DISA extends RFP deadline for $427 million cloud contract
![](https://cdn.nextgov.com/media/img/cd/2021/12/12/DISA_logo-6/860x394.jpg?1639305549)
Pentagon's IT shop is seeking "state of the art" cloud services for its Enterprise Storage Service initiative.
![DISA logo](/media/ps360/GIG/FCWNow/Logos/DISA-logo.jpg)
The Defense Information Systems Agency wants "state of the art" cloud services with on-demand storage capabilities for petabytes and more of the Department of Defense's growing volumes of data, according to a recently updated request for proposal on FedBizOpps.gov.
DISA is willing to pay a premium for its Enterprise Storage Service (ESS II) contract – up to $427 million for a four-year deal with two one-year options -- and has extended its proposal deadline from Oct. 21 to Oct. 28.
The contract would replace DISA's $700 million 2007 deal with ViON Corp., and its requested specs are modernized for IT life in a big data-driven Defense environment. It calls for scalable, large-scale storage for structured and unstructured data – both classified and non-classified – to be developed by a contractor at up to 18 DISA facilities within the U.S. and six other DISA-approved locations worldwide. It must cover present and future DISA demands for storage solutions.
DISA's attempt to provide storage services as a utility, where the contractor provides hardware, software, software maintenance, licensing and other services, is part of a growing effort in government to increase cost-effectiveness in IT.
The ESS II contract demands the contractor provide new hardware and all necessary software for the project. But once developed, the government will maintain day-to-day operational control of the storage environment and all oversight responsibilities.
"The ESS II requirement is to obtain reliable, responsive, and cost effective storage infrastructure services of "on-demand" storage capabilities for specified chipset architecture in both DISA and other DISA-approved locations, which are both in the continental United States (CONUS) and outside of the continental United States (OCONUS)," the RFP states. "DISA's goal is to obtain a dynamically scalable storage capability utilizing an on-demand service approach, for new equipment, that will quickly adjust to changes in storage and throughput requirements, both increases and decreases, and is priced on a utility ("as used") basis or tiered structure."