NATS, the leading air traffic control organisation, is to implement a multi-million pound project to transfer all its desktop IT services to a cloud-based infrastructure. By creating a secure, virtual desktop environment the company expects to reduce costs by £9 million over the next four years, shrink its environmental footprint, improve flexibility and enhance the service it provides to around 6,000 staff.

This is the largest implementation of cloud-based infrastructure in the transport sector to date and will allow more effective collaboration between NATS staff and business partners across NATS locations, over multiple geographic regions. Staff will have access to the services, information and applications they need for their particular role, creating a customised experience.

The new service will be trialled with more than 300 users during 2011 and will be rolled out to all staff in the first half of 2012.

Gavin Walker, Head of IS at NATS, said: “This project is part of our Future Workspace vision and is crucial to the NATS growth strategy, providing us with a flexible and responsive IT framework that doesn’t add to our footprint. Staff will be able to access the applications they need, wherever they are, and will have a consistent experience regardless of the device they are using.”