Army awards $250 million private cloud contract to seven firms

The Army on Thursday awarded seven companies a $249.8 million contract to provide private cloud computing services. Each of the firms will compete for business on a task order basis.

Criterion Systems Inc., General Dynamics One Source, IBM, HP Enterprise Services, Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman and MicroTech won places on the firm fixed-price contract, which will run through Dec. 29, 2016. They were selected from among 11 bidders.

This contract appears to be in conflict with language in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that President Obama signed on Dec. 31, 2011, which directs the Defense Department to use commercial data centers instead of its own storage units or private clouds. The Pentagon has not responded to queries on how it interprets this language.