kubernetes postgres government

HMCTS Kubernetes & Cloud Migration

Client Overview

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice responsible for the administration of criminal, civil, and family courts and tribunals across England and Wales. As part of the UK's critical national infrastructure, HMCTS processes millions of cases annually and supports the fundamental operation of the justice system. This engagement specifically focused on modernising the digital infrastructure supporting HMCTS Criminal Courts, which handle serious criminal cases, including Crown Court proceedings, ensuring uninterrupted access to justice services that are vital to public safety and the rule of law.


Executive Summary

The founding team of MetaOps brought their architectural leadership and principal engineering expertise to HMCTS's critical national infrastructure modernisation, delivering a secure, enterprise-grade multitenant Kubernetes platform on Azure. The project successfully migrated 100+ PostgreSQL databases and 50+ microservices with zero downtime to mission-critical court services supporting the UK justice system.


Technical Excellence in Critical National Infrastructure

Enterprise Security & Compliance

  • Architected security-first Kubernetes infrastructure meeting stringent government security requirements for critical national infrastructure

  • Designed comprehensive network policies, RBAC, and encryption strategies for the highly regulated environment

  • Implemented monitoring, audit trails, and compliance frameworks suitable for justice system operations

Kubernetes & Microservices Expertise

  • Designed and implemented multitenant Kubernetes clusters on Azure, supporting 50+ microservices

  • Established automated scaling, self-healing infrastructure, and disaster recovery capabilities

  • Orchestrated complex microservices migration while maintaining live service availability

Database Migration Excellence

  • Architected and executed migration of 100+ PostgreSQL databases in the Azure environment

  • Implemented zero-downtime migration strategies, ensuring continuous service availability

  • Established database security, backup, and performance optimisation for critical workloads

Infrastructure as Code & DevOps

  • Delivered fully automated infrastructure provisioning via Terraform

  • Established CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure management

  • Created repeatable deployment patterns suitable for government-grade environments


Business Impact & Operational Excellence

Critical Service Continuity: The MetaOps team's technical leadership ensured 100% service availability during the complex migration of critical national infrastructure, supporting the UK justice system's digital transformation while maintaining uninterrupted access to essential court services.

Multi-Supplier Coordination: Successfully led technical delivery within a complex multi-supplier environment, demonstrating ability to drive results across organisational boundaries in highly regulated settings.

Scalable Foundation: Established a secure, multitenant platform capable of supporting future growth and additional government services while maintaining enterprise-grade security and compliance standards.