When systems fail: why orchestration will define the UK’s resilience edge
Guest blog by Emily Wells-Cole, Principal at Netcompany #techUKSupplyChainSecurityWeek
Emily Wells-Cole
Principal, Netcompany
For years, digital resilience has been treated primarily as a technology challenge: protecting systems, strengthening cyber defences, and maintaining uptime, but this view is increasingly outdated. As digital infrastructure becomes more embedded in essential services, resilience must be understood not just as system protection, but as the ability to sustain operations under any conditions.
For the UK, this shift is particularly significant. Critical national infrastructure (CNI) – from energy and transport to water and communications – depends on a web of interconnected systems and external dependencies. When disruption occurs, the consequences ripple across the economy and society.
From protection to continuity
Traditional approaches to resilience are built around prevention and containment. When an incident occurs, systems are isolated, access is restricted, and operations are paused to limit damage. While necessary, this approach can come at a cost: the loss of service continuity.
A more mature view of resilience starts from a different premise, that disruption is inevitable. Moving from “how do we stop this entirely?”, to “how do we continue to operate when it happens?”
This requires organisations to prioritise outcomes over assets, and means ensuring essential services can continue – even if parts of the underlying infrastructure are unavailable, compromised, or need to be rebuilt.
The growing importance of external dependencies
One of the most important – and overlooked – aspects of resilience is the role of external factors. Digital systems don’t operate in isolation, they depend on power, connectivity, and complex supply chains. They’re also exposed to environmental risks and physical threats, from extreme weather to unauthorised drones.
Yet many resilience strategies remain focused on the internal, with limited visibility of the broader conditions that can impact operations. For UK organisations, particularly those within CNI, this is becoming more acute. Climate-related risks, energy volatility, and geopolitical uncertainty are all increasing the likelihood of disruption originating outside the traditional IT perimeter. Understanding these dependencies is now a critical component of resilience planning.
Orchestration as the foundation
Addressing this challenge doesn’t require organisations to rebuild their technology estates from scratch. Instead, it requires a different approach: orchestration.
Orchestration is about connecting systems, data, and decision-making processes so that organisations can respond to disruption in a coordinated and timely way. It enables different teams – from IT and operations to risk and executive leadership – to act on a shared understanding of what’s happening and what needs to happen next.
Crucially, orchestration extends beyond internal systems to incorporate signals from the external environment – bringing together insights on infrastructure dependencies, environmental conditions, and physical risks. By combining these perspectives, organisations can move from reactive responses to proactive, scenario-based planning. They can anticipate how different types of disruption might unfold and define coordinated responses.
Designing for rebuild, not just recovery
Another critical shift is the move from recovery to rebuild. Modern, cloud-based infrastructure has made it technically feasible to recreate environments quickly and at scale. However, many organisations are still structured around the assumption that systems should be preserved and restored, rather than replaced when necessary.
Designing for rebuild means accepting that in some scenarios the fastest and safest path to continuity is to stand up new environments and switch operations over. That depends on having clear processes, predefined scenarios, and the ability to coordinate action across multiple systems and teams.
Again, orchestration plays a central role, enabling organisations to execute this quickly and with confidence.
A UK-wide opportunity
For the UK, there’s an opportunity to lead in how resilience is defined and delivered. With growing focus on cyber resilience, infrastructure investment and wider digital transformation, there’s increasing recognition that a more joined-up approach is needed across industry and government – one that treats digital infrastructure as a connected system, rather than standalone assets.
The next step is to move from discussion to execution and embed orchestration-led resilience into strategy and delivery. That means broadening resilience thinking beyond IT to include external dependencies, from physical infrastructure through to environmental and operational factors.
It also requires closer alignment between technology, operations and risk teams, so decisions are based on a shared view. Alongside this, organisations need better real-time visibility across internal and external environments to enable faster, more coordinated responses. Resilience needs to be designed in from the outset.
Resilience as a competitive advantage
Resilience is often framed as a defensive priority, something organisations must invest in to avoid failure. But it is increasingly becoming a competitive advantage.
Organisations that can adapt quickly, maintain continuity, and respond decisively are better positioned to serve customers, protect reputations, and navigate uncertainty.
In a world where disruption is no longer the exception but the norm, resilience by design, underpinned by orchestration, will define the organisations that succeed.
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Meet the team
Jill Broom
Head of Cyber Resilience, techUK
Jill leads the techUK Cyber Resilience programme, having originally joined techUK in October 2020 as a Programme Manager for the Cyber and Central Government programmes. She is responsible for managing techUK's work across the cyber security ecosystem, bringing industry together with key stakeholders across the public and private sectors. Jill also provides the industry secretariat for the Cyber Growth Partnership, the industry and government conduit for supporting the growth of the sector. A key focus of her work is to strengthen the public–private partnership across cyber to support further development of UK cyber security and resilience policy.
Before joining techUK, Jill worked as a Senior Caseworker for an MP, advocating for local communities, businesses and individuals, so she is particularly committed to techUK’s vision of harnessing the power of technology to improve people’s lives. Jill is also an experienced editorial professional and has delivered copyediting and writing services for public-body and SME clients as well as publishers.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Website:
- www.techuk.org/
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-broom-19aa824
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Annie Collings
Senior Programme Manager, Cyber Resilience, techUK
Annie is the Programme Manager for Cyber Resilience at techUK. She first joined as the Programme Manager for Cyber Security and Central Government in September 2023.
In her role, Annie supports the Cyber Security SME Forum, engaging regularly with key government and industry stakeholders to advance the growth and development of SMEs in the cyber sector. Annie also coordinates events, engages with policy makers and represents techUK at a number of cyber security events.
Before joining techUK, Annie was an Account Manager at a specialist healthcare agency, where she provided public affairs support to a wide range of medical technology clients. She also gained experience as an intern in both an MP’s constituency office and with the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed. Annie holds a degree in International Relations from Nottingham Trent University.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Twitter:
- anniecollings24
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-collings-270150158/
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Olivia Staples
Junior Programme Manager - Cyber Resilience, techUK
Olivia Staples joined techUK in May 2025 as a Junior Programme Manager in the Cyber Resilience team.
She supports the programs mission to promote cyber resilience by engaging key commercial and government stakeholders to shape the cyber resilience policy towards increased security and industry growth. Olivia assists in member engagement, event facilitation and communications support.
Before joining techUK, Olivia gained experience in research, advocacy, and strategic communications across several international organisations. At the Munich Security Conference, she supported stakeholder engagement and contributed to strategic communications. She also worked closely with local and national government stakeholders in Spain and Italy, where she was involved in policy monitoring and advocacy for both public and private sector clients.
Olivia holds an MSc in Political Science (Comparative Politics and Conflict Studies) from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies from University College London (UCL).
Outside of tech, Olivia enjoys volunteering with local charities and learning Norwegian.
- Email:
- [email protected]
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Authors
Emily Wells-Cole
Principal, Netcompany
