HP wins $20M logistics pact

Defense Logistics Agency information technology officials awarded a $20 million contract to Hewlett-Packard Co. today to consolidate and manage the agency's computer infrastructure.

HP will conduct the work in Sterling, Va.; Dearborn, Mich.; and Denver. The deal covers five years with five option years, according to a Sept. 10 Defense Department statement.

DLA officials launched an enterprise data center initiative earlier this year to increase efficiency and cost savings, and reduce IT inventory and security vulnerabilities. They want to streamline the agency's disparate, global office system structure into a coherent regional one with network center hubs in the United States, Europe and the Pacific Rim, according to the contract's request for quotations.

The agency operates more than 2,600 computer servers running older proprietary applications, and officials want vendors to install new hardware using commercial software, the document states.

"DLA has come to the conclusion that there is a need to consolidate and outsource server and database operations from the current multidistributed data center approach to a logical enterprise data center using a geographically dispersed data center approach," the document states.

HP must deploy an initial network infrastructure with host and support services by February 2005 for four DLA sites and a fully operational network for the entire agency by August 2006, according to the document.