The Met Office is planning to move the main components of its Space Weather service from internal storage to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud.

The move is aimed at reducing operational costs and the cycle time for changes, according to a statement, which also explained that it is seeking a delivery partner for the migration in a two-year deal valued at up to £2 million.

It said the contract should provide continuity while developing DevOps of the Space Weather service.

The Met Office operates the Space Weather service on behalf of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as part of the National Risk Assessment mitigation strategy, providing it through the Space Weather Operations Centre to ensure government and critical national infrastructure providers receive forecasts to help mitigate the effects of space weather.

Its forecasters use the system to visualise and manipulate forecast model data, creating alerts for bodies such as the armed forces as well as private businesses.

For the last six years, IT development has been delivered with a software developing and testing partner, with requirements set by the agency’s technical lead, project manager, product owner and solutions architect.

In February, the Met Office recently outlined significant changes for its digital capabilities, with £12 billion earmarked for a weather supercomputer to improve its forecasting of severe weather and climate change.

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