GSA further details its plan for Ascend cloud program
Gettyimages.com / Jason Marz
By
Ross Wilkers
Software-as-a-service vendors and providers of cloud-related IT professional services are who the General Services Administration wants to hear from now.
The General Services Administration has moved ahead on its new governmentwide cloud computing program known as Ascend with the release of more details on other aspects besides the hosting infrastructure.
A pair of requests for information issued Tuesday seeks feedback from software-as-a-service vendors and providers of cloud-related IT professional services.
GSA unveiled a draft solicitation in May for Ascend’s pool one, which focuses on infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service offerings. The global hyperscale cloud providers are the likely bidders for the pool one contract, which is poised to have a potential eight-year duration.
Ascend is being stood up as essentially a one-stop shop for agencies to acquire cloud computing products and services through. GSA is constructing Ascend to help simplify and standardize those steps, plus streamline how federal customers and contractors alike navigate the government's security and data ownership requirements.
Pool two is geared toward the acquisition of SaaS applications that are accessed via cloud infrastructure. The pool two RFI asks vendors to comment on the benefits, barriers and challenges they see with respect to this track’s key priorities.
GSA has designed the SaaS portion of Ascend to have three sub-pools: office productivity and collaboration tools, customer relationship management and IT systems management, and IT asset management.
Pool three’s scope is vast as it will also cover a trio of sub-pools in application rationalization, multi-cloud management, and cloud migration and operations.
Technology integrators, resellers and providers of other similar services wrapped around cloud environments appear to be the target audience for the pool three RFI.
For the application rationalization sub-pool, GSA is looking to bring agencies more help in assessing and preparing for the migration of applications and other IT assets to commercial cloud solutions.
Multi-cloud management involves expertise in establishing and managing the needed tools and other services to work across different infrastructures, while the cloud migration and operation sub-pool focuses on moving applications and assets to specific cloud environments.
Responses to the RFIs are due by Sept. 20.