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US Army Chooses IBM for Cloud Services

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The US Army just signed a 5-year cloud contract with IBM that may end up being worth $62 million.

The contract was drawn up for the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama and it’s for the Army Private Cloud Enterprise (APCE) program, according to GeekWire. The deal officially began on Dec. 31 of last year and comes under the Army Private Cloud 2 (APC2) contract.

The tech giant will help the Army in building its infrastructure, plus the armed forces will benefit from IBM’s Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS) tools. The Army reportedly plans on moving about 35 of its current apps to the private cloud over the next year.

“With this project, we’re beginning to bring the IT infrastructure of the US Army into the 21st century,” Lt. Gen. Robert Ferrell, US Army CIO said in a statement. “Cloud computing is a game-changing architecture that provides improved performance with high efficiency, all in a secure environment.”

The Army’s goal for IBM is to have them grasp a DISA IL-6 certification, the tightest security certification available, in 2017. The organization currently has an Impact level 5 classification. The upgrade will allow IBM to work with the Army’s information, labeled from classified to secret.

“Clients today are increasingly looking at the cloud as a pathway to innovation,” Sam Gordy, IBM US federal general manager said in a release. “This IBM Cloud solution will provide the Army with greater flexibility and will go a long way toward mitigating, and, in some cases eliminating, the security challenges inherent with multiple ingress and egress points.”

About 4 years ago, a report from the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense said that an Army executive didn’t know about 14,000 mobile devices that were being used throughout the organization, Cloud Tech reported.

IBM says the deal will only reach the full amount of $62 million if the Army exercises all options outlined in the contract.


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