At the NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum, the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) signed a contract for the Protected Business Network (PBN) programme with Accenture, marking a key step in delivering NATO’s secure, cloud-enabled digital enterprise.
The Protected Business Network establishes the foundation for classified digital operations across the NATO Enterprise, ensuring decisionmakers and warfighters across domains can communicate, coordinate, and access critical data in a modern standardised and scalable cloud environment that is more resilient to external attack and disruption.
The PBN programme will replace legacy approaches and strengthen the agility and security of the NATO digital infrastructure by introducing a common cloud operating model, standardized engineering practices and a secure environment in which new digital services can be developed, deployed and maintained more rapidly, providing the foundation for future capabilities.
Signed by NCIA General Manager Dr Dylan Browne and Olivier Girard, EMEA Defense Industry lead at Accenture, the agreement launches the implementation phase of one of NATO's most significant digital transformation programmes.
"With this contract, we are delivering on the Alliance’s commitment to innovation, digital transformation, and collective investment in our technological future. Under the Protected Business Network, NATO is taking a key step to modernize its digital infrastructure and enable a more connected, data-driven enterprise, ensuring we deliver digital capabilities at speed and scale," said NCIA General Manager Dr Dylan Browne.
“NATO's ambition to become a digitally enabled Alliance is one of the most consequential transformation programmes of our time, and reinvention at this scale requires a trusted partner willing to take accountability for outcomes. Together with Leonardo, we are bringing the cloud and security capabilities needed to help NCIA build a digital backbone that is resilient, interoperable and ready for the future, while strengthening the Alliance's own ability to operate and lead,” said Mauro Macchi, CEO for EMEA at Accenture.
Approved by the North Atlantic Council as a NATO-wide capability programme, the Protected Business Network supports the Alliance’s ambition to accelerate NATO's Digital Transformation and ensure the Alliance can exploit emerging technologies while maintaining its technological edge. The contract establishes the long-term partnership that will deliver that vision.
Over the next seven years, Accenture will design, implement and operate the core PBN platform across a multi-cloud environment provided by NCIA, supporting the progressive deployment and long-term adoption of secure cloud services to approximately 29,000 users across the Alliance.
The contract will be executed through firm-fixed-price task orders over the 2026–2033 period of performance, with an estimated overall value of approximately 200 million euros.
From left to right, Dr Dylan Browne (NCIA) and Olivier Girard (Accenture).