CIA Defines Schedule for $10B Cloud Contract: BGOV Top 20

The Central Intelligence Agency plans to release a final request for proposal in January for its 10-year, $10 billion cloud computing contract known as Commercial Cloud Enterprise (C2E).

This week’s update to Bloomberg Government’s Top 20 Opportunities focuses on C2E.

Acquisition Timeline

The agency plans to release a draft request for proposal in January 2020, host an industry day in February, release a final request for proposal in March, and make one or more contract awards in Sept. 2020. Work will likely commence in fiscal 2021, according to the acquisition schedule published to the intelligence community’s Acquisition Research Center (ARC) website on Nov. 18.

The CIA is preparing a draft statement of objectives. The upcoming acquisition documents will incorporate discussions with industry and pre-solicitation documents released on Sept. 30.

Contract Structure

The C2E requirements will include three sections, according to documents released on Sept. 23.

• Cloud Service Provider (CSP) acquisition — A multiple-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity contract for professional services and foundational cloud services, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).
• Systems Integrator/Multicloud Management (SIMM) acquisition — System integration tools and support for the foundational cloud services purchased in the CSP acquisition.
• ‘Fit for Purpose’ PaaS and SaaS acquisitions — Multiple contracts for distinct or specialized segments of PaaS and SaaS offerings to augment those acquired in the CSP acquisition.

The new structure will significantly enhance the current cloud computing contract relied upon by the CIA since 2013. C2E is a follow-on to the $600 million Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) contract, which was awarded to Amazon Web Services Inc. in 2013. C2E will expand on the C2S capabilities by adding new commercial services, boosting computing and storage capacity, and offering additional support at the unclassified and secret levels.

See the opportunity here.

Deviating from JEDI Model

The Defense Department awarded its major cloud contract, Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), to Microsoft Corp. on October 25. The award is now awaiting a protest decision as a result of a dispute by Amazon Web Services.

The CIA strategy will resemble the Pentagon plan in being a 10-year, $10 billion source for cloud computing. One major difference is the CIA’s decision to award a multiple-award contract and the Pentagon’s single-award approach.

C2E could be an alternative that gives major cloud providers such as Oracle Corp., or Amazon Web Services a chance to remain competitive in the market for secure cloud services for government agencies. For small businesses seeking cloud opportunities at CIA, there will likely be subsequent project phases with activities related to consulting or migration, after the first phase of the contract providing the infrastructure foundation is awarded.

For companies interested in an upcoming bid, additional information can be found on the ARC website. The solicitations page, along with acquisition documents, is unclassified but does require registration and a login.

To contact the analyst on this story: Robert Levinson in Washington, D.C. at rlevinson@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Snyder at dsnyder@bgov.com; Zachary Sherwood at zsherwood@bgov.com