Centrica Energy

The Customer

How can cloud infrastructure improve energy trading performance?

Energy markets don't wait for infrastructure. Demand keeps growing. Expectations keep rising. The pace of change keeps accelerating. And underneath all of it sits the data that decides how Centrica Energy responds.

That makes fast, reliable energy trading cloud storage a strategic decision, not a background one.

“Data is one of our most valuable assets. Full stop,” says Darren Miles, CIO at Centrica Energy. Across the energy value stream, data can help the business see what's happening and act on it.

But seeing and acting on both depend on something quieter. Infrastructure that performs behind the scenes, moving more than 1.8 million files across trading applications and users every single day.

Patrick Babic, Senior Trading Infrastructure Change Lead at Centrica Energy, defines success in surprisingly uneventful terms. He calls it a “quiet run”: infrastructure performing reliably in the background while the business keeps moving.

Over the past few years, the company moved critical workloads from aging on-premises systems to the cloud and ultimately to Amazon FSx for NetApp^® ONTAP^®. The payoff was loud, even if the infrastructure isn’t: more than a 10x performance improvement and 100% data availability, giving traders faster access to the data they depend on while keeping critical operations moving.

The transformation also supports the flexibility Centrica wants from its broader technology strategy. Miles describes hybrid cloud as integral to that strategy, providing optionality while helping avoid lock-in.

The Challenge

Why does storage speed matter in energy trading?

In energy trading, infrastructure performance directly affects the applications traders depend on. Slow storage means slow trades. Slow trades means missed opportunities.

“The faster we can complete the task, the quicker we can trade, and the more likely we are to gain an advantage over our competitors,” says Babic.

But speed alone isn’t the goal. Babic’s team has to balance performance with cost, and throwing more resources at the problem isn't the answer. The goal is to get as much performance as possible from the infrastructure already in place while keeping cloud spending under control.

Speed also can't come at the expense of control. Centrica Energy's trading environment carries specific regulatory, compliance, and operational requirements. Those requirements helped lead the organization to Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, which gives Babic's team the control it needs while reducing the infrastructure it has to manage.

The objective is simple: Keep the data moving. Keep the complexity out of the way.

The Solution

How Centrica Energy simplified its cloud storage migration

Centrica Energy's cloud transformation happened in stages.

The company first moved from on-premises infrastructure to NetApp^® Cloud Volumes ONTAP^®. As Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP matured, the team saw an opportunity to simplify further with a fully managed service.

They had reason to brace for pain. The original migration from another vendor had required complex file-level data movement, extensive planning, and validation.

The next migration was very different.

About 20 minutes.

That's how long Centrica Energy needed to migrate its storage platform to Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, with minimal downtime. Using NetApp SnapMirror^® technology and familiar NetApp capabilities, the team was able to make a significant infrastructure change without repeating the complexity of its earlier migration.

“It was one of the best projects of my career,” Babic says. “Everything just went well.”

With a fully managed service, the support team can spend less time managing underlying infrastructure and more time improving performance, automating routine work, and preparing for what the business needs next.

Technology spotlight

• Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP: Delivered more than 10x performance improvement for critical trading workloads while reducing the infrastructure Centrica Energy has to manage.
• NetApp ONTAP: Kept data management consistent as Centrica Energy's environment evolved from on premises to the cloud.
• NetApp SnapMirror replication technology: Replicated data across London and Frankfurt and enabled a 20-minute migration with minimal downtime.
• NetApp SnapLock^® software and Autonomous Ransomware Protection: Strengthened protection for critical trading data against tampering and ransomware.
• NetApp FlexCache^® software: Keeps data closer to the users who need it as Centrica Energy's cloud environment expands.

Results

What a “quiet run” looks like in energy trading?

For Babic, the best infrastructure is the kind nobody has to think about. A “quiet run” means the environment performs reliably in the background, giving his team more time to improve what's next.

And “what’s next” is where things get interesting.

That capacity matters as Centrica explores how data and AI can improve the way it operates. Miles sees AI helping Centrica anticipate demand, optimize energy trading, and uncover new opportunities.

Babic's team is already putting that potential to work at the operational level. It has developed an agentic AI capability that pulls together operational information from AWS, monitoring tools, IT service management platforms, and its NetApp environment.

During a recent priority incident, Babic used the tool to quickly determine whether storage was contributing to an application problem. The answer came fast: storage wasn’t the source. The information helped narrow the investigation and kept the team focused.

The Outcome

How does Centrica Energy protect critical trading data?

Centrica Energy operates as part of the UK's critical national infrastructure, making security and resilience business priorities. As Miles puts it, they can never be an afterthought.

Performance only matters if the data is there when traders need it. So resilience gets built in before disruption arrives, not after.

Centrica Energy builds that resilience into the data layer. NetApp SnapMirror replication technology copies data between AWS locations in London and Frankfurt to support disaster recovery, while NetApp SnapLock compliance software and Autonomous Ransomware Protection help strengthen protection for critical trading data.

Babic's team also regularly reviews configurations and tests recovery to make sure its protection strategy remains fit for purpose. “Data is precious,” he says. “You don't want to lose it.”

For Centrica Energy, resilience protects what the business depends on today while creating confidence to keep innovating.

What’s Next

Where Centrica Energy and NetApp are headed next

The quiet run doesn't mean standing still.

Centrica Energy is working toward bringing its remaining Denmark storage environment into AWS, potentially using its existing platform there as a cache through NetApp FlexCache technology. The approach could further centralize data while keeping it closer to the locations that need it.

Automation is another priority as the team looks to reduce manual work and prepare for expansion into new regions.

“When the business needs us, we need to be ready,” Babic says.

Miles sees that readiness in a broader context. The NetApp partnership has helped Centrica simplify its technology environment, modernize data management, and build a reliable, secure foundation for what comes next.

“Decisions driven by data, guided by intelligence, and enabled by technology that's built to adapt,” Miles says. “That's what we're building, not just for where the industry is today, but for where it's heading tomorrow.”