Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department-Wide Cloud (Cumulus)

DHS, Department-Wide Cloud (Cumulus) - 1/28/2026 Special Notice Update

Draft solicitation package is hereby attached to this Special Notice. 

Please review Special Notice update information immediately below before accessing the attached draft solicitation package.

It is respectfully requested that, where industry review of the provided DRAFT Cumulus solicitation has been conducted and valuable feedback can be provided, that such feedback be provided via e-mail to the Contracting Officer (CO) referenced within this special notice. The title of the e-mail response shall be DHS, Cumulus – DRAFT Solicitation Feedback.

DRAFT Solicitation feedback shall be considered a Request for Information (RFI) and handled by DHS as such. This RFI is issued solely for information and market research planning purposes. This RFI shall not be construed as an obligation on the part of the Government. This is NOT a request for quotations or proposal submission. The Government may or may not issue a formal solicitation as a result of the responses received to this RFI.

The Government will not pay for any response or demonstration expenses. All costs incurred responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party's expense. Failure to respond to this RFI will not preclude participation in any future solicitation. Any information received will become the property of the Government and will not be returned to the submitter. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or sensitive information.

The Government’s explicit intent, in this request for information, is to not receive from respondents any proprietary data, trade secrets, business sensitive information, or information considered CONFIDENTIAL under 18 U.S.C. §1905. The Government’s constraint does not in any way relieve contractors from their responsibility to properly mark proprietary data when it is provided, nor does it alleviate any requirement for the Government to protect marked data. The Government is not obligated to protect unmarked data.

The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Federal Government and will not be returned.

DHS truly appreciates all feedback that industry is willing to provide associated with this RFI.

PLEASE NOTE - DHS does not intend on communicating its evaluation of and potential responses to feedback received. Information provided shall be reviewed and considered internally by DHS.  The review of feedback by DHS may include contractor support with non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) on file. 

DHS, Department-Wide Cloud (Cumulus) - 1/27/2026 Special Notice Posting

1. Introduction

The United States (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requires commercial cloud solutions for Department-wide use. It is anticipated that commercial cloud solutions shall be directly provided for by Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) through non-competitively and competitively awarded Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) vehicles.

Included within the scope of this effort titled Cumulus, are commercially available Anything as a Service (XaaS) covering Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), professional services, marketplace solutions, and training services.

Cumulus requirements will not just offer increased efficiency and effectiveness in CSP solution procurement but is also anticipated to deliver strategic level value to the Department. This includes increased oversight and understanding of CSP solutions being procured across the Department and how they may be collaboratively leveraged from both a mission delivery and spend perspective. Strategic level value will be recognized, for example, through economies of scale resulting in significant discounts and through increased cloud procurement and delivery consistency Department-wide.

2. Special Notice Content

This special notice, publicly posted to SAM.gov shall provide the following information in support of the aforementioned Cumulus effort.

3. Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Overhaul (RFO) (RFO FAR 5) Publicizing Contract Actions – Intent to Sole Source Notification

In accordance with RFO FAR 5.101 Presolicitation Notice

(1) Gregory Blaszko

Contracting Officer

Office of Procurement Operations

Office of the Chief Procurement Officer

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

202-875-2607

gregory.blaszko@hq.dhs.gov

(2) It is not anticipated that any of the proposed contract actions supporting Cumulus will be a total or partial small business set-aside (see part 19) or a local area set-aside (see part 26).

(3) It is anticipated that in support of Cumulus, the Product Service Code (PSC) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code will be as follows:

NAICS Code 518210, data processing, hosting, and related services.

PSCs are as follows:

DA10 - Business Application/Application Development Software as a Service

DB10 - Compute as a Service: Mainframe/Servers 

DG10 - Network as a Service 

DK10 - Storage as a Service 

DH10 - Platform as a Service: Database, Mainframe, Middleware

(4) Description.

(i) For additional information regarding clear and concise description of supplies or services included within scope of Cumulus, a DRAFT Solicitation shall be provided in late January 2026.

(ii)It is anticipated that Cumulus will be significantly greater in value than the currently established simplified acquisition threshold (SAT). A DRAFT Solicitation shall be provided in late January 2026, providing a description of the anticipated award procedures. It is estimated that all anticipated awards under Cumulus may occur in FY26, Q2 – Q4.

(iii)It is not anticipated that any solutions provided for under Cumulus will be subject to the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (WTO GPA) and/or a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) (see Part 25). Where in the event a solution provided for under Cumulus is considered subject to WTO GPA and/or FTA, the solicitation and resulting award will include the applicable RFO FAR 52.225 clauses, or an agency equivalent.

(iv)It is not anticipated that technical data will be required to respond to a Cumulus solicitation.

(v)It is not anticipated that an award of a construction contract to a small business will occur under Cumulus.

(vi)All responsible sources may submit a quotation, bid, or proposal, as appropriate and in accordance with the competitive portion of Cumulus, which will be considered by the agency.

(vii)In support of the noncompetitive portion of Cumulus, it is anticipated that awards shall be directly made with brand name Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle. Noncompetitive requirements and resulting awards shall be fully justified within a RFO FAR 6 justification to be appropriately published in accordance with RFO FAR 6 procedures.

(viii) It is anticipated that in successfully supporting Cumulus, industry solutions will be required to satisfy FedRAMP impact levels. Further information on FedRAMP impact level requirements under Cumulus shall be available via the DRAFT Solicitation provided in late January 2026. FedRAMP information and/or procedures can be found at FedRAMP Marketplace.

4. RFO FAR 12 – Market Research, DRAFT Solicitation Release

Provided for industry review and comment will be a DRAFT copy of the Cumulus solicitation. The Draft Solicitation shall be provided in late January 2026 via SAM.gov posting.

5. RFO FAR 12 – Market Research, Anticipated Industry Day Notification

In direct support of Cumulus, an industry day event is anticipated for early February 2026. The intent of this event is to provide further information on Cumulus strategy, scope, and timeline. Event details, to include date and time of event and registration instructions shall be included in a SAM.gov public posting.