DoD Takes The Right Approach On JEDI Cloud Procurement (From RealClearDefense)

On July 26, the Department of Defense (DoD) released the final Request for Proposal (RFP) for its much anticipated and politically sensitive Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) Cloud. The solicitation envisions a full and open competition leading to a single award for a contract that could last up to 10 years and be worth $10 billion if all options are exercised to provide commercially-based cloud services. JEDI is the first attempt by DoD to create an enterprise-wide cloud infrastructure capable of handling the volume, variety and sensitivity of DoD information. DoD needs to stick with its well-informed and correctly argued position. Until the Pentagon knows how to employ an enterprise-wide cloud to support the warfighter, it does not want to take on the extra management and contracting burdens that will inevitably come with a program that allows multiple contractors. I have written more about this for RealClearDefense here.