Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Negotiating UK cloud and outsourcing contracts with hyperscalers and CSPs: buyer guidance on service changes, suspension, termination, liability and audit rights

Published by a LexisNexis TMT expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note

This Practice Note examines the impact of hyperscalers and leading cloud service providers (CSPs) on IT outsourcing, as well as prevailing market approaches to negotiating and drafting the relevant agreements from a UK purchaser’s standpoint. We now live in an environment in which most technology and business process services are consumed on an ‘as a service’ model; that is, they are delivered through the cloud, either as a turnkey solution or by having the pertinent applications hosted offsite. Although some cloud services target discrete or niche needs, others are extensive and/or mission‑critical and may entail significant levels of contract expenditure. See Practice Note: The evolution of IT outsourcing. Accordingly, market practice is shaped by which provisions are commonly debated and how impacted contracts are framed when engaging with such providers. Against this backdrop, close attention is paid to the contractual terms settled with CSPs, including, though not confined to, the ‘hyperscalers’, namely those offering large‑scale infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) capabilities that support many other types of technology and outsourced service propositions...

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Kit Burden

DLA Piper

Kit is one of the UK and Europe's foremost IT and outsourcing lawyers. He works with both customers and suppliers, including various FTSE companies and household names. He is top ranked in both the Chambers and Legal 500 directories and has been named "UK Technology Lawyer of the Year" by Global Legal Experts, and subsequently also named by the Global Sourcing Association as both their “Legal Advisor of the Year” and “Strategic Advisor of the Year”. He is the author and editor of multiple legal publications on technology topics. Since the beginning of 2023 he has also sat on the International Board of DLA Piper...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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