Google lands £400M MoD contract for secure UK cloud services
- Reference: 1757678418
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/12/google_cloud_mod_contract/
- Source link:
The arrangement promises Google AI, data analytics, and cybersecurity, all in sovereign datacenters built in the UK. Defense intelligence and national security specialists will also use the systems to share secure information between UK partners, the MoD statement said. The aim is to strengthen secure communication links between the UK and US, adding to the security partnership the two nations share.
Microsoft admits it 'cannot guarantee' data sovereignty [1]READ MORE
The Register has asked the MoD whether the US security services will have access to and use the same Google sovereign cloud as the UK.
The UK government released the news ahead of US president Donald Trump's state visit, an event likely to spark nationwide protest.
The MoD said the Google deal would help create a digitally integrated service, providing resilient and secure networks, planks of the [2]Strategic Defence Review [PDF], a document published in June prime minister Keir Starmer said would "drive innovation at a wartime pace."
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According to the government, the agreement has already led to millions of pounds of inward investment from Google Cloud, which has committed to recruiting a specialist team to manage the technology in the UK.
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Defence secretary John Healey stated: "Secure, seamless communication with our allies is crucial for national security and Google Cloud's investment will build up our world-leading secret tech for the future. The deal also delivers on the Strategic Defence Review, helping us develop the latest digital technology to counter our adversaries."
The Register has asked the MoD to clarify what Healey meant by [6]"secret tech." We also asked what the Google contract means for existing cloud deals with AWS and Microsoft Azure.
[7]Google Cloud CEO sees sunny days ahead thanks to AI demand
[8]Sovereign-ish: Google Cloud keeps AI data in UK, but not the support
[9]Salesforce data missing? It might be due to Salesloft breach, Google says
[10]More customers asking for Google's Data Boundary, says Cloud Experience boss
In the [11]Cloud Strategic Roadmap for Defence , published in February 2023 under the previous Conservative government, the MoD said it would consolidate existing capabilities, alongside efforts to offer a single service through a delivery vehicle it called the Cirrus Portfolio.
[12]It said defense services would use common Microsoft Azure and AWS tools "favored by most." It added that the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) might lean toward Google Cloud.
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AWS [14]continues to advertise UK National Security and Defence products. The MoD meanwhile lists AWS, Azure, and Oracle Cloud Platform for its users.
In 2016, the [15]MoD became one of the first tenants of Microsoft's UK Azure datacenter. ®
Get our [16]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/microsoft_admits_it_cannot_guarantee/
[2] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/683d89f181deb72cce2680a5/The_Strategic_Defence_Review_2025_-_Making_Britain_Safer_-_secure_at_home__strong_abroad.pdf
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aMRDlfwH-q8PioM_fZ2m_wAAARA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aMRDlfwH-q8PioM_fZ2m_wAAARA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aMRDlfwH-q8PioM_fZ2m_wAAARA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/security-delivered-for-working-people-as-uk-us-ties-strengthened-with-new-google-cloud-partnership-for-classified-information-sharing#:~:text=Secure%2C%20seamless%20communication%20with%20our,technology%20to%20counter%20our%20adversaries.
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/09/google_cloud_ceo_sees_sunny/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/10/google_uk_data_sovereignty/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/27/salesforce_salesloft_breach/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/19/critical_thinking_and_sovereign_cloud/
[11] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cloud-strategic-roadmap-for-defence/cloud-strategic-roadmap-for-defence
[12] https://www.digital.mod.uk/backbone-services/cloud-infrastructure
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aMRDlfwH-q8PioM_fZ2m_wAAARA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/worldwide/uk/national-security-and-defence/
[15] https://www.publictechnology.net/2016/09/07/defence-and-security/mod-shifts-microsoft-cloud-company-launches-uk-datacentres/
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Almost certainly NOT the Google Cloud Platform as most know it
The headlines suggest this is Google Cloud Platform, but in reality it is almost certainly their new standalone variant which has already found favour in Germany for their military.
On paper that’s an interesting and highly capable secure platform - but is also a physically chunky power hungry beast.
Well suited therefore for centralised defence type purposes in large UK datacentres or for point to point system links as the article suggests.
Definitely not a mobility or fast deployment cloud platform-l for use in theatre or on vehicle based models which in fact none of the mainstream hyperscalers can provide.
Such services do exist - and some are immensely capable, sufficiently secure for SECRET (and above) and very energy frugal; but these are not to be found from Google, AWS or Microsoft.
Re: Almost certainly NOT the Google Cloud Platform as most know it
This is still covered by Cloud Act, so the platform is not secure and certainly not "sovereign".
I wonder if minister also bought land on the Moon whilst being dazzled by slick salesmen.
How to NOT keep secrets?
Give Google, the slurper in Chief the keys to the larder.
I don't trust them an inch or even a thousandth of a millimeter to keep out military secrets secure,
Sorry... This decision is even worse than giving the contract to Microsoft.
Google sovereign cloud
It's sovereign, I accept that. Sovereign to the American regime.
Britain really is Airstrip One.
in the coming mess brewed by the orange one
we are going to be the ww2 equivalent of Italy aren't we?
Delusion
There is no exemption for governments in the Cloud Act.
This meas yes, US security services (and so the Russian security services, because of the compromised US administration) will have access to our military secrets.
This deal should be stopped.
Re: Delusion
This deal should be stopped.
Agreed, but that will not happen as Starmer is too afraid of upsetting the orange one.
Maybe repetition helps?
The US CLOUD Act together with the PATRIOT Act and National Security Letters mean that no computer system operated by a company based in the USA is sovereign to the country where it is installed. US law still has dominion over your data regardless of any empty promises to the opposite effect.
It would seem that the UK still believes that the USA is their ever faithful ally and that they don't mind sharing all their classified data with the US TLAs.
If, in the future, a UK government decides to act in a way which provokes the ire of either the mad orange king or what terror comes after him, they are setting themselves up for the ultimate blackmail.
Oh, you don't like our new tariffs on your exports? Let's see how you feel about that when we turn off your MoD datacentre.
US company, US laws, spineless and clueless UK government, access to UK data guaranteed for USA !
This is not a sovereign cloud, just on-premise storage for the UK, lies and mis-information from Liebour !
"The aim is to strengthen secure communication links between the UK and US, adding to the security partnership the two nations share."
Make more effective, at least in one direction. Strengthening security is a different matter.