These 10 companies are the biggest winners after £7 billion in UK gov't cloud spending

British government departments have spent over £7 billion on cloud services under the G-Cloud framework over the past five years alone. Here are the 10 biggest beneficiaries of UK government cloud spending.

The UK government also buys cloud services outside G-Cloud. This list only captures the last five years' cloud spending under that specific purchasing framework -- which spans a huge 31,000 cloud services.

(Spending begins with the 2017-2018 financial year and has been rounded down to the nearest million by The Stack. All data and charts on UK government cloud spending credited to Crown Commercial Service.)

AWS's recent and powerful rise to become the biggest contractor is most noticeable. (Between 2016-2019 it didn't even make the top five.)

1: AWS -- £228m

Amazon Web Services has been the biggest hyperscaler winner of G-Cloud spending by some stretch over the past five years, winning over double what Microsoft has for cloud services purchased under the framework.

As the graphic above shows, direct spending on AWS services has grown rapidly in recent years. The five biggest buyers of AWS services were:

1. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)--  £85 million
2. The Home Office -- £66 million
3. The Department of Work and Pensions -- £30 million
4. The Ministry of Justice -- £12 million
5. The Government Digital Service (GDS) -- £7 million

2: Capgemini -- £208m

French consulting multinational Capgemini was on a downward trajectory when it comes to UK government spending, but like many of the organisations on this list, appears to have received a major boost during the pandemic, as government departments ramped up digitalisation efforts.

The five biggest buyers of Capgemini services were:

1. The Home Office -- £89 million
2. The Department for Work and Pensions -- £43 million
3. The Ministry of Justice -- £18 million
4. The Foreign Office -- £13 million
5. NHS Blood and Transport -- £7 million

3: Deloitte -- £181m

Deloitte is the only member of the Big Four to make the top 10 when it comes to UK government cloud spending under G-Cloud.

Like Capgemini it saw an (even more pronounced) spike in contract wins due to the pandemic. The five biggest buyers of Deloitte services were:

1. NHS Digital -- £76 million
2. Home Office -- £34 million
3. Ministry of Justice -- £15 million
4. Suffolk Coastal District Council -- £13 million
5. Cumnock Academy -- £5 million

4: PA Consulting Services -- £176m

PA Consulting Services may not have the brand recognition of the companies above, but has still been a major winner when it comes to UK government cloud spending. The UK-based management consultancy (acquired by Jacobs for £1.8 billion on Nov 30, 2020) has seen steady growth in demand from UK government clients over the past five years.

The five biggest buyers of PA Consulting services were:

1. The Home Office -- £45 million
2. Department of Health and Social Care -- £26 million
3. "Home Office DDAT" (Digital, Data, and Technology) -- £24 million
4. National Crime Agency -- £17 million
5. Ministry of Justice -- £11 million

5: IBM -- £132m

"Nobody ever gets fired for buying IBM" the old adage goes and although many government departments have tried to break their dependency on large contractors like Big Blue, it remains a critical UK government supplier.

(Beyond G-Cloud, IBM also benefits from the renewal of contracts to run a range of legacy systems that are challenging to update; see for example, DWP, where it supports a “complex technology stack of legacy applications, written in outdated software languages”, or the Ministry of Defence, where it handles the UK’s air command and control system; described by MOD as “aging with significant obsolescence issues in the core system”.

These were the five biggest buyers of IBM services under G-Cloud

1. The Home Office -- £30 million
2. Department for Work and Pensions -- £25 million
3. Department of Health and Social Care -- £14 million
4. Army HQ -- £12 million
5. Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency -- £10 million

6: Entserv -- £127m

Entserv, a subsidiary of DXC, makes the top 10 largely by virtue of huge spending by the Department for Work and Pensions -- one of just three government agencies to spend double-digit millions with it.

Among the work DWP has procured with Entserv via G-Cloud was a £15 million contract (2018-2020) to support some aging mainframe-based applications using a Platform-as-a-Service approach. (The curious can see the contract terms for that deal here, albeit somewhat redacted)

MVS contract: DWPDownload

These were Entserv's five biggest buyers:

1. Department for Work and Pensions -- £84 million
2. Disclosure and Barring Service -- £21 million
3. Ministry of Defence -- £12 million
4. Ministry of Justice -- £8 million
5. Birley Spa Primary School £573,000

7: Fujitsu -- £116m

Fujitsu, like Deloitte, saw a sharp spike in government contract wins around the time of the pandemic outbreak. Once again the Home Office was a big spender, single-handledly catapulting Fujitsu into the top 10.

These were Fujitsu's five biggest buyers under G-Cloud.

1. Home Office -- £71 million
2. HS2 -- £20 million
3. Construction Industry Training Board -- £8 million
4. Financial Conduct Authority -- £4 million
5. Highways England -- £3 million

8: Microsoft -- £108m

Microsoft's £108 million in contract wins is less than half what AWS won through G-Cloud. Spending directly with Microsoft appears to have plateaued on G-Cloud between 2018-2021, with only two central government departments among the top-five spenders on G-Cloud.

Here are its five biggest G-Cloud customers over the past five years.

1. Bristol City Council -- £10 million
2. Thames Valley Police -- £8 million
3. HM Revenue and Customs -- £7 million
4. Aberdeen City Council -- £6 million
5. Department for Communities -- £6 million

9: BAE Systems Applied Intelligence -- £107m

BAE Systems Applied Intelligence provides cybersecurity, counter-fraud and other services, including secure information exchanges (data/voice/video).

The Home Office (hey, big spender...) has been its biggest customer.

Here are its top five G-cloud buyers.

1. The Home Office -- £37 million
2. National Crime Agency -- £24 million
3. Ministry of Justice -- £11 million
4. Education and Skills Funding Agency -- £7 million
5. Director Financial Management -- £7 million

10: Equal Experts -- £105m

Equal Experts, founded in 2007 by Thomas de Cad'oro Granier under a horizontal associate-based model, with only one third of its workforce permanent employees, the remainder is made up of long-standing associates (independent senior contractors and freelancers).

The company had been on a sharply downward trajectory in recent years (we suspect IR35 is to blame) when it comes to government contracts, but makes the top 10 due to its work for HMRC. (Most recently, helping support the launch of a range of programmes in response to the coronavirus outbreak, such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self Employment Income Support Scheme. Here are its top five buyers under G-Cloud.

1. HM Revenue and Customs -- £86 million
2. Home Office -- £10 million
3. Department for Work and Pensions -- £3 million
4. Registers of Scotland -- £1 million
5. Office for National Statistics -- £1 million

All data courtesy of the Crown Commercial Service.

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