The Defense Department received 1,089 comments from 46 companies, three government agencies and two associations in response to the initial draft request for proposals for a cloud procurement contract.A FedBizOpps notice posted Saturday says DoD plans to issue responses to questions and comments and the second draft RFP for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud program in the week of April 9 with plans to release the final solicitation in early May.
The Professional Services Council has called on the Pentagon to remove regulatory barriers in order to expedite the adoption of cloud platforms within the department.
“PSC supports DoD’s commitment to full and open competition for the JEDI Cloud solicitation,†Alan Chvotkin, PSC executive vice president and counsel, wrote in a March 21 letter to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.
The council also offered six recommendations to eliminate policy barriers to the department’s cloud adoption and those include the need for DoD to consider more agile methods to cloud security requirement frameworks and leverage the funding flexibility that the Modernizing Government Technology Act offers.
FCW reported that the IT Alliance for Public Sector has asked for more information on DoD’s decision to go with a single vendor for the JEDI Cloud program and whether the agency will consider awarding a contract to a vendor to offer multiple cloud services.
“We have long supported competition in the government marketplace to ensure taxpayers receive the most innovative technology at the best price,†Trey Hodgkins, senior vice president of public sector at ITAPS, was quoted as saying by FCW.
“In this situation, we believe that a multi-cloud approach is the best way to accomplish that goal,†Hodgkins added.
