`Incredible Interest' in Cloud Computing Program.

• Author: Harper, Jon
• Position: BUDGET MATTERS

The Pentagon has been flooded by responses to solicitations for a major cloud computing effort that could be worth billions of dollars to industry.

Although the department has not assigned a cost ceiling or dollar value to the joint enterprise defense infrastructure program, also known as JEDI, Bloomberg Government estimates that it will be worth about $10 billion after all the contract options are exercised.

It is expected to fulfill about 20 percent of the department's data hosting needs, said Chris Cornillie, a federal market analyst at Bloomberg Government.

Chief Defense Department spokesperson Dana White said there were more than 1,000 responses to the draft requests for proposals for JEDI.

"We have a lot more players in it," she told reporters at a recent Pentagon press conference. "This is something different from some of our other acquisition programs because we do have a great deal of commercial interest. We are going to the commercial sector for it."

The final RFP was expected by the end of May, but as of press time the solicitation had yet to be released.

"It's important that we don't rush toward failure," White said. There is "incredible interest in and... excitement around the cloud" but "there were over 1,000 responses, so we need to take all of that in consideration."

Cornillie said the program could have long-term implications for Pentagon contracting.

"I almost see JEDI as a test balloon because even though it is extremely large... it only represents about 20 percent of what the Defense Department could theoretically put in the cloud," he said.

"If the program ends up being successful--they are able to attract competition, they are able to overcome a certain level of scrutiny from Congress--my estimation is that they will pursue additional cloud contracts kind of styled off of JEDI in the future," he added.

However, lawmakers are attempting to place restrictions on the JEDI initiative until the Pentagon provides more clarity about its cloud computing strategy and its efforts to promote industry competition. Some observers have...