The UK’s Home Office has signed a £100m ($130m) contract with AWS to extend its current cloud hosting deal.

The four-year contract was published on a government website and runs until December 11, 2023.

In a statement to Computer Weekly, the Home Office said: “The award of the public cloud hosting services contract to Amazon is a continuation of services already provided to the Home Office.

“The contract award provides significant savings for the department over a four-year term.”

Amazon’s foothold in the UK public sector has been secured by the UK Government’s Cloud First policy, put in place back in 2013. The policy was originally drafted by former UK government technology advisor Liam Maxwell.

Maxwell is now the director of government transformation at AWS. Other departments and agencies using AWS include the Ministry of Justice, the DVLA, HMRC, the Department for Work & Pensions, and the NHS.

Public sector giant

According to The Telegraph, public sector bodies in the UK spend over £1bn ($1.3bn) on Cloud services annually. In 2017/18 the government spent around £1.1bn ($1.4bn) on the cloud as opposed to £421m ($546m) in 2014/2015.

The Home Office and Department of Work and Pensions have been among the biggest public sector spenders so far.

AWS has been adopted as a cloud provider in the public sector across the globe such as in Brazil, France, Germany, Mexico, the Middle East, South Africa, and the United States.