Fiscal 2018 Cloud Contracting at the Department of Homeland Security

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been one of the federal government’s most active adopters of cloud computing over the last few years, awarding millions of dollars in contracts in Fiscal  2016 and 2017. Now the data for Fiscal 2018 is in and it shows that the total value of cloud contracts (TCV) awarded by department hit a new high. How high? More than $371M higher than the previous year’s total.

Where the Growth Happened

When a department shows growth like this it is typically attributable to the award of one or two large, high-value contracts. That is not the case this time at DHS. As the table below shows, multiple components of the department upped their award of cloud contracts. So many did so, in fact, that only a small number showed a decline in the total value of the cloud contracts they’ve awarded over the last three fiscal years. I've chosen not to calculate the percentage change for entities that rose from zero. 

Given the increases at USCIS, the Directorate for Management (OCIO), and CBP I’ll focus on drilling into their results to see what efforts contributed to their TCV numbers. The table below shows all efforts for which contracts greater than $1M were awarded. A lot of the work is related to the agency’s cloud-based Development Security Operations.

Here is the data for the Directorate of Management specifically, with basically all of the efforts being work performed under the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Notice implementations of Microsoft’s Office 365, as well as the use of Amazon Web Services. AirWatch is a mobile device management capability and Adobe Connect is for video conferencing. Much of the work being done is at the department’s 2 data centers.

Finally, here is the data for Customs and Border Protection. The cloud migration effort is being undertaken by 24x7 Systems to move all CBP applications out of the OIT National Data Center (NDC) in Springfield, Va to a commercial host, while 3 of the listed efforts are related to an enterprise Salesforce implementation and integration. CBP is also adopting the AirWatch MDM capability as part of what appears to be a DHS-wide initiative. Other commercial SaaS capabilities CBP is using include Adobe and the Acadis Readiness Learning Management Suite.

Concluding Thought

The award data presented here shows that the total value of contracts awarded by DHS rose 230% from FY 2017 to FY 2018. A rise like this suggests the potential across federal agencies once they reach a certain level of maturity adopting and using cloud-based solutions. From what we can see at DHS it appears the department has arrived on that score.