Accenture's federal arm wins $789M Navy cyber contract
Ships from the naval forces of the U.S., Japan and South Korea sail together during a trilateral exercise in January. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Isaiah M. Williams.
By
Ross Wilkers
Navy leaders see the future SHARKCAGE environment as having a single set of system resources that work in the same security domain on shores and out at sea.
Accenture‘s U.S. federal subsidiary has won a potential 10-year, $789.5 million contract to help the Navy implement and rollout a new IT environment for sensing, detecting and analyzing activities across networks.
Five companies including Accenture Federal Services bid for the contract called SHARKCAGE. The program heavily emphasizes commercial and commercial off-the-shelf IT products for cybersecurity and analytics functions, according to the Pentagon's Wednesday awards digest.
Solicitation documents describe the SHARKCAGE environment as a set of system resources that will operate in the same security domain and share in the protection of a single, common, continuous security perimeter.
The Navy envisions SHARKCAGE as covering shore, mobile expeditionary and afloat nodes that include shore infrastructure and permanently-installed shipboard components.
Navy leaders are looking to provide units, groups and fleets with an enhanced attack sensing and warning capability.
Information Technology-21, ONENet and Navy/Marine Corps Intranet are among the networks to be supported by SHARKCAGE.
Accenture Federal Services' task areas will include design, architecture, testing, production, delivery, installation and logistics.
Work will take place over an initial five-year base period and up to five option years. This appears to be a brand new requirement with no incumbent.