Air Force accelerates cloud movement with Oracle software licensing deal

The Air Force has signed a new deal to partner with private sector software and technology providers through a new enterprise software license agreement (ESLA) with Oracle for software engineering and cloud services designed to streamline Air Force operations and personnel services.

The ESLA was obtained through a recent contract with Mythics Inc. and grants access to MilCloud and other cloud service providers. According to Oracle, these cloud servers act as platforms where the defense community can take advantage of software services and store unclassified, but sensitive data.

The integration of cloud services will enable the Air Force to use Oracle software in joint operation environments to improve coordination and information analysis, making these multi-domain operations more effective in the field.

“Enterprise Level Agreements provide the Air Force with economies of scale, cost-savings through contract consolidation, agility and speed in program development, and new technologies that harden and protect our critical infrastructure,” said Ed Gulick, a spokesman for the Air Force.

The software licensing agreement will also give the Air Force access to Oracle’s technology products, such as databases, servers, and storage systems.

 Finally, the ESLA includes a catalog with constant pricing and discounts on Air Force technology purchases. It consolidates the 745,768 Oracle licenses already in use by the Air Force so that they can be more easily maintained, and provide for the replacement of Oracle products that are nearing their expiration date.

“All said, the Oracle license agreement enables continued Air Force modernization of our strategic initiatives while operating as a multi-domain, joint force across several domains throughout the globe,” Gulick explained.

The contract is part of the Department of Defense’s Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI), a program that uses industry best practices to streamline acquisition and management of commercial enterprise software by consolidating the Department of Defense’s buying power to obtain discounts on software and services.

According to the Department of Defense ESI Working Group, ESI licensing practices increase cost-efficiency by reducing the number of excess licenses in the system and allow partnering with private sector providers to achieve optimum software quality and utility.

As the contractor, Mythics Inc. provides the Air Force with an unlimited ESLA for Oracle’s products and services outlined above. This means that Mythics Inc. will facilitate the incorporation of Oracle technologies, software, hardware, storage, and engineering systems into the operations of the Air Force and will provide their services in integrating the Oracle cloud with Air Force practices.

The contract awarded $293,247,466 to Mythics Inc. and was competed for by two other firms with Oracle ESI purchase agreements. It is a firm-fixed-price contract. As yet, only $17.0 million from the Pentagon FY17 Operations and Maintenance budget category have been obligated, however the project is on track for an expected completion date of February 28, 2022.