The size of the award indicates the service will underpin the Home Office's digital operations, and it comes at an interesting time for AWS. The cloud giant and arch-rival Microsoft are under increasing scrutiny in the UK as the competition regulator examines just how level the playing field is.
Both businesses have won huge contracts in the British public sector in recent years. As an example, AWS was tapped to provide storage for secret government files, and a four-year hyperscale cloud deal was inked with the UK tax office – HMRC – in 2021.
It'd be very interesting to see how much tax AWS pay HMRC on the ~half billion