Post by Admin on Jul 6, 2021 22:03:53 GMT
Pentagon Cancels JEDI Cloud Contract
The Defense Department will opt for a new multibillion-dollar, multi-vendor contract.
The Defense Department is canceling the embattled Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, officials announced Tuesday.
“With the shifting technology environment, it has become clear that the JEDI Cloud contract, which has long been delayed, no longer meets the requirements to fill the DoD’s capability gaps,” a DOD spokesperson said in an announcement shared with media.
Cancellation of the JEDI project comes with a new DOD cloud effort called the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability, or JWCC. The project will be a multi-cloud, multi-vendor indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. Like with JEDI, DOD anticipates a multibillion-dollar ceiling. The JWCC will start with a three-year base period and two one-year options.
The new pre-solicitation calls for bids from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft “as available market research indicates that” the two companies are the only ones that meet the department’s current cloud needs, though other cloud service providers may be considered. Acting Chief Information Officer John Sherman said during a media briefing Tuesday he would be reaching out to other cloud service providers not named in the documents—specifically, Google, Oracle and IBM—later today.
“The additional market research that we're doing between now and mid-October this year will enable us to be able to engage those vendors directly to ensure that our market research is as thorough as possible,” Sherman said, adding that if other providers can meet the department’s requirements and timeline, they will be considered in the direct solicitation.
DOD expects to extend direct solicitations in mid-October and anticipates direct awards in April 2022.
“With the shifting technology environment, it has become clear that the JEDI Cloud contract, which has long been delayed, no longer meets the requirements to fill the DoD’s capability gaps,” a DOD spokesperson said in an announcement shared with media.
Cancellation of the JEDI project comes with a new DOD cloud effort called the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability, or JWCC. The project will be a multi-cloud, multi-vendor indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. Like with JEDI, DOD anticipates a multibillion-dollar ceiling. The JWCC will start with a three-year base period and two one-year options.
The new pre-solicitation calls for bids from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft “as available market research indicates that” the two companies are the only ones that meet the department’s current cloud needs, though other cloud service providers may be considered. Acting Chief Information Officer John Sherman said during a media briefing Tuesday he would be reaching out to other cloud service providers not named in the documents—specifically, Google, Oracle and IBM—later today.
“The additional market research that we're doing between now and mid-October this year will enable us to be able to engage those vendors directly to ensure that our market research is as thorough as possible,” Sherman said, adding that if other providers can meet the department’s requirements and timeline, they will be considered in the direct solicitation.
DOD expects to extend direct solicitations in mid-October and anticipates direct awards in April 2022.
