Interior issues RFP for cloud-based hosting services
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The Interior Department is looking for cloud–based hosting services to help modernize the way its applications and data are stored and managed.
The Interior Department is looking for cloud–based hosting services to help modernize the way DOI applications and data are stored and managed, according to a request for proposal released July 18.
Through a cloud-hosting strategy, DOI will provide support mission applications, such as detailed climate-change data and computer programs used to measure earthquake activity, DOI officials said. Cloud hosting will also allow for a more secure way to transfer important files and provide a platform for DOI's websites.
Technical services to be delivered under this award include: cloud-based storage, secure file transfer, virtual machine, database, web hosting, development and test environment, and SAP application hosting services.
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“We developed this RFP as a broad sourcing vehicle to provide capabilities for the full scope of our potential commercial hosting needs,” said Bernard Mazer, Interior’s CIO. “Through these contracts, we will be able to provide our bureaus [with] access to a full suite of technically advanced storage and software services. We anticipate that this contract will ultimately serve as our one-stop shop for all DOI’s outside, contractor-supplied, hosting,” Mazer said.
This contract will also help DOI to reduce its data center footprint by 45 percent by the end of 2015, officials said. DOI has consolidated 33 data centers since October 1, 2010, and is expected to consolidate up to 13 more by the end of 2012.
Modernizing DOI’s hosting services is a key component of DOI’s broader IT Transformation initiative, which is expected to produce savings of $100 million each year from 2016 to 2020, with a significant portion of those savings coming from data center consolidation efforts.
The multiple-award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract has a base of three years and options through 2022. DOI bureaus and offices will be able to use the resulting contracts to issue task orders for cloud services as specific hosting needs arise, officials said. DOI’s National Business Center will issue and administer the contract.