The Department of Defense revealed Wednesday it has signed a massive five-year software contract worth $9.69 billion designed to bring together Microsoft and other enterprise software licenses that have been spread across military branches, intelligence agencies, and the U.S. Coast Guard under one unified agreement, according to officials.
This cost-reduction initiative provides Microsoft with a guaranteed enterprise-wide presence throughout the U.S. armed forces while eliminating redundant expenditures that officials say had steadily grown over years of scattered, independent purchasing practices.
The agreement, known as the Core Enterprise Technology Agreement, does not represent additional spending since multiple Pentagon software contracts were set to renew at the same time. The funding comes from current budgets already being utilized to buy Microsoft 365 subscriptions — which include email, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other applications — as well as cloud subscriptions and on-premises licensing, bringing them together under one umbrella where the department’s complete purchasing power can be leveraged to reduce expenses.
