Air Combat Command directs all installations to use Kessel Run base monitoring software

Air Combat Command has directed all of its installations to use software from Kessel Run to monitor its base resources, a move that will expand the number of users of the software and give commanders more data on its bases.

The goal is to have the software, Command and Control Incident Management Emergency Response Application (C2IMERA), at 60 installations by the end of the year, according to the Air Force‘s software acquisition and development unit, Kessel Run. The system is designed to give base commanders real time visibility into a host of data points on “installation resources,” from food and water levels to what planes are ready to fly.

By directing its use across all ACC installations it also gives commanders deeper insights across bases, Harsheet Shah, program manager for Wing C2 at Kessel Run, told FedScoop in an interview.

“Our bases are air power projection platforms that require real-time installation and resource awareness, as well as command and control capability. C2IMERA gives commanders the operational sight picture to execute the mission,” Gen. Mark Kelly, commander of ACC, said in a release.

The new directive moves the command away from a hodgepodge mix of tools used to create a picture of base operations towards a single, Air Force-owned system. With one system, data across bases is interoperable and can be collected by theater commanders to understand how ready ACC installations are. Other Air Force major commands have also request C2IMERA, according to Kessel Run.

“The fact that [ACC] is making it flow through a single system is massive,” Shah said.

The system was also recently used in Operation Allies Refuge, the massive airlift to evacuate U.S. citizens, Afghans and others from Kabul, Afghanistan. The 609th Air Force in Central Command made a request to Kessel Run for a system to give operators more visibility into their resources at Hamid Karzai International Airport, and within four days Kessel Run delivered C2IMERA, Shah said.

The software was coded by Leidos, the prime contractors for C2IMERA. Shah said the model of contracting the actual coding while the military retains project management oversight is a model that worked well for Kessel Run and should be replicated.

“C2IMERA is one of the best examples of partnership with a prime contractor,” Shah said. “This model should be adopted by c2 system in the Air Force.”

Edit: This story was updated to correct the spelling of C2IMERA.

Partnership for Public Service suggests review of federal tech laws, pay system overhaul

The Partnership for Public Service recommended ways for Congress and the Biden administration to improve innovation and technology modernization in government while bolstering the federal workforce, in a roadmap released Wednesday.

Reviewing all federal tech laws, creating a “future state” strategy, and overhauling the pay and job classification system are among the nonpartisan nonprofit’s bolder recommendations.

The Roadmap for Renewing Our Federal Government document builds on President Biden‘s early executive orders promoting data-driven decision making across agencies and a diverse federal workforce with a focus on keeping pace with tech innovations.

“Federal agencies offer few incentives for employees to try new ideas, are saddled with outdated technology and lag behind the private sector in hiring qualified technologists in sufficient numbers for critical leadership and staff positions,” it reads. “This antiquated system is an impediment to the government’s ability to meet the needs of today’s interconnected, technology-driven world and prepare for the challenges of the future.”

PPS recommends Congress end crisis budgeting — because short-term spending resolutions and government shutdowns hurt agencies’ ability to invest in replacing or modernizing legacy IT systems — in favor of biennial budget resolutions, multi-year appropriations and the timely passage of appropriations bills. 

Congress should also conduct a comprehensive review of all federal technology management laws to identify where the framework for how government buys and manages technology needs an updater, according to the roadmap.

Finally passing the Federal Agency Customer Experience (FACE) Act and other legislation would make it easier for agencies to collect and publish customer experience (CX) data, per the document.

As for the administration, PPS recommends it set a “moonshot” goal for improving customer services that will boost confidence in government, as well as create a governmentwide strategy for a federal tech future state.

“Outlining the steps, resources and roles essential to upgrade technology, while providing flexibility for agencies based on the technology needs of their employees and customers, will help government adapt to rapidly changing demands,” reads the roadmap. “Political and career leaders should also have a basic familiarity with technology and cybersecurity issues in order to focus on key priorities and make informed choices across all policy areas.”

The administration would also be wise to expand CX guidance to apply to more high-impact services because the Office of Management and Budget‘s 2018 guidance only applies to 25 such service, per the document.

Agencies should use Challenge.gov resources to launch internal idea competitions that fund employee proposals and have procurement innovation coaches support the acquisition workforce on specific projects — like the Procurement Innovation Lab at the Department of Homeland Security or Digital IT Acquisition Professional Program, according to PPS.

The roadmap also recommends agencies prioritize the executive order on improving racial equity and support for underserved communities.

On the workforce front, PPS wants to see Congress replace the current federal pay and job classification system “designed for clerical workers” with an occupation-based, market-sensitive one better positioned to fill critical skill gaps in cybersecurity and IT positions.

The administration should create a federal internship and fellowship database, streamline the application process and make hiring platforms more easily accessible and mobile-friendly to attract top, young talent, according to the roadmap.

Meanwhile agencies can boost employee retention with robust mentorship and professional development opportunities.

“Outlining the steps, resources and roles essential to upgrade technology, while providing flexibility for agencies based on the technology needs of their employees and customers, will help government adapt to rapidly changing demands,” reads the document. “Political and career leaders should also have a basic familiarity with technology and cybersecurity issues in order to focus on key priorities and make informed choices across all policy areas.”

Clear performance metrics on employee development and data on departures are also needed, according to PPS.

Among its collaboration recommendations, PPS suggests the administration enhance Performance.gov, the website for monitoring goals and results, to support interagency councils. Agencies are advices to add evaluation experts to projects and initiatives to ensure data-based decision-making.

“The Biden administration and Congress have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build on recent innovations and set the government on a sustained path to renewal,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of PPS, in a statement.

GSA contract opens agencies to commercial coworking spaces

The General Services Administration wants to give federal personnel the opportunity to work from commercial coworking spaces instead of coming into the office.

GSA awarded a multi-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract to five commercial co-working companies —WeWork, The Yard, LiquidSpace, Expansive and Deskpass — last month that will allow agencies to purchase flexible, temporary space from any of the companies.

The contract starts at one year and could go up to five, with a $10 million cap on spending with each of the five companies per year, according to terms of the procurement.

While the idea of such a contract makes sense now that the government has had to flex its teleworking muscle during the COVID-19 pandemic, GSA actually began planning it out in late 2019 before the coronavirus was really even known to be a threat to the U.S.

“Working beyond the confines of traditional government offices has become more common,” says a contract document from 2019. “Government employees are now commonly equipped with technological tools to work from anywhere. The freedom provided by technological advancements allows agencies to efficiently and flexibly pursue mission success through the utilization of employee mobility and telework.”

And with the federal government embracing telework more than it has in the past, and GSA hoping to shrink its footprint as the federal landlord, these co-working companies are looking to the federal government as a bright, new client — even outside of this contract. For instance, WeWork — one of the best known and most infamous commercial co-working companies in the world — now has an arm of its business dedicated to the federal government. Heading up that new branch for the company is Daniel Mathews, former commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service under the Trump administration.

“The pandemic has fundamentally changed how work is approached, and now government agencies will have a tool to help employees succeed while saving costs,” WeWork CEO Sandeep Mathrani said in a statement. “The workplace of the future requires flexibility, and GSA should be applauded for innovating.”

OMB directs agencies to increase log sharing to combat cyber incidents

The Office of Management and Budget directed federal agencies to increase their sharing of information system logs needed to accelerate cybersecurity incident response, in a memo issued Friday.

The memo contains a maturity model for event log management intended to guide agencies implementation of its requirements across four event logging (EL) tiers: not effective, basic, intermediate, and advanced.

Following the SolarWinds hack that compromised agencies, President Biden issued a cybersecurity executive order — Section 8 of which lays out logging and log retention. The EO also outlined the management requirements that OMB‘s memo addresses.

“Recent events, including the SolarWinds incident, underscore the importance of increased government visibility before, during and after a cybersecurity incident,” reads the memo. “Information from logs on federal information systems — for both on-premises systems and connections hosted by third parties, such as cloud services providers — is invaluable in the detection, investigation and remediation of cyber threats.”

OMB expects agencies to prioritize their high-impact systems and high-value assets first as they implement EL requirements.

The first maturity model tier, EL0 or not effective, allows for agencies to meet or partially meet requirements of the highest criticality — namely retaining criticality level 0 logs in acceptable format for timeframes specified in the memo.

By EL1, or the basic tier, agencies must fully meet requirements of the highest criticality: the basic logging categories; minimum logging data; time standard; event forwarding; protecting and validating log information; passive Domain Name System; Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and FBI access requirements; logging orchestration, automation and response planning; user behavior monitoring planning; and basic centralized access.

EL2 adds intermediate criticality requirements: meeting the EL1 maturity level; intermediate logging categories; publication of standardized log structure; inspection of encrypted data; and intermediate centralized access.

Lastly EL3 requires meeting the EL2 maturity level; advanced logging categories; finalizing implementation of logging orchestration, automation and response; finalizing implementation of user behavior monitoring; application container security, operations and management; and advanced centralized access.

Agencies have 60 days from the memo’s issuance to assess their logging maturity against the model and plan to address resource and implementation gaps. Those plans must be sent to the OMB Resource Management Office and Office of the Chief Information Officer desk officer.

In a year agencies must achieve EL1 maturity, in 18 months EL2, and in two years EL3.

Agencies must also provide relevant logs to CISA and the FBI upon request, as well as share them as needed with other agencies in addressing cyber risks or incidents.

“This sharing of information is critical to defend federal information systems,” reads the memo.

The memo directs CISA to deploy teams to advise agencies in their assessment of their logging capabilities and release tools with the FBI to help assess logging maturity.

Meanwhile the Department of Commerce must have the National Institute of Standards and Technology maintain Special Publication 800-92, its “Guide to Computer Security Log Management” and incorporate the memo’s requirements into its next revision and other relevant publications.

State Department awards AT&T $609M task order

AT&T has won a potential $609 million telecommunications contract from the State Department under the governmentwide Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract.

Under the terms of the procurement, the company will provide telecom support to more than 270 U.S. diplomatic locations around the world over a five-year period.

AT&T is tasked with providing enterprisewide connectivity for data, mobile and voice networks, unified communications and Wi-Fi services.

Chris Smith, vice president of civilian and shared services at AT&T, said: “As the incumbent telecommunications provider to the State Department, their new contract award to us is a vote of confidence in the reliability and performance of our teams, our networking capabilities and the value we deliver in service of their mission.”

In June, AT&T received a separate $725 million EIS task order from the Department of Veterans Affairs to modernize the department’s data communications platform.

That contract win followed another $306 million EIS award from DHS of four task orders for modernizing telecommunications infrastructure with internet protocol-based networking services.

EIS is the government $50 billion network and telecom modernization contract managed by the General Services Administration that requires agencies to move away from expiring legacy contracts by Sept. 31, 2022.

Department of Defense 5G lead Evans steps down

Joseph Evans, the Department of Defense’s principal director for 5G technology, has left his post at the Pentagon.

He departs after two years in the position, during which time he oversaw the development of the DOD’s 5G strategy, implementation plan and established major public-private partnerships.

Following Evans’ exit, Amanda Toman is understood to have taken up the role of acting principal director for 5G.

Prior to joining the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in August 2019, Evans was a program manager at DARPA. Earlier in his career, he also worked as a program manager at the National Science Foundation, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“We now have 5G testbeds under construction or soon to start deployment at over 15 DoD facilities around the country, and these testbeds will give the U.S. military the ability to prototype new 5G applications for military missions,” Evans wrote in a farewell post on LinkedIn.

The public-private partnerships Evans oversaw issued more than $600 million to companies willing to test new tech on military bases. The exchange allowed 5G developers to trial new networks in low-regulation environments like military bases, and thus allow the DOD to have first access to using the tech.

The strategy involves both advancing the DOD’s own use of the tech but also giving private companies the opportunity to advance a technology that the U.S. has identified as being critical for strategic competition with China.

Department of Veterans Affairs appoints Neil Evans as acting CIO

The Department of Veterans Affairs has appointed Neil Evans as acting chief information officer.

He takes over the role from Dominic Cussatt, who is understood to have left the agency to join the State Department.

An agency spokesperson said Cussatt has assumed a dual role at State, holding the positions of both chief information for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) and director of the INR Office of Technology and Innovation.

Evans was previously chief officer of the agency’s Office of Connected Care and takes up the job after a two-decade career at the VA. He continues to work as a physician, and previous roles include a stint as a senior adviser to the Federal Electronic Health Modernization Program Office.

While Evans takes the role of VA CIO in an acting capacity, in an official capacity it requires presidential nomination and Senate approval.

Earlier this year, Cussatt became acting CIO at VA following the departure of former CIO James Gfrerer, who left in January at the start of the Biden administration. Earlier in Cussatt’s two-decade career spanning the public and private sectors, he worked as national co-chair of the NATO Information Assurance and Cyber Defense Capability Panel, and as deputy CISO at the Department of Defense.

A VA spokesperson confirmed Evans’ appointment.

Note: This story was updated to include details of Cussatt’s new appointments at the State Department.

DHA awards $2B health IT transformation contract

The Defense Health Agency has awarded a $2 billion contract to manage the transformation and consolidation of its IT services.

Peraton subsidiary Perspecta is the principal contractor on the firm-fixed-price blanket purchase agreement. It will carry out the contract with help from Capgemini Government Solutions as part of a contractor teaming arrangement.

The agreement is for 10 years and is part of an integration program that is intended to cut costs. The deal includes the transition of certain existing enterprise contracts, of which the largest is the DHA Global Service Center service desk.

This is the latest contract win for Peraton after the company earlier this month won a task order worth up to $979 million to counter misinformation from U.S. adversaries.

At the start of August, Peraton also won an IT infrastructure contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs that could be worth up to $497 million over seven years.

Earlier in February, the IT arm of defense contractor Northrop Grumman merged with Peraton for $3.4 billion. Peraton is owned by private equity group Veritas Capital, which has sought to acquire and roll up government technology operations. In January it paid $7.1 billion to purchase Perspecta in an all-cash transaction.

White House launches US Digital Corps

The White House launched a two-year fellowship Monday designed to place early-career software engineers, data scientists and other technologists at federal agencies.

Dubbed the U.S. Digital Corps, participants will improve IT service delivery in relation to the federal coronavirus response, economic recovery, cybersecurity and agencies’ individual missions.

The Day One Project proposed the fellowship back in December as a way to eventually recruit thousands of recent graduates across technical fields, in what could become the Biden-Harris version of President John F. Kennedy’s Peace Corps or President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, said Nick Sinai, former federal deputy chief technology officer under President Obama.

“We have great opportunities for experienced tech talent to serve in term-limited roles in government like [the U.S. Digital Service], 18F and [Presidential Innovation Fellows],” Sinai said. “But we haven’t focused on getting talented technologists into government at the start of their career; the Digital Corps can change that.”

The Digital Corps will be housed within Technology Transformation Services at the General Services Administration, which partnered with the Office of Management and Budget, Office of Personnel Management, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Office of Science and Technology Policy to deliver the program. The collaboration is notable as GSA, OMB and OPM aim to restore trust in their working relationship, as is CISA’s involvement because USDS, 18F and the PIF program aren’t as focused on security.

An initial cohort will launch with 30 fellows in the fall at more than five participating agencies including GSA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fellows will be matched with agencies based on their skills and interests and mentored through a development curriculum with individual performance plans.

Traditionally government has focused on credentials, but skills will matter more than a degree for the Digital Corps. Recruits will come from both leading undergraduate programs and alternative training pathways like apprenticeships, bootcamps and certificate programs to make the cohort as diverse as possible. Currently, only 3% of the federal tech workforce is under age 30, and only 26% are women.

“To provide best-in-class service delivery, agencies must have the right combination of workforce talent in place as their existing personnel accelerate towards retirement,” said Clare Martorana, federal chief information officer, in a statement. “The U.S. Digital Corps is a forward-looking solution that will build a deep bench for technology modernization and digital transformation across the federal government and meet the Biden administration’s goals of advancing federal IT and cybersecurity.”

The Digital Corps was inspired by nonprofit Coding It Forward’s Civic Digital Fellowship, which has placed more than 300 collegiate technologists at 12 agencies. Co-founder Chris Kuang and Caitlin Gandhi transitioned to GSA to build the fellowship.

Applications open in the fall.

“The launch of the Digital Corps comes at a time when more and more technologists want to contribute to the public good,” said Jen Pahlka, former deputy federal CTO. “Many are disillusioned with the opportunities of big tech and want to do things like ensure that eligible people get food assistance or veterans benefits or speed up visas for refugees into the US.”

Army seeks vendors for $10B IT Enterprise Solutions-4 hardware contract vehicle

The Army has issued a solicitation for IT hardware services that will award technology providers up to $10 billion over a 10-year period.

The military service is seeking vendors for services and technology, including the purchase and lease of commercial servers, computers, networking hardware and storage equipment.

At least 17 indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts will be awarded, and services must be delivered both within and outside the continental United States.

“The fundamental purpose of the ITES-4H acquisition is to support the Army enterprise infrastructure and infostructure goals with a full range of innovative, world class information technology equipment and solutions at a reasonable price,” the solicitation document said.

Contracts issued through the vehicle with have a base period of five years, with an additional five-year option.

The solicitation follows a $2.4 billion contract, awarded by the service in July, for IT services to its National Cyber Range Complex.