’) SAP and Oracle Fusion ?

Choose one FFS.

[Anonymous Coward]

Common themes

Oracle - late

Oracle - costly overruns

Scoping - incomplete or incompetent

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Common themes

Recently had a job interview with Version 1 and they came across as a bunch of cowboys. Looks like I dodged a bullet there (anon for obvious reasons).

[DJV]

Re: bunch of cowboys

Well dodged!

I presume you're referring to both Oracle and the BoE with that 'cowboys' statement.

[Lon24]

Re: bunch of cowboys

Not cowboys. The BoE may be more like the (indigenous) Indians having the people, towns and villages pillaged - and worse!

[Anonymous Coward]

Bonuses all round!

You’ve all done very well.

[Syn3rg]

BoE: "We generate more money than we spend"

Oracle: "Challenge accepted"

[FirstTangoInParis]

I wonder if they charge £11 for every £10 note?

[TVU]

"The UK's central bank has planned the move since 2020, and a recent procurement note revealed it has increased financial outlay with Oracle implementation partner Version 1 to £21.5 million after initially tendering the contract for £7 million".

Now who would have ever thought that there would be massive cost overruns with a project involving Oracle?

[Doctor Syntax]

The Register has asked the Bank of England for more information.

Did you ask "Hadn't you read the reports on other Oracle migrations?" or "Have you heard of the sunk cost fallacy?"

[Scene it all]

"The sunk cost fallacy" is central to Oracle's business plans. They admit this internally.

[FirstTangoInParis]

More information could also include a plain English explanation

[breakfast]

Oracle is a red flag

Every time I see one of these Oracle flunks I'm painfully conscious how easy it would be to put together a team to do the same job for a fraction of the outlay. Genuinely bizarre that the public sector keeps going back to them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Oracle is a red flag

The civil service used to be run by chinless wonders with humanities degrees from Oxbridge. Nowadays, in the name of diversity, they have been replaced by knuckle dragging oiks from ex-Polys. The shift from ignorance to stupidity has gone about as well as one might expect.

[breakfast]

Re: Oracle is a red flag

I think this is very unfair - there are still plenty of ignorant people working in the civil service.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: knuckle dragging oiks from ex-Polys

As an ex-Poly Grad (Poly of Central London) I resent that description of people like me, BSC Mech Eng. We had to work a lot harder than the those taking Business Studies or god forbid Media Studies.

From my years of selling specialised IT to the Civil Service I found that most of those on the other side of the table were PPE grads from places like the LSE. totally useless when it came to evaluating IT systems.

[Ian 35]

Re: Oracle is a red flag

Version 1 are the people that did Birmingham City Council, and look how well that went.

[a_builder]

Re: Oracle is a red flag

Looks like BoE urgently need Version 2….

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

Oracle: where projects and budgets go to die.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

BoE can afford it

Just print a few extra bank notes

[Anonymous Coward]

The usual suspects

Who is mangling the programme?

[Taliesinawen]

Sounds complicated /s

ClippyAI said: Ultra‑scale Oracle Cloud implementation and managed services driving end‑to‑end digital transformation across a converged Oracle ecosystem, exploiting enterprise‑grade Oracle Database, Oracle ERP and HCM Cloud, and Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications on OCI through a hyperscale Oracle Fusion SaaS model with turbocharged Exadata performance and frictionless integration to E‑Business Suite, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft for always‑on business continuity and cloud‑native, future‑proof operating models.

Our organization is proudly embracing the future of enterprise technology with a cutting‑edge Oracle setup that brings everything “into the cloud,” which is where all modern IT now happens. With our Oracle Cloud implementation and managed services partner, we can be confident that experts somewhere are looking after all the complicated technical details so the business can “focus on what it does best” instead of worrying about servers and blinking lights.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sounds complicated /s

The Oracle sales pitch perhaps ?

[druck]

Re: Sounds complicated /s

ai;dr

[elsergiovolador]

Free

Thanks to Cloud Act even Putin will be able to look up Bank of England data if he tickles Trump vel Krasnov hard enough.

[Roland6]

Re: Free

Does any one know if Oracle, like Microsoft, administrators secure government cloud tenancies from China?…

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Free

Of course they do.

[Tron]

UK government contracts are lottery wins for the tech sector.

Tech suppliers must have a league table for government projects, your position dependent on the multiplier from the original quote to the current total. Lowest at the bottom, highest at the top. Come in on budget and you are fired. Come in under budget and you wake up in Medellín in your undies with $5 in your wallet.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice to see the same crew who worked on the Birmingham City Council ERP are still prospecting...

[Anonymous Coward]

Quelle surprise

I can't see the competitor (SAP) is any better either?

[EvaQ]

Re: Quelle surprise

German, so not per se better but at least no Trump laws.

[Vader]

Brown envelopes the UK never learns, look at what happened at Birmingham City Council. They will fucked it up as usual.

[pnunn]

But the cloud is always so much better!!!

Again... same windmills, some shouting, some dumb bastards making the decisions based on advertising.

[MrGreen]

Tony Again

I wonder who was behind this deal?

Maybe someone in the UK who is big pals with Larry?

Ah, yes, it’s got Tony’s fingerprints all over it.

[Alpy]

When will people wake up with Oracle?

After all the catastrophic delivery failures of Oracle over the years in Government, why do people still even consider them? When will people wake up?

[DesertDoc]

Moving the goalposts

"the increase attributed to "amended implementation methodology, from a two-phase approach, to a multiple-phase approach"

It's classic government style procurement - keep moving the goalposts, then wonder why it's costing so much

[koborn]

And what happens to BofE data?

From El Reg just recently:

“The US CLOUD Act of 2018 allows American authorities to compel US-based technology companies to provide requested data, regardless of where that data is stored globally. This places European organizations in a precarious position, as it directly clashes with Europe’s own stringent privacy regulation, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).”