NASA poised to spend billions to consolidate IT services
NASA has issued a request for proposals for what is expected to be the largest of five contracts, which together are estimated to be worth more than $4 billion to overhaul the agency's IT services.
NASA has issued a final request for proposal for a menu of information technology services such as e-mail, security management, instant messaging and mobile communications. Estimates have pegged the work as worth $2.5 billion.
The project, Agency Consolidated End User Services (ACES), is designed to consolidate services across NASA into one agencywide solution. The requirements are currently met through the Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA, the ODIN contract.
The ACES contract is expected to be biggest of five contracts that NASA plans to issue as part of its Information Technology Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) acquisition to consolidate the agency's IT and data services.
Market research firm Input puts the total value for the five contracts, based on NASA’s draft RFPs, at $4.3 billion. Input said ACES’ value is $2.5 billion based on information in the draft RFPs.
According to the final RFP, the winning contractor will be responsible for a range of services including:
- E-mail and collaborative calendaring services:
- Active Directory services.
- Security management including IT security, emergency management and preparedness, and data at rest services.
- Software license management: The contractor shall provide a fully managed and supported shared license infrastructure.
- Instant messaging services.
- Mobile communications device services such as cell and smart phones.
The RFP was posted Jan. 25 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site and companies have until March 24 to respond.
NASA said its goals for ACES are to:
- Consolidate the provisioning of end-user services into a single agencywide solution.
- Ensure the solutions that NASA end-users have enable the agency to accomplish its goals.
- Better NASA’s IT security posture.
- Improve the management of NASA’s IT infrastructure.
- Provide a way for NASA’s end-user services to adapt to support emerging mission requirements.
NASA plans to award a single, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for ACES. Companies are expected to submit a proposed price for the work as part of their proposal. The agency plans to award a contract that could last up to 10 years with a base of four years and the possibility of two three-year options.