Accommodation

GCHQ recently moved into a purpose-designed facility in the western part of Cheltenham. The building cost about £330m, and it formed part of the largest Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project undertaken (total cost of c. £1.2 billion including a 30-year service contract covering the provision of security, telephony, maintenance, logistics, cleaning and catering services.)

The Doughnut

This radical design, known locally as the Doughnut (due to its shape), was completed in June 2003 and business units began moving in during September, completing the move by the summer of 2004. The challenge of moving complex systems had never before been undertaken in this country and, for continuity purposes, it was decided to retain the upper part of one of GCHQ's existing sites for a number of years to ensure that the organisation maintains a round-the-clock service to key Whitehall customers.

Responsibility for delivery of the IT systems within the new building, and the decant of systems from its existing sites, lay solely with GCHQ. To that end, GCHQ's technologists were fully engaged to ensure that this was one Doughnut that came with a jam filling!

Information Technology

Although an Intelligence organisation, its reliance on technology means that GCHQ could well be viewed as an IT organisation whose business is intelligence. GCHQ harnesses cutting edge technology, not only in terms of its ability to intercept intelligence across a broad spectrum of communication systems, but also in its ability to process that data effectively.

Only by being at the technological forefront can GCHQ stay ahead of the game and cope with the ever changing world of communications and the ever increasing diversity of the threats that face us. The new building provides the environment for GCHQ to deliver its mission into the 21st century.

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