UK insurance group Aviva has inked a 10 year, £700 million contract with US IT services firm EDS for the management of two UK data centres.
EDS, which was acquired by Hewlett Packard (HP) last year, will transform and manage the Norwich-based centres which serve Aviva's businesses in the UK, India, France and Ireland.
Under the deal, around 300 Aviva staff will transfer to EDS, which says it will provide the insurer with data centre modernisation services as well as management for the mainframe, midrange and Windows servers. HP, along with Cisco will provide some tools, technologies and resources to EDS.
Igal Mayer, UK general insurance CEO, Aviva, says: "Partnering with EDS for data centre services, in our view, supports Aviva's goals to improve flexibility, increase operational efficiency and lower costs."
Bill Thomas, SVP, Europe, Middle East and Africa, EDS, adds: "The data centre transformation will help Aviva increase efficiency, lower risk and reduce costs."