GSA Negotiates Governmentwide Virtual Computing Deal with Dell EMC

The General Services Administration announced a governmentwide enterprise agreement with Dell EMC Thursday for virtual computing services.

The agreement, struck under the IT Schedule 70 Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Enhancement Program, provides agencies access to Dell solutions—specifically its VxRail products GSA officials said would be useful in modernizing existing data centers.

“The IT Schedule 70 FITARA Enhancement Program will provide government agencies with greater flexibility in accessing the innovative data center modernization solutions they need at a better value to taxpayers,” GSA Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Alan Thomas said in a statement. “Providing these solutions through a governmentwide, enterprise-level agreement is a great way to reduce duplication in our procurement process.”

Governmentwide agreements reduce costs by leveraging the government’s massive buying power. This particular agreement stems from FITARA, a law passed in 2014 that required GSA to put in place enterprisewide agreements to support federal agencies in purchasing IT.

GSA officials said governmentwide agreement with Dell EMC gives agencies “easy access” to Dell EMC capabilities “address the many aspects of the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative and FITARA through virtual computing solutions. The new agreement also provides agencies better pricing consistency that should equate to better budgeting for agencies, officials said. It is available to federal, state, local and tribal government agencies eligible to order under GSA IT Schedule 70 through Carahsoft Technology Corporation’s contract.

“The offering is a significant step forward in supporting GSA’s goals under category management and it will help federal agencies protect high-value assets, while also supporting data center optimization and modernization,” GSA’s Office of Information Technology Category Acting Assistant Commissioner Bill Zielinski said in a statement. “Streamlined Best-in-Class offerings like this from GSA will make it easier and more cost-effective for government agencies to get the solutions they need to meet their missions.”