The News: Amazon Web Services has been re-awarded a $10 billion cloud computing contract from the National Security Agency. The contract, codenamed “Wild and Stormy, was once a classified secret, and will remain with Amazon after the NSA’s initial decision was contested by competitor Microsoft. Read more from CRN here.
Amazon Web Services Re-Awarded $10 Billion ‘Wild and Stormy’ NSA Contract After Microsoft Dispute
Analyst Take: After a months-long dispute, Amazon Web Services has been re-awarded a $10 Billion contract from the National Security Agency. The NSA contract, aptly codenamed “Wild and Stormy” given the ongoing battles between the two biggest cloud services providers as it relates to government contracts, was kept secret until it was revealed in protest filings, was first given to AWS in July 2021 in a decision contested by Microsoft, a competitor for the contract. The Government Accountability Office threw its weight behind Microsoft in the dispute last October, but after reevaluating both companies’ proposals, the NSA stood by its initial decision.
Wild and Stormy is a cloud computing services contract in support of the NSA’s Hybrid Compute Initiative, which seeks to address the agency’s significant and delicate processing and analytical requirements. Amazon Web Services will now serve as the cloud provider for the Hybrid Compute Initiative and aid in the process of moving the NSA’s global intelligence and surveillance data from internal servers to the cloud. This is a highly valuable contract for Amazon Web Services in terms of both money and prestige, as it positions the company within a critical national security role.
Amazon Web Services to Help Modernize Intelligence, Defense Capabilities
Amazon Web Services is no stranger to providing cloud computing services to intelligence and defense agencies, with contracts in those spaces reaching back almost a decade. As one of the five companies (alongside Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and IBM) awarded the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise (C2E) contract in November of 2020, Amazon Web Services is eligible to compete for specific task orders that fulfill intelligence community needs. The company is one of four remaining in contention for the Department of Defense’s $9 Billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract.
The re-awarding of Dark and Stormy to Amazon Web Services confirms its competitive edge at the highest levels of cloud computing and re-affirms its position as the dominant cloud provider for federal agencies. AWS is the most profitable business unit within Amazon, and this recent win cements its status as the jewel in Amazon’s crown. The modernization of our intelligence and defense capabilites is vital to our continued safety and security, and I’m pleased to see Amazon Web Services applying its significant strengths to that important effort.
Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum Research as a whole.
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Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years' experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging development, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly's coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
