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DHS sets a course for consolidation |
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Written by Wilson P. Dizard III , GCN Staff
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Sunday, 30 September 2007 |
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New contracts call for merging data centers, software projects
The Homeland Security Department is emphasizing
consolidation in its information technology infrastructure with
contracts to merge an array of data centers into one $800 million
location and select a lead software service provider for the
Transportation Security Administration at a cost of about $400 million
to $500 million.
EDS is set to build the new data center, likely in
Clarksville, Va., during the next eight years. IBM Global Business
Services is leading a team of partners, most prominently Deloitte, in a
five-year project to provide a consolidated source of IT services to
the TSA.
Those two infrastructure contracts had the effect
of consolidating dozens of the sprawling department’s IT projects. DHS
also laid the groundwork for a coming generation of work on
cybersecurity research via a Broad Agency Announcement competitive
procurement under the auspices of the Science and Technology
Directorate (see story, Page 10).
EDS bested Computer Sciences Corp. to snare the
data center managed-services agreement. The company appeared to have
chosen Clarksville as the site for the new data center, according to
various sources (see sidebar, Page 10).
The department awarded both agreements under its
Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions (EAGLE)
umbrella contract. Accordingly, the work
will progress under task orders under EAGLE program rules. Such
agreements take the form of indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity
pacts that can be issued on a competitive basis.
TSA is calling its new systems development contract
the Organizational Application Support and Information Services
(OASIS). The OASIS contract will kick off with an initial award of
$98.5 million in its first year and run for a total of five years if
all options are exercised, TSA said.
Vendor sources said the OASIS pact likely would amount to $400 million to $500 million during its five-year duration.
TSA said in a press release that it expects the
consolidation of its software development under one prime contractor,
IBM, instead of several companies, would “foster a closer working
relationship, improve communications and provide the greatest value to
TSA both in technical capabilities and price.”
As for the data center contract, EDS spokesman Brad
Bass said the project would amount to as much as $800 million over
eight years if the department exercised all its options.
“We would like to talk about it, but we are
restricted in what we can say,” Bass said. “There are national security
considerations here.”
DHS already has activated its first major data
center at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The second data
center is planned to act as a backup to the first center.
The department issued its initial task order for
the second data center to EDS Aug. 31. The order provided a base amount
of $39 million, of which EDS received $32 million as an initial
incremental payment.
The department said in response to an e-mail
inquiry that the second data center project is a joint effort of the
DHS chief information officer and chief acquisition officer councils.
In framing the proposal request for the second data
center, DHS emphasized that it wanted to ensure an extremely high level
of physical security for the facility. The department also said it
wanted to assure the center’s continuity of operations in the event of
an electric outage or other natural or man-made disaster.
DHS said it relied on three factors to compare
proposals for the data center: the technical and management approach,
past performance and price. The department said it assigned more weight
to the nonprice factors, and sought to obtain the best value for the
government based on each vendor’s strengths and weaknesses.
DHS said the data center contract will have a
10-month base period, plus five one-year options, and a final option
period of either one or two years. All told, the data center task
orders won’t extend longer than eight years, the department said.
As for the TSA contract, the agency said it had an initial payment of
$98.5 million and would run for a total of five years if all options
are exercised. Other sources in the vendor community said the contract
could grow to as much as $400 million to $500 million if all options
are exercised.
IBM will serve as the prime contractor for the
OASIS project, TSA said. Industry sources confirmed that Deloitte,
which already is providing systems development work to TSA, would be
the most important subcontractor on the OASIS project.
“The agreement brings all of TSA’s software application development
under IBM’s management,” TSA said.
TSA predicted in a press release that the OASIS
project, by replacing several previous contractors with one team
managed by IBM, would “foster a closer working relationship, improve
communications and provide the greatest value to TSA both in technical
capabilities and price.”
The department, IBM and Deloitte declined to answer
repeated requests for OASIS details. DHS issued information about the
unclassified EDS data center project only after GCN broke the news.
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The Police State