Inside DOD’s joint enterprise licensing agreement with Microsoft

Photo: DOD

The Department of Defense and Microsoft signed a historic joint enterprise licensing agreement last week that provides 75 percent of all DOD personnel with Microsoft solutions, including Office 2103, Sharepoint 2013 and Windows 8.

Tim Solms, general manager of Microsoft’s DOD business, joined FedScoop Radio to talk about the agreement and what it means for both Microsoft and the DOD.

“The real interesting piece here is the ability to standardize,” Solms said. “When you get that IT infrastructure, the security improvements and the efficiency improvements and you are able to drive them simultaneously across this much of the Department of Defense you see the real value and the real advancements in their capabilities.”

The JELA is the first agreement involving three major DOD agencies (Army, Air Force and Defense Information Systems Agency) with a single vehicle for accessing the latest Microsoft technologies in support of top IT priorities around datacenter consolidation, collaboration, cybersecurity, cloud computing and big data.

According to the American Forces Press Service, the deal, a joint effort between the Army, Air Force and Defense Information Systems Agency, “demonstrates the best pricing DOD has received to date for Microsoft desktop and server software licenses.”

Army Deputy Chief Information Officer Michael Krieger said the Army will save more than $70 million each year over the course of the agreement. Air Force CIO Lt. Gen. Michael J. Basla said it will save Air Force $50 million a year.

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