GSA clarifies DEOS classified requirement
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Contractors vying for the Defense Department's $8 billion back-office cloud contract won't have to be certified to host classified data on the date of the award, the General Services Administration says.
Vendors bidding on the Pentagon's $8 billion Defense Enterprise Office Solutions cloud contract won't have to be certified to host classified data on the date of the award.
Contractors must still meet cloud computing security requirements for impact levels 5 and 6 -- controlled unclassified information and classified. But vendors with a level 5 certification for infrastructure, platform or software-as-a-service offerings can still bid on the contract, with the understanding that a level 6 classified certification can follow.
However, permitting vendors lacking level 5 certification to bid on the communications and productivity solicitation "would unnecessarily delay delivery of capabilities," according to the update.
Questions on the DEOS procurement are due from vendors on Feb. 15, but a document containing the proposed stringent security requirements was posted on Feb. 11.
The deadline for vendor questions coincides with the end of the current continuing resolution covering multiple agencies including the General Services Administration, which is conducting the DEOS procurement on behalf of the Defense Information Systems Agency via its Schedule 70 vehicle.
During the last shutdown, GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, which oversees the federal schedules including IT Schedule 70, remained in operation, even though some GSA personnel were sidelined. FAS is funded by customer fees.
A partial shutdown won't delay DEOS, the agency said.
"A potential government shutdown commencing after February 15, 2019, would have no immediate impact on [GSA's] ability to receive and process responses to the draft DEOS RFQ. The Department of Defense is funded, and able to work with GSA to process responses, as is the majority of GSA's Federal Acquisition Service workforce," an agency spokesperson told FCW.
The draft solicitation was first issued on Jan. 31, just days after the conclusion of a 35-day partial government shutdown.
This article was first posted to FCW, a sibling site to GCN.