Reg readers have spoken: 93% back move away from Microsoft in UK public sector
- Reference: 1756801872
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/02/reg_poll_microsoft_uk/
- Source link:
Faced with £40B budget hole, UK public sector commits £9B to Microsoft [1]READ MORE
Official estimates suggest £1.9 billion will be spent every year under the existing agreement with Microsoft. In a poll of more than 1,500 readers, 93 percent advocated some kind of move away from Microsoft.
Last year, the government [2]negotiated a Strategic Partnership Arrangement 2024 (SPA24) memorandum of understanding (MoU) that took effect in November and is scheduled to last until 2029.
The Crown Commercial Service (CCS), which arranged the MoU, said it would offer "enhanced value across Microsoft's portfolio of products and services." Public bodies using the agreement might include schools, hospitals, councils, and emergency services, for example.
Critics, however, have argued that a government facing fiscal challenges on all sides and a mountain of debt could look for free and open source software alternatives, which have become largely commoditized.
[3]
Invited to debate these points, former deputy UK government CIO Bill McCluggage [4]wrote that small-scale pilots, trials of open source software, or hybrid vendor strategies could create competition and generate savings while maintaining service continuity.
[5]Azure budget alerts go berserk after Microsoft account migration misfire
[6]Should UK.gov save money by looking for open source alternatives to Microsoft? You decide
[7]The £9 billion question: To Microsoft or not to Microsoft?
[8]Microsoft wares may be UK public sector's only viable option
In the opposing corner, Jos Creese, who has held IT leadership roles in UK central and local government, [9]pointed out that the public sector hasn't had a great history of avoiding the big tech brands. "It is not that open source is not viable, but rather that the true costs often only come to light over time," he said.
"Rather than a panacea," Creese added, "open source can create unforeseen risks of lock-in and incompatibilities across increasingly integrated systems. As the links between different public service organisations become more crucial, incompatibility creates all manner of problems."
[10]
[11]
Responding to The Register's poll, 38 percent of readers said FOSS was an alternative to Microsoft in the public sector, agreeing that much of the productivity software, storage, and systems which are so ubiquitous in government are freely available as open source elsewhere, and can be supported at a much lower total cost.
Mexit, not Brexit, is the new priority for the UK [12]READ MORE
Only 2 percent said the government should stick with Microsoft because those migrating to open source always come back in the end. Twenty-seven percent said open source developments at Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund and the EU demonstrate the backing for FOSS projects, and the UK should start now or end up with fewer options later.
Only 4 percent said the UK public sector should stick with Microsoft and overhaul its tech buyers to get taxpayers the deals they deserve.
Some 29 percent said the UK should keep a mix of both Microsoft and FOSS software to keep the megacorp honest. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/07/uk_microsoft_spending/
[2] https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/news/crown-commercial-service-signs-memorandum-understanding-microsoft-uk-spa24
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aLbAOYFhmIvctkmhztaowAAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/14/debate_microsoft_in_public_sector/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/01/microsoft_azure_migration_misfire/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/15/microsoft_debate_poll/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/14/debate_microsoft_in_public_sector/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/13/debate_for_microsoft_in_public_sector/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/13/debate_for_microsoft_in_public_sector/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLbAOYFhmIvctkmhztaowAAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aLbAOYFhmIvctkmhztaowAAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/08/opinion_column_mexit_not_brexit/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
His credentials..
- "who has held IT leadership roles in UK central and local government"
For brilliantly successful projects?
Re: His credentials..
I think the whole thing is beyond tech anyway. With Trump holding a tariff gun to our heads over how we negotiate with big tech, this is very far from being a ring fenced debate. "Let our american tech companies charge you through the nose and dictate how you operate, or I'll hike tariffs and wreck your industry."
By all means allow public sector organisations use Microsoft, but require that they use open document formats.
This is so steamingly obvious. It's not a question of who supplies or maintains your software, it's a matter of which standards it uses. Anything which has no publicly and freely available data protocol is just a mechanism to hold your data hostage.
And ban the use of Excel completely!!
Oh, I don't know, it has its uses. Just stop people using it as a bloody database engine.
For a long time I have felt that the standards for software used in the public sector should be about interchange formats and what data is retrievable for how long.
Having consistent standards allows people to choose the tools they want and know they'll be able to talk to one another, it also allows SMEs to work to those standards and create or combine tools that can be sold to multiple organisations in the confidence that they as long as they are interchange compliant everyone will be getting what they need from them.
And that is why Microsoft came up with Office Open XML, with binary blobs stuck inside the XML.
What about a vote on
A - El Reg should continue on its current trend of dumbed-down, click-bait content until it's the tech-equivalent of the Daily Express and the sooner the better.
B - El Reg shoud revert to the style and quality of a couple of years ago and ditch all the nonesense.
This.
Make El Reg British Again!
MERBA!
https://imgur.com/a/O9gcjIH
Hmm
Income from your subscription fees probably won't cover option B..
Re: Hmm
If they Geoblock the US from the site, their hosting costs will reduce considerably. #justsayin
Why wait for an official one?
https://strawpoll.com/w4nWWVOPdnA
I'd post a link to a strawpoll...but El Reg filters those so...there is that...
If they don't want to return to their roots, they should at least rename and change the tag line.
The Comrade - Glazing the Tech that Sponsor IT.
"It is not that open source is not viable, .....the true costs often only come to light over time"
Classic microsoft.... fear, uncertainty, doubt
"Rather than a panacea," Creese added, "open source can create unforeseen risks of lock-in and incompatibilities across increasingly integrated systems. As the links between different public service organisations become more crucial, incompatibility creates all manner of problems."
Isn't that the wrong way around?
Closed-source software like Microsoft produces is what creates risks of lock-in. They deliberately make their software tightly integrated, to increase that lock-in.
Open-source generally follows open standards, and can be modified/forked/replaced if needed.
Links between different organisations require open, well-documented standards for APIs and file formats. Allowing much more flexibility in system choice, and no need to "increasingly integrate" everything into one monolithic nightmare.
By all means allow public sector organisations use Microsoft, but require that they use open document formats. And ban the use of Excel completely!!