Pentagon's JWCC task orders top half a billion dollars

  • AWS, Microsoft, Google and Oracle were all selected as vendors for the $9 billion JWCC contract in December 2022

  • The contract only guarantees each $100,000 for signing on but over $600 million worth of task orders have already been placed

  • It’s not clear which hyperscaler has received the most orders

Nearly four dozen task orders for cloud services have been placed in the 15 months since Amazon, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Oracle were tapped as vendors for the U.S. military’s $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract. And plenty more are on the way.

Speaking at a recent Congressional hearing, Department of Defense (DoD) CIO John Sherman said the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has “successfully awarded more than 47 task orders over the last year.” He added it has “over 50 more in the pipeline right now.”

How much money does that translate to? Well, U.S. Navy Commander Tim Gorman, a Department of Defense spokesperson, told Silverlinings that “as of now, the JWCC program has successfully awarded Task Orders with a total lifecycle amount of $621 million.”

Each of the four hyperscalers were only guaranteed $100,000 for signing on to the JWCC contract. But they stand to benefit from potentially billions of dollars in orders, up to the contract’s $9 billion ceiling.

Gorman declined to comment on the value of the 50+ task orders currently in the pipeline or the number of task orders awarded to each of the four hyperscalers, citing DoD’s “general practice of not disclosing contract-specific details that may pertain to operational security or competitive sensitivity.”

Google Cloud and Microsoft declined to comment on the procurement process. Amazon and Oracle did not respond to requests for comment.

Rising tide

Back in August 2023, eight months after the JWCC vendors were finalized, DISA Director Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner said that 13 task orders had been placed. Those were collectively worth $200 million, he said.

“A lot of work has gone on with JWCC. I think that’s a success story of all that we’ve been able to do,” Skinner said. “We’ve got like 13 [task orders] in contracting right now…and like 45 packages the department is truly moving out on."