Local authorities across England and Wales are facing an unprecedented period of change. With Local Government Reform (LGR) on the horizon in England, many councils will find themselves concurrently merging services, consolidating IT systems and rationalising data infrastructure, often across multiple departments, suppliers and technology platforms. It’s a daunting prospect.

Isle of Anglesey County Council (Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn) recently undertook a multi-phase, multi-partner data consolidation project. Here’s how we helped to orchestrate it and what other unitary authorities can learn from the experience.

The challenge

Anglesey needed to modernise and consolidate its geospatial data infrastructure. At the heart of the project was a single, ageing on-premise PostgreSQL/PostGIS server that had become a critical dependency for multiple systems and teams. This hosted the council’s canonical planning data, the authoritative source feeding both the public-facing GIS mapping service (Astun’s iShare) and the council’s planning back-office system.

The council’s goals were clear:

• Migrate to the cloud: move all geospatial data from the on-premise server to a cloud-hosted Spatial Data Warehouse (SDW), eliminating the cost, risk and maintenance burden of on-premise infrastructure.
• Upgrade core platforms: migrate iShare from version 5 to version 6, including the SDW, GIS, Maps and the Studio ETL data-integration layer.
• Implement a new integration service: replace the existing third-party GIS client-mediated connection between the planning database and the third-party planning back-office system with a cloud-based Managed Integration Service (MIS).
• Address security vulnerabilities: upgrade or remove outdated software components such as PostgreSQL itself, plus Tomcat, Java, Google Chrome and other utilities flagged in a cyber-security review.
• Decommission the on-premise server: once all data and integrations had been migrated to the cloud.

Simple enough on paper. In practice, it was anything but.

The moving parts

What made this project complex was not any single task, but the sheer number of interdependencies between phases, organisations and technologies that had to be coordinated in the right sequence.

The work was structured into four phases, each with its own scope, timeline and set of stakeholders:

1. Security hardening and PostgreSQL upgrade. Before anything else could happen, the on-premise server needed to be stabilised: PostgreSQL and PostGIS upgraded, vulnerable software removed or updated, and the results validated against a fresh cyber-security review. All of this had to be tested first on a cloned server before being applied to the live environment.
2. MIS implementation. A cloud-based GeoServer was set up to serve the planning data layers that the planning back-office system needed, reading from the cloud SDW. This required Astun to configure both live and test environments, create data-copy workflows to keep the cloud SDW synchronised with the on-premise database, and work closely with the planning back-office system supplier and the council teams to define the precise layers and OGC service configurations required for their integration testing.
3. iShare v6 migration. The council’s iShare platform (SDW, GIS, Maps and ETL) was migrated to version 6. This was far more than a standard upgrade as it also included:
   1. Moving all non-planning data to the cloud SDW
   2. Creating PostgreSQL login roles for QGIS users
   3. Migrating ETL workflows from v5 to v6
   4. Switching authentication from ADFS to Microsoft Entra ID
4. Planning back-office system upgrade – the final piece: This required a carefully managed data freeze, a final one-time copy of canonical planning data from the on-premise server to the cloud SDW, and then the cut-over so that the Planning live system would read and write planning data via the new cloud MIS rather than the old third-party GIS client connection.

Each phase depended on the one before it, and some ran in parallel. The MIS had to be operational before the iShare v6 migration could complete. The v6 migration had to be live before the Planning back-office system go-live could proceed. And throughout, the on-premise server had to keep running, serving the live planning system, until the very last cut-over was done.

Four organisations, one programme

Coordination of the work required close collaboration across four organisations, each with a different role:

• Isle of Anglesey County Council: Astun’s customer, responsible for defining requirements, providing configuration data, managing internal GIS users, and commissioning the work.
• Astun Technology: acting behind the scenes as Anglesey’s Programme Manager and technical delivery partner for phasing, sequencing and delivering the infrastructure work for PostgreSQL upgrades, cloud SDW setup, ETL migration, MIS configuration, iShare v6 migration; managing scope and budget for these aspects, and providing guidance to Anglesey’s GIS team during the transition.
• Planning system supplier: provider of the planning back-office system, responsible for testing integration with the new MIS and delivering the system upgrade.
• Third-party GIS client: GIS software provider whose middleware connected the Planning system to the on-premise planning database.

Regular multi-party meetings were essential to keep the programme on track, resolve dependencies and agree next steps. When scope evolved or new requirements emerged (as they inevitably did), Astun managed accompanying commercial and technical implications, identifying what was standard delivery and what constituted separately chargeable work.

The data at the centre

At the heart of everything was the planning data: the canonical, authoritative dataset used by the council’s planning department, served to the public via iShare, and read and written by the Planning back-office system directly to the iShare SDW. Getting the migration of this data right – ensuring it was accurately copied, correctly synchronised between environments, and seamlessly cut over from on-premise to cloud with minimal downtime – was the programme’s single most critical aspect. Thanks to the careful sequencing and preparation work done in earlier phases, a data freeze of only half a day was required for the final cut-over. 

The timeframe

Planning and scoping commenced in September 2025, with Phase 1 (security hardening and PostgreSQL upgrades) designated as an urgent priority.

The remaining phases were originally due for completion by March 2026. As is common with multi-party programmes of this nature, the timeline required adjustment when the Planning back-office system go-live was moved to May 2026. However, the phased structure ensured that each component could proceed at its own pace without delaying others.

Astun’s programme management

Our role in this project went well beyond technical delivery. As Programme Manager, we:

• Designed the phased programme structure, breaking a sprawling set of requirements into a logical, sequenced delivery plan.
• Provided coordination, including arranging and chairing multi-party meetings and ensuring each party understood their responsibilities and dependencies.
• Managed scope and commercial arrangements between Astun & Anglesey, clearly identifying what fell within standard product delivery and what required separate commissioning, and providing transparent estimates and tracking effort against budgets.
• Delivered the technical work, from PostgreSQL upgrades and security remediation through to cloud SDW configuration, ETL workflow migration, MIS setup and iShare v6 migration.
• Supported the client’s team through the transition, providing guidance for Anglesey’s GIS users as they moved from editing data on the on-premise server to working directly in the cloud SDW.

This is the kind of programme management that makes the difference between a data consolidation project that stalls in complexity and one that reaches a successful conclusion.

Astun Technology played a pivotal role in the successful delivery of our planning system and GIS infrastructure modernisation programme. Their technical expertise, programme leadership and collaborative approach helped us navigate a complex set of projects involving multiple suppliers, systems and stakeholders. Throughout the programme, Astun provided clear guidance, excellent planning and a strong focus on delivery, ensuring key milestones were achieved and outcomes realised. We greatly value their professionalism, commitment and partnership, and thank them for their contribution to this important transformation programme.

Anthony Williams, IT Operations Manager

What this means for Local Government Reform

With the forthcoming LGR in England, many councils will face similar, or possibly larger, challenges. When authorities merge, they inherit multiple GIS platforms, overlapping datasets, different back-office systems and a web of supplier relationships. Planning data, in particular, is both mission-critical and technically complex to migrate.

The Anglesey project demonstrates that with the right programme management these challenges are entirely manageable. The key ingredients are:

• A clear phased approach that sequences work logically and manages dependencies.
• A programme manager who understands both the technology and the organisational dynamics, and who can coordinate across multiple suppliers and stakeholders.
• Transparent scope and commercial management, so that councils know exactly what they’re getting and what it will cost.
• Deep technical expertise in geospatial data infrastructure (databases, ETL, GeoServer, cloud migration, authentication) so that the technical work is done right.

We bring all of these to the table. If your council is facing a system consolidation, a platform migration or a data infrastructure modernisation (whether driven by LGR or simply by the need to move to the cloud) we’d love to hear from you.