NASA plans to spend billions for IT services

NASA plans to soon open for competition a series of information technology services contracts estimated to be worth more than $4 billion.

NASA’s agency-wide Information Technology Infrastructure Integration Program (I³P)  aquisition includes five projects to consolidate the agency's IT and data services. Some of the requests for proposals (RFPs) could be out as soon as Sept. 22, the agency has said.

The total estimated value for the five contracts, based on NASA’s draft RFPs, is $4.28 billion, according to Stephanie Sullivan, an analyst for federal opportunites with INPUT, a market research firm. The services contracts will also consolidate current NASA contracts such as Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA (ODIN) and Unified NASA Information Technology Services (UNITeS). The contract awards are expected during May and June 2010.

Linda Cureton, chief information officer of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said integration of the services to be completed through the different contracts will be done using ITIL, a widely accepted approach to IT service management based on best practices. Service delivery will be aligned to appear seamless to users, she said at a breakfast hosted by INPUT on Sept. 17.

The I³P project has been in the works for sometime and Sullivan said there is a lot of interest in the project.

The five contracts that NASA plans to compete are:

• The Agency Consolidated End User Services (ACES) contract for program management, support for personal computers, cell phones and personal digital assistants. The requirements are currently met through NASA’s ODIN contract and NASA said ACES will provide a consolidated solution for end-user services across the agency. The agency says that RFP could be issued as early as Oct. 2 and Sullivan estimated ACES to be worth $2.5 billion over 10 years based on information in the draft RFP. NASA projects that final proposals will be due on Dec. 4 and the contract will be awarded in June 2010.
  

• The Enterprise Applications Service Technologies (EAST) contract for services that involve NASA’s Enterprise Applications Competency Center. The requirements are currently met through NASA’s UNITeS contarct. NASA said EAST will ensure the continued delivery of enterprise application services. The agency says the RFP could be issued as early as Sept. 22, Based on the draft RFP, this contract is estimated to be worth $100 million over five years, Sullivan said. NASA projects that final proposals will be due on Nov. 13 and a contract will be awarded in June 2010.

• The NASA Enterprise Data Center (NEDC) contract for data center operations, facility management, along with storage and hosting services. The requirements are currently met under NASA’s UNITeS contract and other contracts. The agency says this RFP could be issued as early as Sept. 22 and the contract could be worth $1.5 billion over five years, Sullivan said. NASA projects that final proposals will be due on Nov. 17 and a contract will be awarded in May 2010.

• The NASA Integrated Communications Services (NICS) contract for wide area network services, local area network services, telecommunications services, video services, and data services. The requirements are currently met under NASA’s UNITeS, ODIN and other contracts. The agency says this RFP could be issued as early as Sept. 22. This contract could be worth $100 million over 10 years, Sullivan said. NASA projects that final proposals will be due on Nov. 13 and a contract will be awarded in June 2010.

• The Web Enterprise Service Technologies (WEST) contract for public Web site hosting, Web content management, messaging and calendar services. The requirements are currently met under NASA’s ODIN contract and the agency’s Web Portal Services contract. NASA said WEST will provide a consolidated, single-point of entry Web environment. The agency said an RFP could be released as early as Oct. 2, and INPUT’s Sullivan said, based on the draft RFP, that contract is estimated to be worth $80 million over five years. NASA projects that final proposals will be due on Dec. 2 and a contract will be awarded in May 2010.