Zero trust focus

Air Force Cloud One Next Solicitation Could Arrive This August

The U.S. Air Force could issue a solicitation for its Cloud One Next program in August ahead of a potential contract award in spring 2024.

C1N could succeed Cloud One, a secure platform to provide the service with access to commercial cloud capabilities.

Maj. Gen. Anthony Genatempo, program executive officer for command, control, communications, intelligence and networks, said C1N will focus on zero-trust cybersecurity; identity, credential and access management; and software development. At the recent Air Force Life Cycle Industry Days event, he noted that the service is “bringing in a lot of the [chief information officer]’s strategy,” Defense News reported Saturday.

Lauren Knausenberger, the Air Force’s CIO and a 2023 Wash100 winner, has said billions of dollars will be spent on implementing zero trust. Meanwhile, an enterprise information technology roadmap released by the service in February prioritizes zero trust and ICAM.

In a notice published in March on SAM .gov, the Air Force indicated that C1N will follow a modular contracting approach to create a landing zone for mission system owners. The service added that it plans to make multiple awards to modernize services and architecture, migrate applications into the cloud and acquire cloud service offerings.