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With the huge amounts of data in all fields, a future in the cloud is imperative to help deal with this explosion of data, especially in the field of intelligence technology. This is the reason why the US Central Intelligence Agency is updating its cloud technology. The agency has recently released a draft request for proposal for its Commercial Cloud Enterprise contract.

The C2E “tens of billions” contract will be a multi-award commercial cloud computing contract with a five-year base period and two five-year options for a period of performance of up to 15 years, according to nextgov.com.

In a March 2019 presentation by the Directorate of Digital Innovation, a division of the CIA, the department outlined its vision for C2E. It would be broad and include infrastructure, platform and software cloud services supporting a broad range of users, with a variety of security clearances and a worldwide presence, as reported by techcrunch.com.

“The principal C2E Program objective is to acquire cloud computing services directly from commercial cloud service providers with established records for innovation and operational excellence in cloud service delivery for a large customer base,” the department stated in the presentation.

Apparently, the agency prefers to avoid all the attention that the Pentagon’s JEDI cloud procurement process got, and quietly go about its business.

The CIA was an early adherent of the cloud when it chose Amazon to build a $600 million private cloud in 2013. Cloud technology has certainly evolved since, and the CIA likely wants the same flexibility, agility and resource elasticity as in the private sector cloud, and wants the intelligence community to reap the same benefits of that approach.