EfficiencyIT’s Lead Defence Consultant, Anthony Soares, recently attended DSEI 2025 in London, where over 50,000 defence professionals gathered to explore the future of UK defence capabilities. The event’s themes, “Preparing the Future Force” and “Making Britain Safer,” resonated throughout the exhibition halls, with digital transformation emerging as a critical enabler.
The timely release of the UK Defence Industrial Strategy set the tone, with its six priority outcomes emphasising backing UK-based businesses, positioning Britain at the leading edge of innovation, and transforming procurement systems. For UK SMEs like EfficiencyIT, these priorities signal significant opportunities in the defence sector.
Anthony noted the strong emphasis on digital and data enablement of UK armed forces, with numerous speakers highlighting the crucial role of UK industry, particularly SMEs, in building defence capability. The presence of the newly formed Defence SME Hub and National Armaments Director Group demonstrated the Ministry of Defence’s commitment to engaging with smaller suppliers who can deliver agile, mission-critical solutions.
The event reinforced the shared belief that modern defence operations require robust, secure digital infrastructure capable of supporting AI workloads and forward deployments. As outlined in EfficiencyIT’s defence offerings, secure and scalable modular data centres are increasingly recognised as essential for bridging the gap between strategic AI ambitions and operational reality, providing strong compute environments wherever missions demand them.
Anthony’s conversations with end users, prime contractors, and fellow SMEs highlighted the highly collaborative nature of modern defence procurement. With digital transformation at the heart of defence reform, the opportunities for specialised infrastructure providers to support the UK’s defence capabilities have never been more apparent.
