Delivering seamless migrations and a future-ready platform

In this blog by Aleksandra Wiatr, PaaS Migration Programme Manager, we get the behind-the-scenes story of how the Department for Business and Trade successfully migrated 41 essential services off GOV.UK Platform as a Service (PaaS) after it was announced the platform would be closing. With a tight deadline and a lot at stake, the team had to build a new platform while migrating services at the same time—no easy feat. It meant working closely with service teams, juggling competing priorities, and navigating unknowns, all while keeping everything running smoothly.

Rather than simply moving services over, the team saw this as an opportunity to rethink and rebuild. They focused on creating a modern, scalable, user-friendly platform that could support future innovation. That meant designing with developers in mind, building in self-service tools, strengthening security, and making sure the platform could grow and adapt with the department’s needs. Key to their success was listening to feedback, embedding engineers where needed, and tackling challenges one migration at a time.

The result? A smoother, faster platform built for the long term—plus a team that’s learned a lot about what it takes to deliver major transformation without disrupting services. This document shares what worked, what they’d do differently, and how other departments might approach similar challenges. If you're in government tech or facing a big move of your own, there's plenty here to learn from.