GSA issues final draft solicitation for Ascend blanket purchase agreement
The General Services Administration on Tuesday issued the final draft solicitation for pool 1 of its Ascend blanket purchase agreement — a governmentwide, one-stop-shop for agencies to buy cloud technologies.
The BPA seeks to address the government’s need for simplified procurement procedures and cost savings regarding cloud solutions and baseline cybersecurity requirements. The contract, per the posting, is aimed at ensuring that cloud services and cloud-enabling professionals are “continuously and securely operated and maintained for confidentiality, integrity and availability.”
Pool 1 of the Ascend contract is focused specifically on infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service cloud offerings, whereas pools 2 and 3 are tailored to software-as-a-service and cloud-related IT professional services, respectively.
GSA invited those interested in participating in the Ascend BPA acquisition to review the posting on eBuy. “Anticipated award dates are yet to be determined,” the solicitation said. “More information is to follow.”
“It remains GSA’s intent to award the Ascend BPA in a phased manner as a featured part of GSA’s cloud marketplace,” the posting continued. “We plan to make multiple awards in each pool each with its own specific scope that will allow all federal agencies and other eligible entities to acquire and implement secure, integrated commercial IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS cloud solutions including cloud-focused labor services.”
This isn’t the first draft solicitation GSA has issued for the contract. The agency in May issued a first draft of the contract for pool 1, and then based on the feedback received, revised the solicitation.
Laura Staunton, assistant commissioner of the Office of Information Technology Category within GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said in a September blog post detailing those revisions that: “The Ascend Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) … will meet the government’s demand for more comprehensive, secure and compliant cloud-based solutions. It allows GSA to develop a solution for federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments that will make buying cloud less complicated.”
Interested parties are encouraged to respond to the final draft by Oct. 18 with recommended answers or solution rationale, questions and comments.
