HUDSON INSTITUTE THE MISSION-READY CLOUD
1
The Mission-Ready Cloud:
A Multi-Vendor Cloud
Architecture for the US Defense
and Intelligence Communities
BY DR. WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, JR.
Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
TOD LINDBERG
Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
July 2020
After six years operating with a single cloud-services provider
under its Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) program, the
intelligence community (IC) decided last year to take a different
approach. Instead of a single provider, the new Commercial
Cloud Enterprise (C2E) will create a highly exible “indenite
delivery, indenite quantity” (IDIQ) contract vehicle for cloud
services. This will allow those in charge of the various
missions within the IC to select providers on the basis of the
contractor’s ability to meet the specic IT needs of the mission.
This change in approach will allow for far greater competition
among cloud service providers rather than a small number
of “winner take all” contracts. The environment will be one of
constant competition for task orders under IDIQ, leading to
greater pressure for innovation and improvement as well as
lower costs. This change of approach has vast implications,
not only within the IC, but also for the Department of Defense
(DoD) and the American national security apparatus writ large.
Background
In 2013 the IC, driven by the vast increase in data collected by
its seventeen member agencies, embarked on a pathbreaking
switch from centralized data storage and processing centers
to a cloud-based architecture. The IC sought, through its
Commercial Cloud Services program, to improve its ability to
task, process, exploit, and disseminate its data resources in a
secure, timely, and efcient manner.
