The Department of Homeland Security has moved forward with its departmentwide Cumulus cloud acquisition strategy with plans to award contracts to major cloud providers and establish an additional vehicle to enable broader competition.
A justification DHS posted on SAM.gov on Tuesday outlines its approach to acquiring commercial cloud services through a mix of non-competitive and competitive indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts. The acquisition covers anything-as-a-service offerings, including infrastructure, platform and software services, as well as professional services, marketplace tools and training.
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How Is DHS Structuring the Cumulus Awards?
According to the justification document, DHS initially plans to issue direct awards to major cloud service providers: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
These awards will be executed through single-award IDIQ contracts, each with a one-year base and four one-year option periods. In parallel, DHS intends to establish a separate multiple-award vehicle to expand capabilities over time.
DHS expects to finalize the AWS award first by the second quarter of fiscal year 2026, followed by Oracle, Google Cloud and Microsoft in the third quarter. The agency anticipates issuing awards under the multiple-award IDIQ in the final quarter.
DHS previously estimated the Cumulus effort would exceed $100 million.
What Is DHS Trying to Achieve With Cumulus?
The department is using Cumulus to centralize how it acquires and manages cloud services, replacing fragmented procurement across components with a more unified approach.
DHS previously said the strategy is intended to improve visibility into cloud spending and usage. The model is also expected to generate cost savings through economies of scale and more consistent purchasing practices.
Why Is DHS Using Direct Awards?
The justification cited the need for specific capabilities that are unique to each cloud provider, including proprietary services, interfaces and development environments that cannot be replicated by other vendors.
It noted that relying on resellers could limit access to these capabilities and increase complexity, particularly for mission-critical systems.
The department also pointed to risks associated with migrating workloads between cloud environments, including potential cost increases, operational disruption, and impacts on cybersecurity and system performance.
