The Pentagon plans to release a solicitation on Aug. 24 for an expanded cloud-services contract vehicle that would broaden the types of services and providers available through the Defense Department’s Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability. The Defense Information Systems Agency announced the date in its monthly acquisition post, according to Defense One.
The next version is called the JWCC Unified Cloud Marketplace. The existing Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability is the Defense Department’s vehicle for buying cloud services from Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft Azure and Oracle, the four major hyperscalers identified in the announcement.
The Unified Cloud Marketplace would use three tiers. Tier 1 would cover the four hyperscalers: AWS, Google, Microsoft Azure and Oracle. Tier 2 would cover “everything-as-a-service,” including software, platforms and non-hyperscale infrastructure. Tier 3 would be reserved for emerging companies and small businesses.
The three-tier design describes the types of offerings and providers that could be included in the next version of the vehicle. The announcement does not identify which companies could compete for Tier 2 or Tier 3, nor does it specify how individual services would be evaluated.
The new marketplace would also differ from the current vehicle in the range of services described for purchase. The existing JWCC is identified as the Defense Department’s cloud-services vehicle for the main hyperscalers. The proposed marketplace adds a category for software, platforms and non-hyperscale infrastructure, along with a category for emerging companies and small businesses.
The current JWCC vehicle has a $9 billion ceiling. DISA has not posted an estimated value for the Unified Cloud Marketplace, so the announcement does not provide a comparable figure for the planned version.
Data cited by Defense One from Deltak lists task-order obligations for the four providers under the current JWCC vehicle. AWS has received $526.5 million, followed by Microsoft with $221 million, Oracle with $76.9 million and Google with $35.9 million. The figures identify obligations associated with each provider and do not establish the value of work that could be available through the proposed Tier 2 or Tier 3 categories.
The announcement also does not state how the three tiers would operate in individual Defense Department purchases. It does not say whether providers could compete across multiple tiers, how companies would qualify for each category or how future awards would be distributed among the tiers.
The Aug. 24 solicitation is expected to provide the terms for prospective entrants and further define the Unified Cloud Marketplace. Until those terms are released, the announced structure consists of a hyperscaler tier, a tier for software, platform and non-hyperscale infrastructure services, and a tier for emerging companies and small businesses.
The planned marketplace therefore has a release date and a proposed three-tier structure, but no published estimated value. The current JWCC vehicle has a $9 billion ceiling and recorded obligations for AWS, Microsoft, Oracle and Google. The stated change in the next version is the inclusion of additional service categories and a designated tier for emerging companies and small businesses.