From brownfields to vibrant canvas

Bright futures from brownfields 

London-based Berkeley Group is an FTSE 100 developer that transforms neglected brownfield sites into vibrant, high-quality communities. For nearly five decades, it has reshaped London and Southeast England with premium homes, parks, and essential infrastructure — schools, shops, clinics, and even transport links. 

Operating under brands like St. George, St. James, St. William, St. Edward, and Berkeley Homes, the company consistently earns net promoter scores in the high 70s and low 80s by pairing craftsmanship with a deep sense of community. Its focus on sustainability and regeneration restores pride and opportunity where others saw only derelict land. 

Beyond building homes, Berkeley invests in crafting places people will cherish for generations. From reclaiming polluted gasworks to crafting biodiverse parks, its projects don’t just reshape skylines: They breathe life back into forgotten corners of the UK, transforming them into vibrant, sustainable destinations. 

As just one example, Chris Gilbert, head of IT at the Berkeley Group, cites the company’s transformation of an old, dilapidated public housing complex in East London into the bustling Kidbrooke Village development of today. 

“That was a run-down estate where you wouldn’t really want to walk around at night,” Gilbert says. “Now, it’s got a medical center, and acres and acres of country park and lakes. It’s now somewhere where you want to go to live, rather than somewhere you try to avoid.” 

“That hits me as something you take a lot of pride in,” he says. “Actually transforming and changing those areas and making them desirable is really nice.” 

Transforming past to promise

Transforming contaminated brownfield sites into thriving communities requires more than architectural vision. It depends on decades of planning records, environmental studies, and safety documentation being instantly accessible and protected. As Berkeley Group prepared for new regeneration projects and tightened Building Safety Act requirements, its legacy storage systems were aging out and creating risk. Losing or delaying access to historical data could stall developments, jeopardize compliance, and impact customer trust. 

“When we set out to look at replacing the infrastructure, there were a couple of things we needed to address,” says Paul Wright, head of infrastructure customer services. “One, obviously, the age of the kit, and two, the ability to grow and be able to get that data back more efficiently.”  

With projects spanning 20 years or more, Berkeley also needed faster recovery options than tape-based backups could provide, as retrieving old files sometimes took weeks. In a business where a single planning document or safety record can influence thousands of homes, downtime or data loss wasn’t an option. 

Strengthening data protection

To keep its developments thriving long after the ribbon-cutting, Berkeley needed an infrastructure that could safeguard decades of planning records, building data, and safety information while also making that information instantly accessible. Retrieving files from legacy tapes had become slow, unreliable, and expensive. The company needed a modern, integrated system that could shrink its physical footprint, cut power usage, and strengthen protection against evolving cyber threats. 

By consolidating storage and introducing layered data protection with NetApp solutions, Berkeley closed gaps and fortified its defenses without adding complexity. 

Migrating decades of archives onto modern storage also meant eliminating brittle tapes and CDs nearing end of life. Berkeley gained a dependable way to maintain three secure copies of critical information while shrinking its data center footprint from 10 racks to six — a leaner, safer, and more cost-effective foundation for its regeneration projects. 

Data ready, community steady 

The modernized environment has transformed daily operations. Legacy archives are now searchable online, enabling Berkeley to recover a single file — or 5,000 files — in minutes instead of waiting days or weeks for tapes. Wright estimates that NetApp solutions have saved Berkeley up to £80k in first-year savings through reduced hardware, support, and power costs. 

More importantly, these efficiencies ripple outward. Legal teams can respond rapidly to Building Safety Act requests, local councils get timely planning data, and homeowners receive faster, more reliable support. Freed from constant firefighting, Berkeley’s IT staff can devote more energy to supporting new housing projects and the community regeneration work that defines its mission. 

By eliminating fragile infrastructure and unpredictable recovery times, Berkeley can focus on what matters most: turning forgotten brownfields into vibrant neighborhoods where families can live, work, and feel proud of their surroundings. 

A new lease on the future

Berkeley Group isn’t standing still. With legacy data secure, searchable, and protected, the company can plan for future developments without worrying about fragile backups or week-long restores. Freed from firefighting, the IT team is focusing on refining sustainability strategies — reducing waste, improving biodiversity on new sites, and enhancing customer services for tenants and councils alike. 

For Wright, the partnership with NetApp is all about being able to tie the technology to the company’s ever-changing business needs. 

“It’s about making sure that we choose the right toolset to do the right task at the right time with the right value proposition while also having an eye on the future,” he says. 

For Chris Gilbert, it’s the NetApp trifecta of honesty, integrity, and an exceptional product that allows Berkeley to hang the “No Vacancy” sign when it comes to requiring other solutions. 

“I think over the next five to 10 years,” Gilbert says, “we will evolve with them as new technologies and capabilities come out.” 

That long-term view echoes Berkeley’s larger mission: transforming brownfields into vibrant neighborhoods that will thrive for generations. With a modern digital foundation and a clear vision, Berkeley is poised to keep turning forgotten sites into colorful futures — places where communities can grow, connect, and flourish.