Army awards $617 million Microsoft enterprise software license deal

This story has been updated.

The Army awarded a $617.3 million contract to Insight Public Sector in Chantilly, Va., for a Microsoft enterprise license agreement covering 1.5 million devices through November 2015.

It’s not clear what the licenses cover, but the contract, announced Tuesday, should provide an upgrade from the last Army enterprise software license contract awarded in 2009, which called for provision of the clunky Microsoft Vista operating system.

SoftArt Government Services, based in Downingtown, Pa., has provided the Army with Microsoft software under two previous contracts dating to 2003 and valued at slightly more than $1 billion. The service loaded its computers with the Vista operating system starting in 2009 and switched to Windows 7 in June.

The Army Microsoft enterprise contract is the third such agreement federal agencies inked this year. The Navy executed a $700 million deal with Microsoft for desktop and server software on July 5 and on July 12 the Veterans Affairs Department signed a five-year pact with Microsoft at an undisclosed cost for Windows 7 client-server software, database and collaboration software.

Neither the Army nor Insight Public Sector responded to a request for details on the enterprise license agreement.