Interior unveils $1B cloud solicitation

The Interior Department has unveiled the final solicitation for a potential 11-year, $1 billion cloud computing services contract that will go to a single winner.

Proposals for the Cloud Hosting Service III contract are due to Interior by Dec. 19. Companies have until Nov. 18 to submit questions and Interior will post the answers "on or about" Dec. 5, the department said in a Sam.gov notice Tuesday.

Interior's goals are to consolidate its data centers and migrate more of its core technology services to a cloud environment. Both of those stem from directives out of the White House's Office of Management and Budget to get away from localized data centers but also take into account agencies' distinct IT needs.

The CHS III solicitation launches amid the pending sunset of Interior's Foundation Cloud Hosting Services contract, which 10 companies won seats on in 2013 with a total ceiling of $10 billion.

While the FCHS contract is slated to expire in 2023, Interior is working toward the official start of the recompete after its release in April of a request for information.

CHS III is considered a new requirement with no incumbent. That contract will have an initial five-year base period and three option periods of two years each.