en.Wedoany.com Reported - NATO has awarded Accenture a contract worth approximately €200 million to build the next phase of the "Protected Business Network." The contract requires the consulting giant to deliver a multi-cloud digital infrastructure over the next seven years to support the alliance's classified operations, modern enterprise services, and cyber resilience.
At the core of the project is the replacement of NATO's decades-old decentralized enterprise infrastructure with a standardized cloud platform. In execution, Accenture will collaborate with Leonardo, which will be responsible for key cybersecurity capabilities; the NATO Communications and Information Agency will continue to operate the underlying multi-cloud environment. This division of labor is increasingly common in government technology procurement, where infrastructure ownership, platform engineering, system integration, and security operations are distributed across multiple organizations rather than concentrated with a single vendor.
Once fully deployed, the platform is expected to provide secure cloud services to approximately 29,000 NATO users. Due to the classified military environment, requirements such as security certification, interoperability, and operational continuity pose significant challenges to the deployment timeline. The project's choice of a multi-cloud architecture aims to reduce reliance on a single vendor and enhance operational resilience. On the security front, Leonardo will implement a Zero Trust Architecture and integrate its Global Cybersec Platform, which incorporates artificial intelligence multi-agent capabilities for cyber defense.
This contract represents the first implementation phase of the "Protected Business Network" program. It was signed during the NATO Summit Defense Industry Forum in Ankara and has been approved by the North Atlantic Council as an alliance-wide capability project. For Accenture, the agreement strengthens its position in large-scale government transformation initiatives and brings long-term consulting and management service opportunities. Meanwhile, Leonardo is expanding from traditional defense manufacturing into cybersecurity and digital infrastructure. This case demonstrates that defense modernization is increasingly reliant on enterprise architecture, cloud operations, and software lifecycle management, rather than standalone equipment procurement.
