Oracle has signed a new cloud agreement with the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) aimed at accelerating the migration of legacy technology systems and supporting the department’s wider digital modernisation programme.
Under the deal, the MoD will be able to move existing systems onto Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), which the company said enables faster adoption of AI and more effective use of data across defence operations. The agreement is intended to help the department treat data as a strategic asset, improve decision-making and strengthen the UK’s national security posture.
Access to OCI is expected to support the consolidation of legacy systems and provide a platform for scaling new digital and AI-enabled services without the need for complex system rewrites.
Victoria Cope, commercial director at the Ministry of Defence, said the agreement reinforced an established relationship between the two organisations.
“The OCI agreement strengthens the long-standing strategic relationship between MoD and Oracle, and reflects the MoD’s multi-vendor strategy to leverage the best available technologies to deliver operational outcomes and greater efficiency,” she said. “This agreement also includes a commitment to digital skills development, education and social value investment supporting the wider Defence and UK Government agenda to build a digitally skilled workforce.”
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From Oracle’s perspective, the focus is on enabling the MoD to operationalise data and AI at pace. Jason Rees, SVP of technology engineering at Oracle EMEA, said: “The UK MoD is moving quickly to use data and AI in far more sophisticated ways to strengthen national security for UK citizens. Migrating workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will allow it to do this rapidly and at scale, without complicated and costly rewrites.”
Rees added that the MoD would benefit from OCI’s built-in security and AI services, providing “a resilient foundation for faster innovation, improved decision making and mission-ready capabilities”.
The MoD agreement adds to Oracle’s extensive footprint across the UK public sector, where its technology underpins systems in central and local government, health and education.
The company has also been involved in high-profile transformation programmes such as Birmingham City Council’s ERP implementation, which has experienced delays and challenges, as reported by The Register.
