UK public sector cloud spend, 2022-2026
Every published contract where a UK public body bought AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud or Oracle Cloud, directly or through a reseller.
- spent on hyperscale cloud
- £1.64bn
- cloud contracts
- 247
- public bodies buying
- 134
- more in bundled deals
- £1.41bn
By Seamus White, founder of BidSkim. Notices from January 2022 to October 2026. Licence CC BY 4.0.
Nine findings on hyperscale cloud in UK public procurement
Cloud spend is the value of contracts for the cloud itself. Deals that bundle cloud with licences or services are shown separately. How the contracts were identified.
The contracts come from the public sector markets for cloud hosting, cloud migration, managed hosting and Microsoft licensing, which BidSkim tracks live.
AWS takes 74% of the money from 36% of the contracts
Azure has the most contracts, but AWS deals are far larger. Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud together hold 4% of cloud spend.
Two AWS contracts are 49% of all cloud spend
The Home Office's hosting contract and HM Revenue & Customs' compute commitment, both three-year deals awarded in 2023, are worth £800m between them. A typical contract is far smaller, and much the same size whoever the provider: £452k for AWS, £360k for Azure, £393k for Google Cloud.
One dot per contract, on a scale where each step is ten times the last. The line marks the typical (median) contract.
Data table
| Provider | Contracts | Median contract | Largest contract | Cloud spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | 90 | £452k | £450m | £1.22bn |
| Microsoft Azure | 99 | £360k | £83m | £357m |
| Google Cloud | 17 | £393k | £20m | £47m |
| Oracle Cloud | 37 | £132k | £5.1m | £15m |
Azure is bought through resellers; AWS mostly directly
99% of Azure contracts went through a reseller. 80% of AWS contracts were placed with Amazon Web Services itself, often under G-Cloud or OGVA, the government's discount agreement with AWS.
Number of contracts. Direct means the contract is with the provider itself.
Data table
| Provider | Direct contracts | Resold contracts |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | 72 | 18 |
| Microsoft Azure | 1 | 98 |
| Google Cloud | 9 | 8 |
| Oracle Cloud | 32 | 5 |
Phoenix Software resells the most cloud contracts; Softcat the most value
Phoenix Software wins mostly small Azure contracts, 22 of its 41 with education buyers. Softcat's contracts are fewer but larger, worth £149m. Resellers hold 52% of contracts but 24% of cloud spend.
Resold cloud contracts for the ten resellers with the most, one dot per contract, coloured by type of buyer.
Data table
| Reseller | Contracts | Central government | NHS and health | Councils | Education | Police, fire and rescue | Transport and utilities | Housing | Other buyers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix Software | 41 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 22 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Softcat | 12 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Trustmarque | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bytes Software Services | 10 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Insight | 10 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Computacenter | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Telana | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ultima Business Solutions | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jisc | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SCC | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
A further £1.41bn sits in bundled deals
135 deals buy cloud together with licences or services, most often a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement that adds Azure to Microsoft 365. The records rarely say how much of a bundle is cloud, so these are reported apart from cloud spend, at full value.
Full value of deals that buy cloud together with licences, services or hardware, such as a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement that includes Azure. Not part of cloud spend: the records do not say how much of each deal is cloud.
Data table
| Provider | Bundled deals | Full value |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Azure | 91 | £590m |
| AWS | 23 | £494m |
| Oracle Cloud | 7 | £256m |
| More than one | 3 | £40m |
| Google Cloud | 10 | £24m |
Partner work on Azure is worth more than Azure itself
Partners were paid £555m to migrate to, build on or run Azure, against £357m of Azure cloud spend. That work is kept out of cloud spend because most of it is the partner's fee.
Partner work: migration, build and managed-service contracts on a named cloud. Its value is mostly the partner's fee, not cloud.
Data table
| Provider | Cloud contracts | Cloud spend | Partner contracts | Partner work value | Partner work per £1 of cloud |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Azure | 99 | £357m | 223 | £555m | 1.6 |
| AWS | 90 | £1.22bn | 95 | £155m | 0.1 |
| Google Cloud | 17 | £47m | 7 | £39m | 0.8 |
| Oracle Cloud | 37 | £15m | 15 | £13m | 0.9 |
Cloud contracts per year rose from 29 in 2022 to 62 in 2024, then held at 61 in 2025
AWS grew fastest, from 8 contracts in 2022 to 23 in 2025, close to Azure's 26. 2026 is on pace for about 60, level with 2025.
Contracts for cloud bought directly from the provider or through a reseller. 2026 runs to mid-October; the dashed bar projects the full year at the same rate.
Data table
| Year | AWS | Microsoft Azure | Google Cloud | Oracle Cloud | Other | Total | Full-year projection |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8 | 14 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 29 | |
| 2023 | 20 | 16 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 47 | |
| 2024 | 26 | 22 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 62 | |
| 2025 | 23 | 26 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 61 | |
| 2026 | 13 | 21 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 48 | 60 |
Central government picks AWS; the NHS, councils and education lean to Azure
50% of central government's cloud contracts are with AWS, and it holds 92% of all cloud spend, led by Home Office and HM Revenue & Customs. Azure takes 52% of NHS contracts, 46% of councils' and 59% of education's, mostly through a reseller.
Share of each buyer type's cloud contracts, by provider. National arm's-length bodies count as central government.
Data table
| Buyer type | Contracts | AWS | Microsoft Azure | Google Cloud | Oracle Cloud | Other | Cloud spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central government | 109 | 54 | 26 | 12 | 15 | 2 | £1.51bn |
| NHS and health | 42 | 9 | 22 | 1 | 9 | 1 | £41m |
| Councils | 39 | 14 | 18 | 0 | 7 | 0 | £33m |
| Education | 37 | 9 | 22 | 3 | 2 | 1 | £28m |
| Police, fire and rescue | 12 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | £4.8m |
| Transport and utilities | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | £15m |
| Housing | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | £4.1m |
80 cloud contracts and bundled deals worth £1.42bn end in the next 12 months
They include the Home Office's £450m AWS contract, ending November 2026. Many can be extended, so not all will go back to market.
Cloud contracts and bundled deals by the end date their notice gives, 20 October 2026 to 19 October 2027; many can be extended. 80 contracts worth £1.42bn.
Data table
| Month | AWS | Microsoft Azure | Google Cloud | Oracle Cloud | Other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 26 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Nov 26 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Dec 26 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Jan 27 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Feb 27 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Mar 27 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 19 |
| Apr 27 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| May 27 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 9 |
| Jun 27 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Jul 27 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Aug 27 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Sep 27 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Oct 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
More from the data
Total contract value as published, usually a multi-year commitment.
Data table
| Buyer | Provider | Supplier | Year | Cloud spend | Term (months) | Title | Notice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Office | AWS | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | 2023 | £450m | 36 | Public Cloud Hosting Services - Supplier 1 | Notice |
| HM Revenue & Customs | AWS | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | 2023 | £350m | 36 | HMRC_AWS007 Compute (OGVA2) | Notice |
| Department for Work and Pensions | AWS | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | 2023 | £94m | 48 | DWP Hyperscale Public Cloud Procurement 2023 (OGVA2) | Notice |
| Ministry of Justice | Microsoft Azure | Trustmarque | 2022 | £83m | 48 | Microsoft Azure | Notice |
| HM Revenue & Customs | Microsoft Azure | Softcat | 2024 | £81m | 48 | Microsoft Azure | Notice |
| Scottish Government | AWS | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | 2025 | £65m | Cloud Platform Service - AWS Environment | Notice | |
| Ministry of Justice | AWS | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | 2024 | £50m | 36 | Amazon Web Services Computer Storage and Ancillary Services | Notice |
| Department for Work and Pensions | Microsoft Azure | Softcat | 2026 | £35m | 36 | Secondary General Purpose Cloud Platform | Notice |
| UK Health Security Agency | AWS | Amazon EU S.à.r.l, UK Branch | 2024 | £32m | 36 | OGVA 2.0 | Notice |
| Home Office | Microsoft Azure | Phoenix Software | 2023 | £30m | 48 | Public Cloud Hosting Services - Supplier 2 | Notice |
| Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | AWS | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | 2025 | £23m | 36 | DEFRA Public Cloud Services | Notice |
| Ministry of Defence | Google Cloud | Telana Limited | 2026 | £20m | 36 | 715895474_Google Cloud Platform - Official | Notice |
Number of resold cloud contracts.
Data table
| Reseller | Contracts | AWS | Microsoft Azure | Google Cloud | Oracle Cloud | Other | Cloud spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix Software | 41 | 1 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | £69m |
| Softcat | 12 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | £149m |
| Trustmarque | 12 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | £95m |
| Bytes Software Services | 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | £9.6m |
| Insight | 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | £7.2m |
| Computacenter | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | £7.3m |
| Telana | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | £20m |
| Ultima Business Solutions | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | £8.2m |
| Jisc | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | £4.7m |
| SCC | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | £22m |
Total value of cloud contracts awarded.
Data table
| Buyer | Contracts | Cloud spend |
|---|---|---|
| Home Office | 4 | £481m |
| HM Revenue & Customs | 2 | £431m |
| Department for Work and Pensions | 10 | £140m |
| Ministry of Justice | 2 | £133m |
| Scottish Government | 4 | £69m |
| UK Health Security Agency | 6 | £40m |
| HM Land Registry | 3 | £27m |
| Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 1 | £23m |
| Social Security Scotland | 2 | £21m |
| Ministry of Defence | 3 | £20m |
| Office for National Statistics | 3 | £19m |
| Met Office | 4 | £18m |
Only cloud bought from the provider or through a reseller counts.
Data table
| Class | Procurements |
|---|---|
| Cloud bought from the provider | 159 |
| Cloud bought through a reseller | 274 |
| Partner work on a named cloud | 512 |
| Application hosted on a named cloud | 106 |
| Public cloud, provider not named | 53 |
| Partner work, cloud not named | 144 |
| Other hosting or private cloud | 396 |
| Software licences only | 2484 |
| Not cloud | 998 |
| Too little detail to tell | 124 |
Cloud contracts open now
- Cloud hosting contractsPublic cloud and hosting contracts, buyers and incumbents.
- Cloud migration contractsMigration and cloud partner work across the public sector.
- Managed hosting contractsManaged and hosted infrastructure contracts.
- Microsoft licensing contractsEnterprise agreements, CSP and Azure resale.
- Software licensing contractsLicence resale and reseller frameworks.
- Microsoft as a supplierContracts Microsoft has won directly.
UK government cloud contracts: questions and answers
How much does the UK public sector spend on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud?
UK public bodies awarded 247 hyperscale cloud contracts from January 2022 to October 2026, worth £1.64bn: AWS £1.22bn, Microsoft Azure £357m, Google Cloud £47m and Oracle Cloud £15m. A further £1.41bn sits in deals that bundle cloud with licences or services. These are contract values, not invoices.
Does the total include Microsoft 365 licences?
No. Microsoft 365, Dynamics, Google Workspace and Oracle application licences are not cloud spend. A Microsoft agreement that includes Azure is counted as a bundled deal, unless it states the Azure amount.
How do you see through resellers like Softcat and Bytes?
Notices say what is being bought. A resold contract counts only when the record names the provider, or a product that runs only on one provider such as Azure Virtual Desktop or BigQuery. The reseller's name alone never decides it.
Why is AWS so far ahead on value?
Large departments commit to AWS directly in big multi-year deals. Two 2023 contracts, Home Office and HM Revenue & Customs, are 49% of all cloud spend. Azure is bought in many smaller contracts through resellers.
Does the total include G-Cloud and framework agreements?
Only contracts awarded under them. A framework ceiling is a spending limit shared by many buyers, not spend. Contracts under OGVA, the government's discount agreement with the providers, count as direct purchases.
What is missing from the figures?
Purchases below the publication thresholds (about £12k for central government, £30k for other bodies), spending never published as a contract notice, and 19 cloud contracts published without a value. Actual spend can be lower than contract value.
How should this report be cited?
White, S. (2026) UK public sector cloud spend, 2022 to 2026. BidSkim Research, Procurement Data Series No. 2. Version 2026-10-21. Available at: https://bidskim.com/research/uk-public-sector-cloud-spend-2022-2026. The figures and dataset are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
How the cloud contracts were identified
A contract counts when public money buys hyperscale cloud itself (consumption, commitment, subscription or credits) from AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud or Oracle Cloud, directly or through a reseller. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and Oracle application licences are not counted.
- The search. All UK public procurements published from 2021 to 2026 on Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales, eTendersNI and regional portals, for anything that could be cloud, hosting or licence resale, names a hyperscaler, or was won by Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Oracle. The figures cover contracts awarded from January 2022.
- What counts. Every record was read in full. A contract counts when the record names the provider, or a product that runs only on it, such as Azure Virtual Desktop or BigQuery. A reseller's name alone never decides it.
- Bundled deals. Where cloud is bought together with licences or services and the record does not say how much is cloud, the deal is shown separately at full value and is not added to cloud spend.
- Value. Values are total contract values as published, usually multi-year commitments or maximums rather than money already paid. Cloud spend counts contracts for cloud alone, plus the cloud amount where a bigger deal states one. Bundled deals are totalled separately at full value. Framework ceilings, unawarded tenders and contracts without a reliable value are left out, and each contract counts once.
The data and how to cite it
Every figure is free to download with its chart data. The contract-level CSV, with buyer, supplier, provider, value and a link to each notice, comes with notes on every column and is free on request.
Briefings and data for coverage: [email protected]. Corrections to [email protected] with the procurement ID and source URL.
Version 2026-10-21. Updated 21 October 2026. Every figure now counts only contracts that were awarded, have a reliable value and are not a framework ceiling; partner work fell to £1.09bn as a result. A full read of the unsettled records found Scottish awards whose value appears only in the award notice, raising cloud spend from £1.53bn in 227 contracts to £1.64bn in 247.