After several years of controversy over the procurement of cloud services for the Department of Defense (DOD), the announcement of a request for proposals (RFP) in December 2022 for a new cloud services procurement called the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) was a welcome development for taxpayers.  This program is a multi-year, multi-vendor $9 billion contract that will be provided by Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle.

As Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) repeatedly noted, the initial DOD cloud services procurement, called JEDI, was rife with controversy, resulting in funding restrictions by Congress and its eventual termination.  The announcement of the JWCC RFP was a positive step to resolve the provision of cloud services for the entire DOD.  Unlike the single source JEDI cloud procurement, the JWCC follows private industry best practices for multiple cloud solutions, which increases security and creates competition.   The use of cloud services by DOD will also provide improved efficiency and savings and enhance overall information technology modernization strategy.

DOD Chief Information Officer John Sherman announced on August 2, 2023 that all defense agencies, military services and other offices are to prioritize the JWCC cloud services arrangement, noting that “a number of existing cloud services will transition to the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, or JWCC, upon expiration.”  He further noted that, “New agreements made for secret and top-secret classifications should adopt JWCC, as well.”

With $9 billion on the line for the JWCC, DOD agencies and offices should be ready to immediately transition to the cloud service for upcoming and future procurements.  This will benefit not only warfighters but also taxpayers.