Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced on Tuesday that it has secured a $931 million contract to provide cloud services for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).
The deal, aimed at creating a rapidly deployable cloud environment for “warfighters,” comes at a moment of profound symbolic and structural transition for the Pentagon, following President Donald Trump’s directive to revert the agency’s name to the Department of War.
The 10-year agreement solidifies HPE’s role in the federal government’s aggressive push for digital modernization. Under the terms of the deal, HPE will deploy its GreenLake hybrid cloud platform, which allows the agency to manage data across both public and private clouds while maintaining the stringent security required for classified operations.
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 19 (Feb 9 – May 2, 2026): big discounts for early bird.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
Register for Tekedia AI Lab: From Technical Design to Deployment (next edition begins Jan 24 2026).
The contract is explicitly designed to accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence and data analytics directly to the tactical edge. By modernizing DISA’s data centers, the initiative aims to improve decision-making speeds for combat units—referred to in the contract language as “warfighters,” a term that aligns with the administration’s renewed focus on lethality and combat readiness.
The contract award arrives amidst a controversial rebranding of the nation’s defense apparatus. President Trump has signed an executive order directing the Department of Defense to rename itself the Department of War, a moniker the agency has not held since the National Security Act of 1947.
While the President has ordered the change to instill a “warrior ethos” and strip away what he termed “woke” bureaucracy, the rebranding faces a constitutional hurdle. As the Department of Defense was established by statute, the official name change requires action by Congress.
To bypass this, the executive order designates “Department of War” as a secondary official title, authorizing its use in speeches, signage, and internal memos immediately.
While legislation has been introduced by allies on Capitol Hill to codify the shift, the agency is currently operating in a transitional phase, adopting the “Department of War” branding in executive communications while navigating the legislative process.
The move has sparked a sharp divide. New bronze signage has already been installed at the Pentagon’s River Entrance. But the cost of a full rebrand—updating everything from letterheads to thousands of facility signs globally—is estimated at nearly $2 billion. Critics in Congress, including Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, have dismissed the move as a costly distraction. But polling suggests 54% of Americans oppose the change, viewing it as aggressive posturing rather than a substantive policy shift.
However, the Broader AI Arms Race HPE’s victory is part of a massive surge in federal spending on artificial intelligence and supercomputing. The government is rapidly pivoting away from legacy hardware toward systems capable of running power-hungry AI models.
Amazon’s $50 Billion Bet
Just a day prior to the HPE announcement, e-commerce and cloud giant Amazon (AWS) revealed plans to invest up to $50 billion to expand its own AI and supercomputing capabilities specifically for U.S. government customers.
Both the HPE and Amazon investments underscore a unified federal strategy: leveraging private-sector innovation to maintain technological superiority over global adversaries, particularly in the realms of AI and cyber warfare.
The contract is seen as a validation of HPE’s hybrid approach, which appeals to government agencies wary of moving sensitive data entirely to the public cloud. By offering a “cloud experience” that resides on-premises, HPE provides the agility of modern software with the physical control of a government fortress—a selling point that has become increasingly critical as the Department of War prepares for a new era of digital conflict.