UK operations of Sungard AS goes into administration - report

Sky News says it has learned that the IT services provider has called in Teneo Restructuring amid financial difficulty

The UK operations of datacentre provider Sungard AS have entered administration, according to a report from Sky News.

Sky News claims the AWS and Dell partner has called in Teneo Restructuring to try and secure its future in the face of rising energy costs, a stand-off with landlords over rent prices and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sungard provides a variety of services and solutions to businesses and organisations spanning cloud, infrastructure, recovery, security, and more. Its customers include the NHS, Home Office and Npower.

The company runs datacentres and workplace recovery centres across the UK and employs nearly 300 people, with its EMEA headquarters based at Heathrow.

Teneo Restructuring was unable to provide immediate comment to CRN.

But in a statement issued to Sky News, Benji Dymant, joint administrator at Teneo, said: "The ability for the business to continue to trade in the medium to long term, either to enable a rescue of the business as a going concern or to deliver individual asset sales, will be reliant upon burden sharing from both customers and landlords alike."

Sky News claims sources have said that the company had been attempting to secure improved payment terms with landlords since the start of the year but had been unable to reach an agreement.

The report adds that Teneo Restructuring has obtained interim funding to ensure the business can continue to run, with discussions over a sale taking place on an "accelerated basis".

MSP reaction

But the news has already generated a reaction from some MSPs, who have reached out to Sungard's customers via LinkedIn.

Mark Halpin, CEO of CloudCoCo, took to LinkedIn to offer Sungard customers free migration to the cloud if they are unable to remain in the same datacentre.

"If you need a new home and you are affected by the Sungard Availability Services UK administration we will either move you into one of our available suites in the same DC you are currently in or offer you an accelerated free of charge cloud migration service to our private or public cloud solutions," he said.

Redcentric has also offered to help Sungard's customers while Nigel Dunn, managing director of Kalamazoo, has urged businesses to get in touch if they are impacted.