Pentagon enlists contractor to lead new commercial cloud acquisition

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with comment from the Defense Department.

The Defense Department awarded a $6.7 million contract to Eagle Harbor Solutions LLC to support the military’s latest effort to launch departmentwide cloud services.

IT consultant Eagle Harbor, a small business subsidiary of Alaska-based Koniag Incorporated, will lead the acquisition of a commercial cloud platform across the Pentagon with DOD’s Cloud Executive Steering Group, the Defense Digital Service and the Deputy Chief Management Office.

The contractor, according to a release, will “devise and oversee the execution of a strategy to accelerate the adoption of cloud architectures and cloud services.” More specifically, it will “support the acquisition of a modern enterprise cloud services solution and migration of the first applications with a full range of infrastructure engineering, software engineering, acquisition, strategic communications, business operations, cost estimation, and budgetary expertise.”

Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Evans confirmed Eagle Harbor’s award “for contractor support services to support the CESG’s execution of the enterprise cloud initiative,” but noted it “does not include serving as an IT systems integrator.”

The contract, according to the release, also requires Eagle Harbor to facilitate communications among the various divisions of the DOD, including the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the military branches, the Joint Staff and the various combatant and mission commands.

“We are honored to provide this critical support for laying the foundation to accelerate enterprise cloud adoption as directed by the Deputy Secretary of Defense,” Eagle Harbor Solutions President Todd Morgan said in a statement.

This new contract is just one small piece of a massive cloud puzzle for DOD. Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan issued a sweeping memo last September directing the creation of the cloud steering group “to devise and oversee the execution of a strategy to accelerate the adoption of cloud architecture and cloud services, focusing on commercial solutions.” The program is known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI.

Earlier reports suggested that the Pentagon would award a sole-source contract, worrying the larger cloud service vendor community. But Evans told FedScoop that isn’t the case. “The department intends to conduct the enterprise cloud acquisition through a full and open competition,” he said. “There is no plan for a sole source award for the enterprise cloud contract.”

Earlier this month, Shanahan also issued a new memo moving leadership of the group to Deputy Chief Management Officer Jay Gibson, who last week was nominated to take over the new Pentagon chief management officer role, to be launched in February as required by Congress.

Eagle Harbor has done work with the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration and a handful of other federal agencies. Earlier this month, it also won an award for cloud migration for the Department of Interior’s Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians.

Eagle Harbor representatives did not respond to FedScoop’s request for comment.