One of the topics that continues to dominate cloud computing news in 2025 is the growing influence of hyperscale tech giants, namely Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft, in the industry.
This year, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concluded its long-running investigation into the UK cloud infrastructure services market and – as part of this – identified the impact that the behavior of AWS and Microsoft is having on other players in the sector.
AWS's impact on the UK public sector has come under scrutiny again this year, along with Microsoft's handling of police sector data, while the government has been criticized for failing to do more to open up the market to smaller cloud companies.
Amid this, a new category of cloud players emerged in 2025—in the form of neo-cloud providers—that specialize in providing computing infrastructure used almost exclusively to handle artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.
With that backdrop, we present Computer Weekly's top 10 cloud computing stories of 2025.
In February 2025, the government came under criticism.following the publication by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) of guidance to public sector bodies on how to host data safely and securely in overseas data centres.
The guidance states that public sector organizations can use cloud services hosted in data centers outside the UK for reasons of “resilience, capacity and access to innovation”.
However, some cloud market participants interviewed by Computer Weekly interpreted the advice as telling public sector buyers not to use domestic providers if it is cheaper to buy from foreign cloud providers.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) also incurred the wrath of the UK cloud market in May 2025 after publishing tender documents for the government data agency's decade-long £500 million data center decommissioning and cloud migration project.
Specifically, it was the length of the project and HMRC's request that a hyperscale cloud firm oversee the project. This has irritated cloud market commentators, with one saying the tender could be challenged on legal grounds due to its exclusion of smaller cloud market players.
Further controversy over the project followed in October 2025, when Computer Weekly exclusively reported that AWS was the only technology provider still involved in the ten-year deal, after companies including IBM, Microsoft and Google Cloud pulled out of the bidding process.
Sources claimed that concerns about the tender being unfairly skewed towards AWS were a factor in suppliers' decisions to pull out, with HMRC rejecting suppliers' proposals to implement hybrid cloud due to how outdated their IT was.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concluded a lengthy investigation into the inner workings of the UK cloud infrastructure services market in July 2025, concluding that Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) had engaged in behavior that harmed competition in the sector.
As a result, The CMA recommended that both companies take “targeted and tailored” measures curb their anti-competitive behavior, and its board of directors is due to consider this recommendation in early 2026.
Amid geopolitical unrest and concerns about US government surveillance, The UK's dependence on foreign cloud providers has become more acute in 2025.prompting UK IT buyers to think even more about the topic of data sovereignty.
Computer Weekly looked at the issue in depth in September 2025, comparing the UK's stance on the topic with the rest of Europe, where governments are increasingly pushing for the use of domestic service providers.
The risks associated with hosting large parts of the UK's IT infrastructure in overseas clouds became apparent in October 2025, following One AWS data center in the US experienced a multi-hour outage that impacted the productivity of many UK organizations..
Among those affected were HMRC and Lloyds Banking Group, with the fallout for the former prompting MPs to question what the government was doing to ensure public sector businesses were protected during outages involving their biggest suppliers.
More than a year after Computer Weekly first revealed details about Microsoft's failure to guarantee sovereignty over control data hosted on the Azure public cloud, new revelations on the topic have emerged this year.
Documents provided to Computer Weekly showed that police data hosted on Microsoft's hyperscale cloud infrastructure could be processed in more than 100 countries. The tech giant hid this information from its customers.
Crown Commercial Service (CCS) government procurement chiefs have revealed the fifteenth iteration of the popular G-Cloud procurement system, launching the bid process for purchase and sale agreement in October 2025.
However, as potential suppliers began to think about the content of procurement documents, concerns began to spread that entry requirements may be too high and onerous for many SMEs to participate in the system this time around.
Months after the CMA concluded its antitrust investigation into AWS and Microsoft's ownership of the UK cloud market, it has emerged that the European Commission is planning separate investigations into both companies and their impact on the continent's cloud market under the terms of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
According to Computer Weekly, the investigation is aimed at determine whether suppliers should be included in the scope of work DMAs are appointed as “gatekeepers” in recognition of how much control they have in the cloud computing market.
This year, a new breed of cloud players entered the market in the form of non-cloud technology providers such as Nscale. The company has enjoyed a curious rise to prominence this year, appearing seemingly out of nowhere overnight to find itself at the center of the UK government's artificial intelligence plans.
Since early 2025, the company has been mentioned in passing in various ministerial speeches, including its CEO Josh Payne, quoted in press releases issued The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on the government's ambitious artificial intelligence program.
The company has also attracted staggering amounts of investment. and has made several major technology deals despite only being in existence since May 2024.
