Question answered: Accenture Federal wins Air Force Cloud One Next contract

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include new information that SAIC did not bid on this contract.

What we openly asked about is apparently true: Accenture's U.S. federal subsidiary is indeed the winner of the $1.6 billion Air Force Cloud One Next contract to act as a reseller of cloud services.

In addition to the reseller services, Accenture Federal Services will also provide enterprise-scale software management services to the Air Force under the five-year contract.

Deltek data points to Science Applications International Corp. as the incumbent on Cloud One, a $728 million contract it won in 2019. Cloud One is slated to expire on Sept. 28. SAIC did not bid on this contract but is pursing a Cloud One Next contract focused on modernization efforts.

Both contracts technically are task orders under the Alliant 2 vehicle for IT solutions.

Given Cloud One Next was awarded Wednesday, it is still well within the window for the lone other bidder to file a bid protest.

It could be several weeks before the protest window closes. The Defense Department uses a more robust debriefing process designed to give unsuccessful bidders more information on why they didn’t win.

Accenture Federal has declined to comment on the win.

The Cloud One Next program is an important one for the Air Force as it works to modernize its infrastructure, as well as move more systems and data to cloud environments.

Cloud One Next will provide Air Force mission systems owners access to multiple cloud service providers. They describe it as a “cloud landing zone” in previously-released procurement documents.

Among the services sought is migration from on-premise data centers to the cloud. The Air Force is also interested in reducing complexity and creating a standard set of guardrails and tools for use across the branch.