Pentagon consolidates Microsoft software buys into a single $9.7B Dell agreement
Gettyimages.com/ by Marc Guitard
By
Nick Wakeman
The blanket purchase agreement covers defense agencies, the intelligence community and the Coast Guard.
The Defense Department has bundled its Microsoft software licenses into a single $9.7 billion blanket purchase agreement awarded to Dell.
The Wednesday announcement covers DOD’s existing Microsoft products – Windows enterprise operating system and Office Professional Plus – as well as cloud capabilities through Microsoft 365 licenses.
The BPA also includes specialized bundles, such as “Disconnected No Cloud Access” licenses.
The scope of the BPA supports the transition of specific workloads to the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract, on which Microsoft is one of the primes.
DOD describe the contract as a follow-on award to streamline and consolidate software acquisition across the department as well as the intelligence community and the Coast Guard. The agreement allows customers to buy Microsoft software licenses, cloud subscriptions and software assurance.
The BPA is structured as a firm-fixed-price award, which was made as part of DOD's enterprise software initiative. The announcement does not give an expiration date for the Dell agreement.