DISA announces cloud progress, contract action
New framework in place to govern agency's mission as DOD's cloud broker.
Officials at the Defense Information Systems Agency announced April 16 that the organization had reached initial operational capability as the Defense Department's cloud broker, marking a key milestone in the effort launched last summer.
According to a DISA announcement, the designation means there is a new framework in place that will govern its mission as DOD’s cloud broker, which includes cybersecurity assessments of potential cloud service providers.
"To date, DISA has established a process for gathering and assessing mission partner requirements, evaluation criteria for service offerings to include recommended contract requirements, criteria for matching mission partner requirements to the appropriate offerings, an Enterprise Cloud Service Catalog and a cloud security model," the release states.
DISA officials used the cloud security model to assess the two commercial cloud service providers that have been granted provisional authorizations by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Joint Authorization Board, according to the release.
"Approval for use of these two commercial cloud services for information approved for public release is imminent," the release states. "DISA continues to conduct security assessments to expand alternatives for future cloud service [offerings]."
According to the General Services Administration’s FedRAMP website, those two providers are Autonomic Resources and CGI Federal.DISA's cloud broker announcement comes the day after the agency posted a new request for information for small-business contractors and announced contract awards for the DISA IT Enterprise Support Services (DESS) program.
The RFI seeks to compile a list of small companies that are currently subcontractors on the Defense Intelligence Information Systems Integration and Engineering Support Services and/or the Intelligence Information, Command and Control, Equipment and Enhancements contracts.
After an initial solicitation released last May, DISA announced awards for its indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity DESS contract. The contract, worth as much as $404 million, was awarded to HighAction, Soft Tech Consulting, Unitech Consulting (doing business as Chameleon Integrated Services) and NOVA Corp.
Under the contract, the companies will provide enterprise IT services to more than 8,000 users, a number that could increase as DOD agencies look to consolidate IT services and move to those provided by DISA, the award notice states.