LATEST UPDATE: JEDI is facing more scrutiny from congress, and possible funding limitations.
UPDATE 4/17/2018: DOD released the second draft of the JEDI RFP along with answers to 1,030 industry questions. Importantly, DOD is sticking with a single award for the 10-year program. However, in answers to the industry, DOD made an important distinction: “Offerors may propose any kind of teaming/partnering arrangement so long as the proposed solution meets the requirements of the solictiation.” This could seemingly include not only joint ventures and partnerships, but re-sellers and brokers of multiple cloud service models.
UPDATE 3/27/2018: While public scrutiny of the JEDI procurement plan continues, a section of an accompanying Congressional report to the Defense portion of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2018, which was signed by the President on March 23rd, requires DOD to submit two new reports, each due either at 45 days from the enactment or 60 days from the enactment, detailing: the procurement and program format, the justification for a single award, fiscal considerations, and the Request for Proposal which will be utilized.
UPDATE 3/8/2018: Concurrently with the industry day held yesterday, DOD released the Draft RFP for the JEDI procurement, with a very quick turn-around schedule that we’ll outline below. While DOD emphasized the need for industry input by March 21st, it appears that procurement authorities are unwilling to bend to the largest complaint coming from the industry: that this potentially 10-year, multi-billion dollar opportunity, is being planned as a single-award contract. Take a look below for details on the Draft RFP and the estimated procurement schedule.
After only forming in September of last year, and then undergoing an organizational and leadership shuffle in January, DOD’s Cloud Executive Steering Group (CESG) is now planning an industry day on March 7th in Arlington, VA for the huge Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) Cloud acquisition.
The government is encouraging “all interested parties from industry, academia, government, and media” to attend, and is hoping to meet the wide-ranging audience with a briefing panel just as large, to include members of:
• Office of the Chief Management Officer
• Joint Staff
• Office of the Chief Information Officer
• US Cyber Command
• Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment
• Defense Digital Service
• Strategic Capabilities Office
• Program Manager and Contracting Officer for JEDI Cloud
While the industry day itself will shed more light on DOD’s plans for an opportunity worth billions of dollars, CESG is also planning on releasing a Draft RFP around the time of the event. Most recently, DOD faced push-back from the industry for a released acquisition plan which consisted of a single-award, 10-year IDIQ for cloud migration and consolidation. EZGovOpps will be sure to follow the new information that comes out as JEDI moves through the procurement process.
The event will be held at the Sheraton Pentagon City, and registration will close at 3:00 p.m. EST on February 28, 2018.
The Draft RFP
Although a maximum ceiling has not yet been determined, the Period of Performance for JEDI has been broken down into a base performance period of 2 years, a 5-year option period, and another 3-year option period, for a total potential period of performance of 10 years. The primary NAICS code for the contract will be 518210 — Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services. The chosen Cloud Service Provider (CSP) will be required to provide scale-able Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions which are globally available, certified up to the highest classification levels, and which fulfill the need for “repeatable, verifiable, and measurable” cybersecurity.
The Draft RFP evaluation is divided into successive stages which will narrow down the field of proposals. Proposals will first have to meet “Gate Criteria,” made up of 8 evaluation factors including “elastic usage” and “commerciality.” Providers who pass this first set of criteria will then have their Technical Proposal evaluated based on factors such as “tactical edge” and “secure data transfer.”
As mentioned earlier, the provider will have to meet accreditation and authorization requirements for the various classification levels in a staggered schedule, ranging from unclassified information within 30 days of award, to Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) within 9 months of the contract award.
The Procurement Timeline
Conference attendees noted the accelerated timeline which DOD is planning for the procurement. With Draft RFP comments due only two weeks from its release, on March 21st, DOD then expects to award a Final RFP for JEDI in May. The award is currently expected by DOD in September 2018, which is also listed as the start date in the Draft RFP.
EZGovOpps will continue to monitor this huge procurement initiative as it moves through the process.
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For more contracting news, stay tuned for updates on EZGovOpps GovCon News.