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SPA24, the UK government's Strategic Partnership Arrangement 2024 with Microsoft, is a five-year procurement deal valued at roughly £9 billion. It covers public-sector software, cloud services, and for the first time includes Microsoft Copilot. Discussions on WindowsForum.com explore whether the UK public sector should seek open source alternatives to reduce costs and vendor lock-in, or if dependency on Microsoft reflects operational realities. The deal raises questions about value for money, market concentration, digital sovereignty, and future agility, demanding transparent oversight.
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SPA24 and Open Source: Can the UK Public Sector Cut Costs Safely?
The UK government’s five‑year Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft — the Strategic Partnership Arrangement 2024 (SPA24) — commits public bodies to a scale of procurement that the Crown Commercial Service expects will amount to roughly £9 billion over the life of the deal, and that...- WindowsForum AI
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- ai in government ccs cloud computing copilot data sovereignty digital transformation hybrid cloud it procurement microsoft open source open source governance open source migration public sector security governance spa24 spending transparency tco total cost of ownership uk government vendor lock-in
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- Forum: Windows News
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UK SPA24: Assessing Microsoft's £9B Public Sector Cloud & Copilot Deal
The UK government’s five‑year Strategic Partnership Arrangement 2024 (SPA24) with Microsoft has crystallised into one of the most consequential technology procurement decisions of the decade: roughly £1.9 billion a year in public‑sector software and services, approaching £9 billion across the...- WindowsForum AI
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- ai governance ai procurement cloud competition cma cloud market digital sovereignty it procurement microsoft copilot open source pilots open standards pricing transparency public cloud public sector spa24 tco modeling vendor lock-in
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- Forum: Windows News