The Pentagon has officially selected Google [GOOG], Oracle [ORCL], Amazon Web Services [AMZN] and
Microsoft [MSFT] for its potential $9 billion multi-vendor Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) enterprise cloud computing effort.
Awards to the four vendors were announced on Tuesday evening, with each of the firms having previously received direct solicitation requests to submit proposals for the program.
“The purpose of this contract is to provide the Department of Defense with enterprise-wide, globally available cloud services across all security domains and classification levels, from the strategic level to the tactical edge. The Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability will allow mission owners to acquire authorized commercial cloud offerings directly from the Cloud Service Providers contract awardees,” the Pentagon wrote in its contract announcement.
The Pentagon first announced JWCC in July 2021 as the new effort replacing the former single-award JEDI cloud program, which was shuttered after the department said it determined that “due to evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances” the program no longer met its needs (Defense Daily, July 6 2021).
Microsoft originally beat out Amazon Web Services for the JEDI cloud contract in October 2019, but the program stalled following a series of legal challenges.
Following a market research period, the Pentagon last November issued the direct solicitation requests to the four companies, which it determined were the only eligible hyperscale cloud service providers (Defense Daily, Nov. 19 2021).
IBM [IBM] was the sole firm on DoD’s consultation list not to receive a request to submit a proposal for JWCC.
DISA’s Hosting and Computer Center (HAC) has been assisting in the review process to inform the JWCC awards in December, which it has noted will be a three-year base deal with two one-year options.
DoD CIO John Sherman has said the awards in December are aligned with DoD’s strategy to stand up an initial JWCC capability before holding a full and open competition in several years for an enduring multi-vendor enterprise cloud capability.
Sherman has previously noted that the follow-on effort is likely to start in December 2023, with those contracts now likely to be awarded in January 2026.