NASA issues new RFP under multibillion-dollar IT program

NASA has released its final requirements for an information technology services contract to consolidate the agency’s enterprise applications and improve its IT security posture.

The final request for proposals (RFP) for the project, NASA’s Enterprise Applications Service Technologies (EAST), was released late on Jan. 6 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site. NASA said it plans to award a firm-fixed price contract with an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity component for all contract years.

NASA’s RFP didn’t include the overall cost of the contract, which could last up to five years. Previously, Input, a market research firm, said EAST could be worth $100 million over five years, based on an earlier draft of the RFP.

The requirements of the contract, which involve NASA’s Enterprise Applications Competency Center, are currently met through NASA’s UNITeS contract. As part of a statement of work, NASA listed five goals for EAST:

• Consolidate the provisioning of enterprise applications services across all NASA centers and facilities using a single solution.
• Ensure the agency’s mission is enabled by the Enterprise Applications.
• Improve NASA’s IT security posture.
• Better the management of the agency’s IT infrastructure.
• Create a way that NASA’s Enterprise Applications services can be transformed in support of emerging requirements.

EAST is one 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. Input has estimated the total value for the five contracts, based on NASA’s draft RFPs, to be $4.3 billion.

Previously the space agency kicked off the bidding on I3P contracts with the release of an RFP on Dec. 4 for its Web Enterprise Service Technologies contract for public Web site hosting, Web content management, messaging and calendar services. The space agency then issued, on Dec. 11, a final solicitation for NASA Integrated Communications Services for wide-area network services, local-area network services, telecommunications services, video services and data services.

Meanwhile, final RFPs for the I3P contracts that are estimated to be the most lucrative -- the NASA Enterprise Data Center contract for data center operations and facility management, and the Agency Consolidated End User Services (ACES) for program management, support for personal computers, cell phones and personal digital assistants -- haven’t yet been released. But, NASA said Jan. 6 that it plans to issue the final RFP for ACES on or about Jan. 20.