DHS CIO pursuing $250M in cloud-focused ‘technical support services’
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the CIO is looking for “highly specialized technical support services” to better serve the department’s headquarters business units.
DHS issued a sources sought solicitation Aug. 1 for architecture, development and platform technical services, largely anchored around a move to modernized cloud computing capabilities.
This solicitation will likely result in the creation of multiple new BPAs worth up to $250 million, the department said.
“DHS has identified several requirements for new business applications that will support improved integration and overall efficiency of headquarters business units,” the solicitation said. “Additionally, DHS needs to modernize several of its existing business applications to migrate off unsupported platforms and improve the efficiency of OCIO’s application delivery functions. OCIO’s intent is to build these applications based on a suite of reusable services.”
DHS officials added that the new solicitation resulted from a need to re-compete multiple existing contracts under its Enterprise System Development Office BPA, set to expire next year.
The solicitation seeks cloud service providers and other vendors that can offer DHS a number of services, including:
- Implementation and management of cloud-based commodity computing
- End-to-end technical requirement management services for enterprise information technology
- Support government off the shelf (GOTS) and commercial off the shelf (COTS) application integration and interoperability for customer developed components
- Application and service compliance, in addition to performance monitoring
The agency has been actively pursuing a shift to cloud computing since 2011, releasing its most recent data center optimization strategy in October 2016 in an effort to shrink its digital footprint and capitalize on cloud technologies.
New DHS CIO Richard Starapoli detailed his plans to modernize his office at FedTalks at Night earlier this summer, particularly in moving his department’s business units to the cloud at a hedge-fund pace.
“Why do we want to continue with months and years of debate about whether something is cloud-ready?” Staropoli questioned at the event in June. “I am not going to let that percentage of things that aren’t cloud-ready hold up DHS moving along and transitioning the things to the cloud that we use every day, which will result in greater productivity, more stability, greater security, and a tremendous financial savings in the long-run.”
Stakeholders will have until noon on Aug. 25 to respond to the solicitation.
