Sutton Council has awarded a contract to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide cloud data centre services for the next five years, at an annual cost of £1.342 million. This brings the total value of the contract to £6.71 million over its 60-month duration, commencing 18 December 2025.
The decision, made at the Strategy and Resources Committee meeting on 8 December 2025, aims to ensure the council's IT systems remain reliable, secure, and cost-effective. The contract includes an initial 36-month duration with two optional 12-month extensions.
According to the council, it has been using AWS for its primary cloud data centre provision since 2022. The move is part of a broader strategy to reduce reliance on on-premise infrastructure and leverage the benefits of cloud technology.
Ben Unsworth, Director for Digital & IT Shared Service, explained the benefits of the agreement: This is very much a continuation of the council's strategy to move to cloud services provided by a, what we call a tier one hyperscale provider. So these are the largest, most secure, most resilient, and most cost effective, providers of storage and compute services.
Mr. Unsworth also noted that the council has invested in the skills of its team to work with AWS technology. He added that the cost of switching to another provider would be significant, without offering additional benefits.
While the new AWS contract is £156k higher annually than the existing contract, resulting in a £78k increased cost to Sutton, the council anticipates significant savings from the closure of the Civic data centre. Shutting down the associated cooling is forecast to deliver £119k in electricity savings per year for Sutton, offsetting the increased cost.
Councillor Sunita Gordon, Lead Member for Resources, highlighted the importance of the contract in maintaining essential services. In simple terms, this is about making sure the council's IT systems remain reliable, secure and cost effective. After all, it is the fourth utility,
she said. This recommendation gives us stability, value for money and a secure platform for the services our staff and residents rely on.
The contract was procured jointly with the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, using the YPO framework 001126, which offers compliance and value for money assurance. The council will benefit from economies of scale offered via the shared Digital and IT service. Procuring jointly with Kingston Council gives us greater purchasing power and the benefit of reduced operating overheads through sharing a single cloud services team who manage the AWS platform.
Councillor Drummond asked about the council's use of Google, and the transfer to Amazon. Mr Unsworth said that Google is used for workspace and productivity applications, and as a way of authenticating users into applications held within AWS. This gives additional resiliency, and avoids transferring large amounts of data and applications between the two.
Councillor Walworth asked for confirmation that all data would be kept locally, and that data about people would be ring-fenced. Mr Unsworth confirmed that the council uses the UK London availability zone, and that all data is held within the UK. He added that applications are held within AWS in a way that makes sure they are encrypted, and that access is managed in a very fine-grained way.
