CISA details search for cloud-enabled machine learning
Gettyimages.com/ Andriy Onufriyenko
By
Nick Wakeman
The Homeland Security Department's lead cyber agency wants access to more than one cloud computing platform as a way to test and develop machine learning capabilities.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency wants to field a cloud-based platform that can aid in the research and development of testing software and machine learning capabilities.
CISA has released a request for information for what it is calling the CISA Advanced Analytics Platform for Machine Learning, CAP-M for short.
CAP-M is envisioned as a multi-cloud, multi-tenant environment for testing software and tools and developing complex machine learning capabilities. CISA wants users to have access to a variety of capabilities across multiple cloud hosting providers.
The agency currently has a contract with Arch Systems that expires in September 2024. That contract provides CISA users access to the Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google cloud offerings.
CISA's sources sought notice specifically calls out those three cloud providers as ones the agency wants to continue working with. The agency also says that a single contractor doesn’t need to provide access to all three, as is currently the case with the Arch Systems contract.
While the procurement strategy hasn’t been set, that comment in the RFI indicates CISA is considering a multiple-award contract.
The contract with Arch Systems is worth about $3.5 million. A ceiling for the new contract hasn’t been established yet.
Comments on the RFI are due Jan. 15.