AWS signs major cloud computing agreement with the UK Government

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Agreement should help accelerate public sector cloud adoption

AWS Office
(Image credit: Tony Webster / Flickr)

The UK Government has announced that it has signed a new agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate cloud adoption and innovation in the public sector. The One Government Value Agreement (OGVA) also promises to boost digital skills across the civil service and enable a broader range of SMEs to bid for public sector contracts.

The new agreement is a three-year Memorandum of Understanding between the Crown Commercial Service and AWS and will involve a restructuring of how AWS conducts commercial contracts. Under the OGVA, AWS will treat the UK Government and other public sector organisations as a single client, generating the sort of cost savings that would normally be reserved for large-scale private sector customers.

The OGVA will also see AWS create a new digital skills fund to train more than 6,000 civil servants in the field of cloud computing. The programme will come at no cost to the UK Government.

Working together

AWS and the UK Government are also committed to using the new partnership to improve the public-sector cloud ecosystem. Services that fall under the OGVA will gain access to any qualified member of the AWS Partner Network, providing SMEs with access to additional resources should they need them for public sector projects.

“Governments, education, healthcare, and non-profit customers across the UK are already delivering some of the world’s most exciting innovations, enabled by the AWS Cloud,” said Chris Hayman, director of UK public sector at AWS. “This new agreement will provide a technical skills boost to those working in the public sector, allow smaller suppliers more access to government contracts by supporting a more fair and diverse marketplace, and deliver significant savings to public sector organisations.”

The OGVA will be split into two tiers, depending on how far along a company is on their cloud journey, with organisations gaining access to workshops, bespoke training and new pricing structures.

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Barclay Ballard
Barclay Ballard

Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things.