Amid the controversy over its JEDI cloud computing contract, the U.S. Defense Department has been pursuing a separate multibillion-dollar procurement initiative to expand its use of software-as-a-service solutions. That contract was officially awarded today.

The Defense Enterprise Office Solutions or DEOS program is expected to be worth $7.6 billion over 10 years. The program will see General Dynamics Corp. subsidiary CSRA LLC work with the DOD to standardize its email and collaboration workflows on Microsoft Corp.’s Office 365. Dell Technologies Inc. and Virginia-based Microsoft reseller Minburn Technology Group LLC are participating too as CRSA’s partners. 

“DEOS will streamline our use of cloud email and collaborative tools while enhancing cybersecurity and information sharing based on standardized needs and market offerings,” DOD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy said in a statement.

The DOD will roll out Office 365 in phases. Brian Hermann, an official with the Defense Information Systems Agency, stated last year that the plan was to migrate 1.5 million users to Microsoft’s productivity suite within 18 months of the contract being awarded. Hermann said the initial leg of the program will focus moving personnel off the DOD’s aging Defense Enterprise Email system.

The DEOS bidding requirements specified that the winning productivity platform must be certified to host Secret-level data classified as Impact Level 6. That’s notable because, according to Microsoft’s documentation, Office 365 is currently cleared up to Impact Level 5. Microsoft is presumably still in the process of obtaining the necessary certification.

The company only recently inaugurated its first two Azure cloud regions with Impact Level 6 authorization. Microsoft runs Office 365 on Azure, which means those regions could end up hosting at least some of DOD’s Impact Level 6 documents. The launch of the data centers is also quite significant in the context of JEDI, the department’s other multibillion-dollar cloud contract. 

Microsoft is the only cloud provider besides Amazon Web Services Inc. that is still in contention for the latter deal. AWS is widely perceived as the favorite to nab JEDI, which is worth $10 billion and will see the winning provider run the backbone of DOD’s information technology infrastructure for the next decade.

JEDI is currently on pause while newly appointed DOD Defense Secretary Mark Esper reviews the contract. Separately, the DOD Inspector General is conducting an investigation into claims that the bidding process was tainted by conflicts of interest.

The loudest voice behind the allegations has been Oracle Corp., whose JEDI bid was ruled out last year. The company went on to file a lawsuit over the contract that was recently rejected by a federal judge and is currently headed to an appeal. 

Photo: David B. Gleason