DISA signs on for milCloud 2.0
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The nearly $500 million contract with CSRA calls for the government-run cloud to be operated by the contractor in DOD data center space.
The Defense Information Systems Agency is on its way to milCloud 2.0, an extension of DISA’s plan to connect Defense Department networks with commercial cloud infrastructures in a private deployment model.
The nearly $500 million contract with CSRA calls for the government-run cloud to be operated by the contractor in DOD data center space.
DISA first rolled out milCloud in 2014 as a government-operated private cloud with both classified and unclassified versions.
The 2.0 version will provide infrastructure as a service on a scalable basis so customers pay only for the services they need at a given time. That is one of the cost-saving objectives of the new iteration. In addition, it is designed to serve as further proof of concept to broaden the future use of cloud technology by the DOD.
The performance work statement says that the infrastructure services must be able to scale from an initial 50 workloads to 5,000 at full operational capability and have additional capacity to go beyond that target. The contractor will also support the transition of user data from 1.0 to the new version, and the government will retain ownership of user data and applications hosted on the new commercial cloud.
Even though the DOD is in the process of moving to Windows 10 as its sole operating system, the milCloud 2.0 specs state that the infrastructure must support a range of operating systems.
CSRA has four weeks from the award date to deliver an initial report detailing its installation plans at the two sites and to identify and provide risk-mitigation solutions.
The plan is for apps and customers currently using milCloud 1.0 to be the first to migrate to 2.0. Eventually 1.0 will be phased out, although DISA could not provide a timeline.
DISA could not elaborate on the contract announcement as it is in the process of completing Federal Acquisition Regulations requirements to debrief the competitors in the solicitation. The DOD reported receiving five proposals for the milCloud 2.0 contract. With a single-source contract of this size, it remains to be seen whether there will be any protests that could derail the stated timelines.