Education Dept. taps Perot for IT infrastructure work

The Education Department has awarded Perot Systems a 10-year, $400 million contract for information technology infrastructure services.The award marks a shift for Education, which will move its network infrastructure, known as EdNet, from a government-owned environment to an environment owned and operated by an outside contractor.The contract is known as EDUCATE, for Education Department Utility for Communications, Application and Technology Environment. It will support more than 5,200 users in Washington and at 10 regional offices nationwide. Services include desktop support, help-desk, e-mail, disaster recovery services, network, communication and multimedia services, and printer services.Perot’s teammates are Verizon Communications, Accelerated Solutions and several small businesses.The win expands Perot's Education work. The company’s Government Services unit also manages the Operation Maintenance and Enhancement for the Education Data Exchange Contract and Federal Student Aid’s Integrated Partner Management Virtual Data Center.“The EDUCATE award underscores the true partnership that exists between the Department of Education and Perot Systems,” said Peter Altabef, president and chief executive officer at Perot Systems.Perot is ranked on Washington Technology’s 2007 of the largest federal government prime contractors. , .