AWS wins $2.6B DHS-wide Cumulus cloud project

The Department of Homeland Security is taking the next step toward reaching its cloud aspirations by officially bringing the first vendor onboard its Cumulus project, according to contract documents published last Friday. The agency awarded nearly $2.6 billion to Amazon Web Services via a single-award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for its cloud offerings, including Infrastructure as a Service, training and marketplace solutions. Cumulus was first introduced in January as part of procurement forecasting documents that outlined DHS’s plan to increase the efficiency, flexibility and effectiveness of its cloud purchases in the hopes of unlocking “significant discounts.” At the time, DHS anticipated potential contracts would surpass $100 million, which is the ceiling for estimates on the Acquisition Planning Forecast System platform. The Cumulus project marks the first time cloud service providers have been tapped at an agencywide level, rather than by individual components. DHS plans to bring on other notable cloud providers. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is expected to join next quarter, as is Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The award amounts for those contracts have not yet been disclosed.

More than 2 in 5 IRS IT employees have either been separated from the agency or involuntarily reassigned to other positions during the second Trump administration, according to a watchdog report released last week. In its third workforce snapshot since President Donald Trump began his second term, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS lost 30% of its workforce (31,273 staffers) from January 2025 through January 2026, though it also added 2,000-some positions for a net decrease of 28%. Those departures were a mix of voluntary separations, deferred resignations or other incentive-induced exits. Among the tax agency’s IT staff, 42% are gone, including 29% (2,497 individuals) who departed via separation or workforce reduction efforts. The remaining 13% (1,143 employees) were reassigned to the chief operating officer’s staff, per the report. “According to the IRS, restructuring the IT department allowed them to simplify and align technical work with the agency’s mission and core functions,” TIGTA reported. “IRS officials stated that the reassignment was not performance-related but was done to support Chief Operating Officer responsibilities.” Those non-IT responsibilities included the oversight of integrated support functions, implementing economy-of-scale efficiencies and facilitating better business practices, tax agency officials told the watchdog.

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