DHS needs your input on its departmentwide cloud migration

The Department of Homeland Security is in the midst of a sweeping migration of its IT operations to a cloud infrastructure and wants industry’s insights on how to best tackle the move.

In a request for information released Tuesday, DHS detailed plans to move several of its component agencies to the cloud ahead of the expiration of a data center contract in June 2020.

The agency proposes shifting the data center’s operations to a cloud infrastructure while continuing to optimize another of its existing data centers. The move will include transitioning the operating environments of 10 component agencies, like Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Transportation Security Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and others, to the cloud as well. The approach calls for a mix of public, hybrid and private cloud environments.

DHS has an urgency to make this shift by the 2020 deadline to close the one data center, meanwhile avoiding any interruption of services.

“Due to the critical nature of some of these applications and services, DHS requires full operational capability of all applications and services during the migration process thus ensuring a seamless end user migration experience on all devices operating anytime, anywhere,” the RFI said.

But most of the teams managing the systems that need to make the move “have indicated challenges and high risk with current, early plans.”

DHS wants stakeholders to outline how they would tackle the migration and optimization efforts over a proposed 10-year period of performance, as well as the cost models, continuity of operations plans and other considerations.

DHS wants to use its EAGLE Next Generation procurement program as a possible contracting vehicle for the migration-optimization effort. EAGLE NextGen — which uses a several General Services Administration and National Institutes of Health governmentwide acquisition contracts — is set to replace the EAGLE II procurement program when it expires in September 2020.

Respondents have until March 20 to respond.