Microsoft inks five-year enterprise services contract with US Department of Defense

Microsoft has entered into a five year contract with the US Department of Defense, valued at $1.76 billion to fulfill the military's Enterprise Software Initiative and serve the needs of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, or SPAWAR, in San Diego. Under the terms of the contract, Microsoft will provide Azure to run existing security workloads and build out new capabilities such as edge computing, AI and IoT. In its contract announcement the DoD stated:

DoD ESI is an initiative to streamline the acquisition process and provide information technology products and services worldwide that are compliant with applicable DoD technical standards and represent the best value for the DoD. The work will be performed worldwide.

Microsoft will be paid for specific tasks through 2024 rather than in a lump sum at the start of the contract.