Report: CIA Eyes Commercial Cloud Enterprise Contract Award by 2021

The CIA hosted on March 22 an industry day as it plans to award by 2021 a cloud contract worth “tens of billions” of dollars to multiple service providers in support of its national security mission, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The Commercial Cloud Enterprise program seeks a cloud platform that could handle both classified and unclassified data, integrate data sources in space and on the ground as well as back connections at “tactical edge locations” to support the agency’s intelligence-collection activities, according to documents assessed by the Post.

“The CIA’s approach to C2E clearly recognizes the value of multi-cloud while encouraging competition, supporting legacy applications and ensuring the agency’s access to future innovation,” said Sam Gordy, general manager of IBM’s federal business.

The report said the C2E program builds on a potential $600 cloud contract that Amazon Web Services received in 2013.

Potential competitors for the C2E initiative include Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and Google, the report added.