AWS wins $724M contract providing Navy access to commercial cloud environment

Amazon Web Services landed a $724 million contract to give the Navy more cloud tools.

“The Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) … will provide the Department of the Navy (DON) access to Amazon Web Services’ commercial cloud environment, which can process and store data that meets both Department of Defense (DOD) and DON information assurance policies,” Charlie Spirtos, a Navy spokesperson, said. “This collaboration with AWS will ensure that the Navy’s networks are modernized, secure, and capable of providing our Sailors and Marines with the enterprise network architecture required for mission success.”

A Dec. 19 contract announcement stated work on the contract will be performed for a maximum of five years and funds will be obligated as task orders are issued under a variety of funding types to include operation and maintenance, other procurement and working capital funds.

“We are proud to continue our support for the Department of the Navy and are committed to enabling their critical mission by delivering innovative, efficient, scalable, and secure cloud services,” Liz Martin, director of Defense Department business at AWS, said in a statement.

In recent policies issued by the Navy and DOD, mission owners must migrate from on-premise enterprise data products to commercial cloud environments with the assumption that such providers will be better equipped to provide them than the government.

A 2020 memo signed by the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition and CIO created a policy for the accelerated promotion and acquisition of cloud services.

The Navy’s information superiority vision mandates the service to modernize, innovate and defend as well as migrate applications to the cloud.