Appendix B: Environment specific expectations

The table below shows environment specific expectations for relevant stakeholders from sections 1 to 4.

This table is currently intended for an internal audience only. If required a full version of the contents could be produced for an external audience in a later version.

Environment specific expectations

• acute or large hospital sites: dual power feeds, UPS + generator minimum
• community and mental health sites: UPS required; generator recommended for critical clinical services
• primary care: UPS for essential equipment; generator not typically required unless clinical risk dictates
• Co‑lo or cloud hosting: provider must evidence equivalent or higher power resilience

Environment specific expectations

• acute and large sites: electronic access control and logging are strongly recommended
• community and mental health sites: controlled access appropriate to building use
• primary care: lockable rooms or cabinets sufficient for smaller hosting footprints
• co‑lo or cloud hosting: providers must demonstrate equivalent controls

Environment specific expectations

• acute or critical environments: suppression recommended due to clinical dependency on hosted services
• community / primary care: validated detection required; suppression based on risk assessment
• co‑lo / external data centres: providers must evidence compliant fire safety systems

Environment specific expectations

• acute  or high‑criticality sites: fully enclosed racks with controlled access; seismically secured where required
• community or primary care: secure wall‑mounted or floor racks appropriate to footprint
• co‑lo or data centre facilities: provider must evidence compliant rack installation and maintenance standards

Environment specific expectations

• acute or large environments: structured cabling plant should support high‑density hosting without airflow obstruction
• community or primary care: simplified structured cabling suitable for smaller installations
• Co‑lo or hosting providers: must demonstrate structured cabling that meets or exceeds NHS expectations

Environment specific expectations

• acute sites: provision for high‑density hosting, resilient layout design and future scaling
• community or primary care: appropriately sized comms/hosting spaces to avoid equipment sprawl
• co‑lo or hosted: provider must evidence sufficient resilient capacity and expansion options

Environment specific expectations

• acute or high‑dependency services: multi‑node, high‑availability hosting architectures wherever technically and financially proportionate
• community or primary care: simplified resilience appropriate to lower‑risk workloads
• Co‑lo or cloud: providers must evidence equivalent or higher levels of architectural resilience

Environment specific expectations

• acute sites: strong preference for active‑active or active‑passive architectures for critical services
• community or primary care: HA only required for systems where clinical risk assessment identifies dependency
• cloud or hosted environments: contracts must guarantee availability equivalent to NHS operational expectations