Budget Analysis: Army Programs Leveraging Cloud in FY 2022
Published: September 01, 2021
Federal Market AnalysisARMYBudgetCloud ComputingForecasts and SpendingInformation Technology
Based on an analysis of the DOD’s fiscal 2022 budget request, the U.S. Army intends to spend $1.2B on programs leveraging cloud technology.
Key Takeaways
- The Army intends to spend $1.2B on programs leveraging cloud computing in fiscal 2022.
- Several large Army R&D programs are funding network transport capabilities to enable greater use of cloud computing.
- Army’s cloud-related investments are occurring across a variety of R&D, tactical, and business systems.
Every Spring, Deltek’s Federal Market Analysis (FMA) team takes a thorough look at the Department of Defense’s Procurement and Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation (RDT&E) budget requests for the fiscal year to come. The late release of the budget this year delayed that process up to this point.
As a reminder, FMA identifies programs using keywords that invest in certain technologies of importance to the contractor community. These technologies include cloud computing, big data analytics, cybersecurity/weaponry, and others. FMA’s analysis of the U.S. Army’s fiscal 2022 Procurement and RDT&E budget requests is now complete, while the analysis of the rest of DOD’s budget is partially complete.
The Army data reveals an intent to spend $1.2B on programs that use or prepare for the use of cloud technology in one way or another. This is down slightly from the $1.3B requested for FY 2020 and 2021.
Identifying the specific cloud spend in each program is impossible due to the vague way that the Army and DOD report budget request data. Readers should keep in mind, therefore, that the numbers presented here are the requested budgets for programs that plan to use cloud technology for a specific purpose (e.g., storage, testing, or delivering a capability, etc.). The numbers presented here should not be considered the Army’s entire cloud budget for FY 2022. They are best thought of as a signpost indicating how and where Army program offices intend to use cloud and the potential amounts they could spend on it.
Largest Programs
The chart below lists the Army programs with a cloud component that FMA could identify arranged from largest to smallest in dollar terms. Because the totals shown are from the Procurement and RDT&E budget requests, it means that the work involved could be new and available to contractors if a contract for it is competed.
Installation Information Infrastructure Modernization Program (IMOD): A long-term program, IMOD supports the Army's Network Modernization Strategy Unified Network by replacing obsolete communications equipment, converging disparate segments of the current enterprise architecture, standardization of existing networks, and increasing interoperability among Joint users and coalition partners. The planned end state is to provide reliable communications transport options for the Army to enable information dominance across Multi-Domain Operations. This program prepares installations to leverage future advanced modernization capabilities such as the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) and commercial cloud capabilities.
High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP): The DOD’s leading high performance computing program, administered by the Army, the HPCMP will in FY 2022 establish and enhance network transport to commercial clouds for those HPCMP and DOD communities moving computation, data storage, and other requirements in a cloud environment.
Common Operating Environment Tactical Server Infrastructure (COE TSI): Provides the hardware infrastructure to host capabilities, such as the Command Post Computing Environment (CPCE), movement and maneuver applications, network enabling tools and warfighting function applications. COE TSI standardizes server configurations using Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software. COE TSI is intended to provide a common hosting platform for mission command systems and will extend to support the migration of future warfighting capabilities, as well as taking cloud computing technologies into the tactical space.
Distributed Common Ground System-Army Intelligence (DCGS-A INTEL): DCGS-A is a collection of software packages (COTS and GOTS products) selected to provide each Army echelon (from battalion up to echelon above corps) the capability to synthesize and exploit intelligence data. FY 2022 funding will provide software updates that enhance the Army's ISR and multi-intelligence planning, analysis, and production capabilities through the exploitation of cloud computing and advanced analytics capabilities.
Accessions Information Environment (AIE): A personnel and business system, the AIE modernization effort replaces 11 legacy systems that have experienced frequent outages and unstable performance, directly impairing the Army's ability to fulfill its recruiting mission. The FY 2022 requested budget supports program prototyping for Wave 2 and Wave 3 design, development, testing, and deployment, including software licensing, cloud hosting, data storage, and deploying additional functionality to Wave 1 capabilities, pay and incentives, intelligence, and marketing capabilities.