UK Government Sector

Secure, resilient IT for UK government and public services

Switchshop delivers networking, cyber security and infrastructure for central government departments, arm's length bodies, devolved administrations, councils, emergency services and DCMS-sponsored bodies including national libraries, museums and galleries. UK-based, in-house engineering, aligned to the Government Cyber Security Strategy.

CCS
Framework approved
CAF
Aligned security
24/7
UK-based support
100%
In-house engineering
Fortinet
New • Award announcement

Switchshop named Fortinet Public Sector Partner of the Year

Awarded to only one partner per year from Fortinet's UK partner network, recognising consistent delivery of complex security projects in the public sector.

Read the announcement
Challenges & Solutions

Built around the realities of uk government

Challenge

Meeting the Government Cyber Security Strategy and NCSC CAF

Layered security designed against the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework, Cyber Essentials Plus and Government Functional Standards, with clear evidence and reporting for assurance teams.

Challenge

Legacy estates blocking digital transformation

Pragmatic modernisation of LAN, WAN, datacentre and identity, with phased migrations that protect live services while moving departments to cloud-ready, secure-by-design platforms.

Challenge

Connecting distributed sites, hubs and frontline teams

SD-WAN, secure connectivity and high-density Wi-Fi engineered for HQs, regional hubs, contact centres, depots and frontline locations, with consistent policy and visibility everywhere.

Challenge

Protecting citizen data and meeting UK GDPR obligations

Identity-led access, segmentation, immutable backup and ransomware-resilient storage, mapped to UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act and departmental information governance.

Challenge

Compliant procurement under Procurement Act 2023

Approved supplier across the frameworks central and local government actually use, with commercial models that simplify direct award and accelerate time to deploy.

Challenge

Always-on services with zero tolerance for outage

Highly available designs with resilient power, dual-path connectivity, tested failover and 24/7 UK-based support, so citizen-facing and frontline services keep running.

Definitions

What UK Government Cyber Compliance Actually Means

Tailored Services

Capabilities tuned for uk government

Government networking

Resilient LAN, WAN, SD-WAN and datacentre networking for departments, agencies, councils and arm's length bodies.

Cyber security & CAF alignment

Security architectures aligned to NCSC CAF, Cyber Essentials Plus and the Government Cyber Security Strategy, with firewalling, EDR, segmentation and 24/7 monitoring.

Hybrid & secure cloud

Cloud-ready infrastructure and connectivity for OFFICIAL workloads, supporting Cloud First strategies, hyperscaler adoption and hybrid datacentre models.

Identity & zero trust

Single sign-on, MFA, conditional access and zero-trust segmentation for civil servants, contractors and partner organisations.

Workplace Wi-Fi & mobility

High-density Wi-Fi 6E/7 for HQs, regional hubs and contact centres, with secure guest, BYOD and contractor access.

Datacentre modernisation

Refresh and consolidation of departmental and council datacentres with modern compute, storage and software-defined platforms.

Backup & ransomware resilience

Immutable backups, off-site replication and tested recovery for citizen records, case management and operational systems.

SOC, monitoring & assurance

24/7 UK-based security operations, vulnerability management and reporting that maps cleanly to CAF and departmental assurance frameworks.

Citizen services connectivity

Connectivity, Wi-Fi and security for libraries, town halls, customer service centres and community hubs across local authority estates.

Smart Estates for the public sector

IoT, sensors and analytics that give estates and facilities teams real-time visibility across government and council buildings.

UPS & power resilience by APC

APC by Schneider Electric UPS, PDUs and power management designed, deployed and maintained to keep government comms rooms and edge sites online through outages.

Frameworks & procurement support

Compliant routes via CCS and other public sector frameworks, with bid, design and commercial support for direct-award and competed engagements.

About Switchshop

Why Government IT Leaders Choose Switchshop

Switchshop is a UK-based IT infrastructure and cyber security integrator with over 25 years of experience working exclusively with public sector organisations, from central government departments and devolved administrations to district councils, unitary authorities and arm’s length bodies.

We are headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire, with our Centre for Technical Excellence in Kimpton, and an additional office in Glasgow. Our 100% in-house UK engineering team of more than 60 specialists, including a dedicated structured cabling team, delivers and supports complex government infrastructure programmes nationwide, with 24/7/365 UK-based support.

We hold Crown Commercial Service framework positions including RM6116 Network Services 3, and are an approved NHS SBS DWS supplier for wider public sector buyers. Our core technology partnerships are with HPE Aruba Networking and Fortinet. Switchshop holds Fortinet’s Engage Technical Support Partner (ETSP) and Engage Preferred Services Partner (EPSP) accreditations, the highest technical tiers amongst Fortinet’s support programmes, and is the only UK partner authorised to deliver Fortinet services at vendor level. Every Fortinet engagement we undertake is fully assured, fully aligned and fully supported. In recognition of our delivery of CAF-aligned security projects across UK central and local government, we were named Fortinet Public Sector Partner of the Year, an award given to just one partner annually from across Fortinet’s entire UK network.

Government IT is not a market we entered recently. It is where we have built our reputation, on secure-by-design network refresh, NCSC CAF-aligned cyber security, structured cabling, datacentre modernisation, identity-led zero trust and managed services, delivered to the standards and timescales that public sector programmes demand.

Founded
25+ years ago
Headquarters
St Albans, UK
Additional offices
Kimpton
Glasgow
Engineering team
60+
In-house, UK
Reach
UK-wide
24/7/365
Recognition
Fortinet Public Sector Partner of the Year
Smart Estates & IoT

Cut Estate Running Costs Without Cutting Services

With central government departments, devolved administrations and councils all under sustained pressure to find efficiencies, IT directors, estates leaders and finance teams are being asked to release space, reduce energy use and evidence value across the public estate. Our occupancy and IoT analytics tooling turns your existing HPE Aruba Networking wireless access points into live occupancy sensors, no extra hardware required, showing the offices, meeting rooms, hot-desks and civic spaces that were booked but barely used, so you stop heating, cleaning, leasing and timetabling against capacity you do not actually need. Real insight for the Government Property Agency, One Public Estate and council-level rationalisation programmes, before harder cuts have to be made.

Occupancy: Booked vs Actual Utilisation

Continuous occupancy data drawn from your existing wireless access points and overlaid on your room-booking system, exposing offices, meeting rooms, hot-desks and civic chambers that are reserved but barely used. No new sensors to install. Release space, hand back leases and defer expensive new builds.

Energy, Carbon and Net Zero Reporting

Continuous monitoring of energy use, HVAC performance and carbon impact across departmental offices, council buildings and operational sites, supporting Greening Government Commitments, council net-zero pledges and the wider public sector decarbonisation programme.

Estate Intelligence Platform

Unified dashboards for IT, property, finance and senior leadership showing building performance, asset health and utilisation across the departmental or council estate in one place, ready to evidence GPA, OPE and Treasury business cases.

Procurement Frameworks

Compliant routes to procurement

Proof in Delivery

Outcomes delivered in uk government

Central department network refreshLocal authority cyber upliftArm's length body datacentre consolidation

Central department network refresh

Replaced ageing core, distribution and wireless across a central government estate with a resilient HPE Aruba fabric, delivered out of hours with zero impact to citizen-facing services.

20+
Sites refreshed
5,000+
Access points
Zero
Service downtime
Central department network refreshLocal authority cyber upliftArm's length body datacentre consolidation

Local authority cyber uplift

Designed and deployed a Fortinet-led security fabric across a unitary council, aligning firewalling, segmentation and monitoring to the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework.

60+
Sites secured
100%
CAF aligned
24/7
SOC coverage
Central department network refreshLocal authority cyber upliftArm's length body datacentre consolidation

Arm's length body datacentre consolidation

Consolidated three legacy datacentres into a modern hybrid platform with Lenovo compute and immutable backup, cutting cost and shrinking the attack surface.

3 to 1
Datacentres
40%
Cost reduction
100%
Backup immutability
Events

Industry Events Where You Can Find Us

Switchshop exhibits, sponsors and speaks at the leading uk government industry events across the UK. Come and meet the team, or catch up on where we have been.

Plan your next government IT delivery with Switchshop

Talk to our public sector specialists about CAF-aligned cyber, network refresh, datacentre modernisation or a full department-wide infrastructure programme.