IT | The Contracting Education Academy

August 23, 2018 By cs

Someone is waging a secret war to undermine the Pentagon’s huge cloud contract

As some of the biggest U.S. technology companies have lined up to bid on the $10 billion contract to create a massive Pentagon cloud computing network, the behind-the-scenes war to win it has turned ugly.

In the past several months, a private investigative firm has been shopping around to Washington reporters a 100-plus-page dossier raising the specter of corruption on the part of senior Defense Department and private company officials in the cloud contract competition. But at least some of the dossier’s conclusions do not stand up to close scrutiny.

The dossier insinuates that a top aide to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis worked with Mattis and others to steer the contracting process to favor Amazon Web Services, or AWS—and enrich the aide. The aim of the dossier seems clear: to prevent the deal from going solely to AWS, the odds-on favorite in part because it operates the CIA’s classified commercial cloud. Far less clear, however, is who backed its creation and distribution.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/08/someone-waging-secret-war-undermine-pentagons-huge-cloud-contract/150684/

June 29, 2018 By cs

Here’s how not to screw up a $50 billion networking contract

The clock is ticking toward a 2020 deadline for agencies to switch over to the General Services Administration’s massive new contract vehicle for network and telecom services, and federal IT leaders are worried agencies might blow it.

Last year, GSA rolled out the Enterprise Infrastructure Services contract, a $50 billion blanket award that covers governmentwide procurement of traditional networking and telecommunications equipment, as well as a mix of emerging technologies. All agencies are required to transition to EIS by 2020, and the contract could last up to 15 years.

EIS has the potential to streamline innovative tech purchases, boost federal cloud usage and strengthen cybersecurity across the government, top IT officials said at a forum hosted by ACT-IAC, a government and industry organization.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/06/officials-heres-how-not-screw-50-billion-networking-contract/149137/

See GSA’s Enterprise Infrastructure Services fact sheet here: EIS_Fact_Sheet

June 21, 2018 By cs

How should the tech industry handle high-profile government contracts?

In March, Gizmodo reported that Google had formalized a partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense to improve image recognition capabilities for drones.

The news prompted an immediate ― and predictably negative ― response. Despite Google’s attempt to message the contract as serving “non-offensive uses only,” news outlets were quick to explore the ethical implications of this partnership and question how the technology could be extended to weaponry.

Google’s leadership anticipated this external response. What they didn’t plan for was the degree of internal backlash they’d receive. Following the announcement of the partnership, Google employees began complaining about working for “the business of war.” Some workers left in protest. In April, about 4,000 Google employees signed a letter to the CEO requesting the cancellation of the project.

On June 1, Google announced that it won’t be renewing its contract with the DoD when it expires. Accompanying that announcement was the news that Google will be updating its code of ethics.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/opinions/2018/06/14/how-should-the-tech-industry-handle-high-profile-government-contracts/

June 12, 2018 By cs

IT contract worth billions survives litigation

Seven months after its original award, the $50 billion Alliant 2 contract vehicle has survived four legal protests and received an official effective date, the General Services Administration announced June 5.

GSA originally awarded the Alliant 2 IT contract to 61 companies in November 2017, with the goal of replacing the original Alliant governmentwide contract that expires in April 2019. Shortly after the award announcement, however, several companies filed legal protests, delaying the start of its performance and ordering period.

“The Court’s decisions further solidify the validity of GSA’s innovative procurement approach, Highest Technically Rated Offerors with a Fair and Reasonable Price,” said GSA Alliant 2 Procuring Contract Officer John Cavadias in a news release.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/acquisition/gsa/2018/06/07/50-billion-it-contract-survives-litigation/

June 8, 2018 By cs

It’s time to fix our cloud procurement problems

The government’s desire to move to cloud computing is gaining significant momentum.

**From “Creating an Enterprise Cloud Centre of Excellence,” Amazon Web Services, Inc.**

The White House is drafting a major new cloud policy (the first since 2010), and the newly created Cloud Center of Excellence, designed to drive government cloud adoption, began its pilot program at the Department of Agriculture several months ago.

It’s no surprise that cloud activity has escalated. For the foreseeable future, cloud computing will be the dominant modus operandi for information technology. Observers have noted that the massive migration of IT workloads to cloud is the third or fourth major disruptive shift in the history of computing, equaling in some ways the major disruption caused by the advent of the World Wide Web.

Why all the fuss? It’s simple: When properly and strategically deployed, cloud saves buckets of time and money.

In the pre-cloud era, provisioning an IT application required, among other things, purchasing servers and software, waiting for it to arrive, and then physically installing it in some form of an “on-premise” data center. Unfortunately, living in the material world of hardware and software deters speed or agility. Awaiting deliveries, installing software, and dealing with data-center logistics can take several months. Also, physical ownership of IT requires expending capital dollars, instantly putting a rapidly depreciating asset on the books. Perhaps more importantly, the old IT model required the procurer to purchase significantly more capacity than needed, to accommodate rare periods of peak usage. In point of fact, Amazon created the cloud business because it had built its own data-centers to handle the peak Christmas rush in December, even when much of its computing resources lay fallow for eleven months of the year. The traditional IT model fomented delay, lack of agility, and excess capacity — plus it incurred the table-stakes costs of running a data center: real-estate, power, and people.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.slideshare.net/AmazonWebServices/creating-an-enterprise-cloud-centre-of-excellence

As some of the biggest U.S. technology companies have lined up to bid on the $10 billion contract to create a massive Pentagon cloud computing network, the behind-the-scenes war to win it has turned ugly.

The clock is ticking toward a 2020 deadline for agencies to switch over to the General Services Administration’s massive new contract vehicle for network and telecom services, and federal IT leaders are worried agencies might blow it.

In March, Gizmodo reported that Google had formalized a partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense to improve image recognition capabilities for drones.

Seven months after its original award, the $50 billion Alliant 2 contract vehicle has survived four legal protests and received an official effective date, the General Services Administration announced June 5.

The government’s desire to move to cloud computing is gaining significant momentum.

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