GSA closes in on SmartBuy deal with McAfee

The General Services Administration has asked all agencies to postpone buys from McAfee Inc. for antivirus software, in anticipation of reaching an agreement with the company under the government's SmartBuy enterprise software licensing program.

GSA late last week issued a notice at FedBizOpps.gov that it intends to enter into the agreement with the Santa Clara, Calif., company under SmartBuy.

The listing at the FedBizOpps Web site puts agencies on notice that a deal is imminent and they should refrain from buying McAfee software or renewing current deals with the company. Agencies that can justify continuing with their own deals can apply for waivers, according to a memo posted on the CIO Council's Web site last year.

GSA already has agreements in place with Oracle; ESRI Inc. of Redlands, Calif.; Novell Inc.; Prosight Inc. of Portland, Ore.; Manugistics Group Inc. of Rockville, Md.; and Eyak Technology LLC of Anchorage, Alaska, for WinZip compression software.

The agreement follows the Defense Department's agencywide deal with Symantec Corp. of Cupertino, Calif., for security software. Officials said they were not in negotiations to take this contract governmentwide.

GSA has been working with both major security software vendors for some time, and it seems they finally are close to getting their first one finished.

Jason Miller is an assistant managing editor of Washington Technology's sister publication, Government Computer News.