{"id":32682,"date":"2020-04-30T10:29:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T09:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/industry\/blog\/?p=32682"},"modified":"2020-04-30T10:29:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T09:29:56","slug":"azure-pricing-arrangement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/industry\/blog\/government\/2020\/04\/30\/azure-pricing-arrangement\/","title":{"rendered":"How Azure can help the public sector to innovate and stay resilient"},"content":{"rendered":"

In these rapidly changing times, it is more important than ever for the public sector to be able to respond to new opportunities, threats, and innovate and transform for the future.<\/p>\n

Moving to the cloud means organisations can take advantage of new technology such as AI, intelligent security, and improve resilience and scalability. The UK Government has taken a public cloud first<\/a> policy and has recently reaffirmed this approach in its new Cloud Guide for PS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In order to keep providing great experiences for citizens, empowering employees with real-time information, and optimise and streamline services and operations, the public sector needs to adopt hyper-scale public cloud capabilities. Azure has been used to help police <\/u>tackle<\/u> crim<\/u>e<\/u>s<\/u><\/a>, support NHS Trusts with AI<\/u><\/a>, and support social care.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Improving access to cloud capabilities<\/h2>\n

We want the public sector to have access to these capabilities in Azure. This is why we\u2019ve worked closely with the Crown Commercial Service to agree a new non-binding Azure Pricing Arrangement (APA). It builds on the recently announced One Government Cloud Strategy and Cloud Guide for PS<\/a>. It also ensures better value for money, by providing discounted pricing and beneficial terms for eligible public sector organisations when using Azure.<\/p>\n

Doing this opens up the opportunity for public sector customers to address three important things. These are:<\/p>\n