The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has begun soliciting bids for the potential 10-year, $21.6 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability Unified Cloud Marketplace (JWCC UCM) Core contract, which will provide the Department of Defense (DOD) with secure, multi-vendor cloud computing services worldwide.
Under the Trump administration, the DOD has been rebranded as the Department of War.
According to a solicitation notice published Sept. 8, offers for the multiple-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract are due Oct. 6. Questions regarding the solicitation are due no later than Sept. 11.
The contract will support infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and software as a service offerings – collectively referred to as anything as a service – for federal governmentwide customers operating from the strategic level to the tactical edge.
DISA’s Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., is managing the procurement. The competition is full and open to U.S.-based hyperscale commercial cloud service providers.
UCM Core is one piece of DISA’s broader effort to expand the Pentagon’s enterprise cloud marketplace beyond the current JWCC contract. The agency has recast its planned JWCC Next follow-on as JWCC UCM, a framework intended to provide a single marketplace for provisionally authorized commercial cloud services.
The UCM Core performance work statement organizes contractor responsibilities into seven tasks: program management; operations; fortified security; integration and interoperability; data transfer and portability; centralized management and distributed control; and desired capabilities.
Those requirements cover capabilities ranging from cloud services at the operational and tactical edge to zero trust-aligned cybersecurity, secure data transfers, application programming interfaces, automated account provisioning, financial operations, third-party marketplaces, and additional cloud support services.
DISA said additional information about other JWCC UCM opportunities will be released later.
Jeff Marshall, director of DISA’s J9 Hosting and Compute, previously told MeriTalk that UCM will feature three tiers supported by two acquisition vehicles, while presenting users with a single marketplace organized around available services rather than individual contracts.
“We’re trying to keep the contract concept away from the user base,” Marshall said. “Instead, we want to talk to them about the tiers that UCM will provide them.”
The first tier, UCM Core, succeeds the current JWCC contract and serves the role that JWCC Next was originally intended to fill by providing an acquisition vehicle focused on hyperscale cloud providers.
The second and third tiers, collectively called UCM Premier, are intended to open the marketplace to providers beyond the hyperscale cloud market.
Tier two will provide a pathway for software as a service, platform as a service, and non-hyperscale infrastructure as a service providers that have already received provisional authorization. Marshall said the tier is intended to give government customers access to a wider range of cloud offerings.
Tier three will focus on emerging technologies and specialized capabilities that can face lengthy acquisition and authorization processes. Under DISA’s model, emerging technology vendors could begin onboarding while pursuing provisional authorization, allowing government customers to evaluate their capabilities earlier. Once authorized, those offerings could move into tier two for broader operational use.
Marshall said DISA intends to keep the Premier procurement closely behind Core.
“If we do everything on the current desired schedule, we should have [the tier two and three contract] out during the end of Q1 of 2027 or the beginning of the second quarter of 2027,” Marshall said.
DISA is also exploring whether providers with Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program or Intelligence Community authorizations could enter UCM, potentially widening the pool beyond vendors that already hold DOD impact-level certifications.
The broader marketplace is part of DISA’s Cloud Environment strategy, which combines traditional hosting, private cloud, and commercial cloud services. The agency is increasingly looking to extend those capabilities closer to military operations, including combatant commands operating outside the continental United States.