Defense

DOD extends deadline for JEDI contract proposals to October

The Pentagon has extended the deadline for proposals for its $10 billion JEDI commercial cloud acquisition by about three weeks.

By Billy Mitchell

September 4, 2018

Senior Airman Zach Wilt, 49th Communications Squadron cyber operator, installs Microsoft Windows 10 to a laptop at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Nov. 1, 2017. (U.S. Air Force by Airman 1st Class Alexis P. Docherty)

The Department of Defense has extended the deadline for proposals for its $10 billion landmark JEDI commercial cloud acquisition by about three weeks.

DOD will now accept proposals for the single-award Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract until Oct. 9, it announced along with new amendments to the procurement solicitation. The original deadline was Sept. 17.

The department cited a prior round of technical updates released Aug. 23 that contractors have had to address in their proposals as the impetus for the extension. The acquisition team received several requests that it extend the deadline by at least two weeks.

This isn’t the only deadline impacting the JEDI contract, however. There’s also a pre-award bid protest Oracle filed against DOD, alleging that the contract “virtually assures DOD will be locked into legacy cloud for a decade or more.” The Government Accountability Office is hearing that case and has until Nov. 14 to make a decision, which could certainly impact when DOD awards the contract, or if it even does in its current form.

DOD launched the JEDI procurement in late July after months of delay. The single-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity acquisition will be worth up to $10 billion for a possible 10 years — starting with a two-year base period, then two three-year options and another two-year option to close it out.

Because of the security and scale required by the Pentagon, only a few cloud vendors are thought to be in the running for the JEDI contract, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM, CSRA (now part of General Dynamics IT) and Oracle.