State Department looking to build new global infrastructure
By
Nick Wakeman
The State Department wants to build a worldwide infrastructure that will support commercial cloud services.
The State Department wants a worldwide infrastructure that will support commercial cloud services from anywhere at anytime while using any device.
A new request for information describes the need for an infrastructure that will connect 275 locations around the globe.
The State Department wants a replacement for its current global wide area network so it can take advantage of IT modernization efforts. These efforts include email, real-tie collaboration, customer relations management, and process flows.
The current network architecture follows a classic hub and spoke design. The department has regional hubs in Europe, East Asia, Maryland, and Colorado. Connectivity is supplied through virtual private networks and connections provided by the Diplomatic Telecommunications Services Program. The network can’t handle the increasing demands of the cloud, the RFI states.
Some problems they are trying to address include the high cost of maintaining the global WAN and keeping it up to date and secure. It also needs to introduce latency and performance degradation.
The RFI doesn’t include an estimated dollar value. But given the scale of what the agency wants, you can assume this will be a lucrative one.
Comments are due June 8.