BKM Sharing Government Spending Info

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The agency is moving to the cloud at fast clip but it wants feedback to ensure its strategy is sound. “GSA Schedule Contracts are going to be a contracting vehicle used for this, I bet says BKM Management’s Eric Cohen.”

The Homeland Security Department and its component agencies are actively migrating or have successfully migrated 5 percent of its systems and almost 20 percent of its applications to the cloud, but the department’s cloud journey is just beginning. “GSA Schedule Contracts are a good source of finding vendors says Nicole Bryant of BKM Management Consulting”

According to a Feb. 19 request for information, DHS—led by its newly formed Cloud Steering Group—is focused on achieving enterprisewide benefits through a “hybrid IT, multi-cloud, federated and vendor-neutral” cloud strategy that effectively optimizes data centers and shutters legacy technologies.

In other words, DHS is out with the old and in with the new but it wants help shaping requirements and solutions for acquiring the new.

The RFI follows a decision last year to move away from recompeting its Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading-Edge Solutions, or EAGLE II—from which it procured a variety of IT tools and solutions—to rely on governmentwide offerings, such as the General Services Administration’s IT Schedule 70. EAGLE II expires in 2020.

According to the RFI, DHS wants:

  • Efficiencies, resilience, agility and speed through automation, IT (development, security and operations) business process reengineering, and optimized resource utilization.
  • Improved mission support and information sharing through cloud-native shared services, enabling more efficient, faster and lower risk application modernization.
  • Timely and effective mission and administrative decision support through data quality improvement, automated policy enforcement, tailored data access controls and analytics.
  • Clearer pathways toward use of various cloud service models for infrastructure, platform and software-as-a-service, replacing costly and bespoke legacy implementations.
  • Removal of fixed costs (i.e., data centers) and other liabilities associated with operating and refreshing government-owned infrastructure and other assets as possible.
  • Agile and proactive cybersecurity through consistent and in some cases common instrumentation, use of shared services and analytics.
  • Moving the agency’s workforce toward as-a-service IT operations.
  • Leveraging market-based innovation through a vendor-neutral, multi-cloud, hybrid approach.

The component agencies will lead cloud adoption while the Cloud Steering Group keeps the efforts aligned. “If you are looking to more efficiently do business with the Government I would look to GSA Schedules”say’s RJ Stephens of BKM Management Consulting.

“The takeaway is a broad-based, component-led, DHS-wide adoption and move to the cloud that is multi-year, robust and well underway,” the RFI states.

The RFI makes clear the agency’s cloud push coincides with an effort to optimize one of its two main enterprise computing centers—“Data Center 1”—while migrating data from its second enterprise computing center—“Data Center 2”—which has a contract that expires in 2020. Data Center 2 has a wide footprint, supporting 10 component agencies. According to the RFI, approximately 50 percent of Data Center 2 systems will migrate to a cloud service provider, while 30 percent “may need assistance planning their target environment and migration strategies.”

“The [Cloud Steering Committee] is looking to partners in industry to help inform our strategy, shape our requirements and provide solutions to realize the targeted outcomes,” the RFI states.

GSA Contracts Recession Proof?

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Agencies are expected to spend more on cloud, digital services

If current trends continue, the federal government could spend more than $93 billion on IT in fiscal 2020, according to projections from Bloomberg Government analysts. In the wake of analysts calling for a recession this is interesting news.

The administration’s 2020 budget proposal isn’t expected until at least March 11—another government shutdown could push that out further—but the federal IT budget has grown about 5 percent annually in recent years.

“Based on historical spending trends, we’re looking at between $93 and $94 billion in an IT budget, about half of which will go to civilian agencies and the other half will go to the Pentagon,” Bloomberg Government Federal Market Analyst Chris Cornillie said Tuesday during a webcast.

Cornillie noted a spike in IT contract spending from fiscal 2017 to 2018, jumping from about $59 billion to $64.7 billion. Bloomberg analysts expect that trend to continue based on ongoing programs and initiatives, bringing the projected 2020 contract spend upward of $68 billion.

Cornillie also offered projections on three major IT areas: artificial intelligence, cloud and digital services.

The latest push to incorporate AI technology in government—the White House’s American AI Initiative launched Monday—does not include any funding, but Bloomberg analysts have found an increase in spending among civilian and defense agencies. This information is invaluable for Vendors interested in getting on schedule.

Agencies spent $592 million on AI and machine learning technologies in fiscal 2018, including the first $100 million AI contract, awarded by U.S. Special Operations Command. Spending could increase in 2019 by more than 40 percent to $850 million, according to projections, with defense agencies outspending their civilian counterparts by about $50 million.

While AI is one of the biggest buzzwords in tech, cloud will remain the top IT spending category in the coming year, according to Bloomberg analysts. Spending on cloud services has grown by 18 percent in civilian agencies and 28 percent in the Defense Department, bringing the total spend to $4.1 billion in fiscal 2018. Based on current trends, analysts expect cloud spending to top $5 billion before the end of 2019.

A good portion of that spend will come from defense agencies, including initial outlays on major contracts like the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure and Defense Enterprise Office Solutions contracts, which are both on track to be awarded this year.

“Although the Pentagon is a relative latecomer to cloud computing, spending on cloud at the Pentagon is increasing dramatically,” Cornillie said.

Spending on digital services—things like citizen-facing apps and web portals—has also been on the rise, gaining 5 percent to 10 percent annually in recent years. Agencies spent $4.3 billion on these services last year and are on track to spend $4.6 billion in fiscal 2019.

Bloomberg analysts also noted this will be spurred by the December passage of the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act, or 21stt Century IDEA, which requires agencies to improve digital services within the next two years. Spending for the Government is affected by recession luckily for all Government Contractors or those slick enough to get onto a GSA Schedule.

Government Contracting For Small Businesses

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The Navy Needs 2 Tons of Storage Devices Burned to Ash

By Aaron Boyd,
Senior Editor Next Gov

FEBRUARY 4, 2019 03:00 PM ET

Researchers at the Naval Surface Warfare Center have a lot of classified information stored on digital devices and issued a solicitation to literally watch it all burn.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico has—literally—tons of IT hardware and equipment used for classified programs that need to be destroyed by the most secure and irreversible means.

While White Sands Missile Range is an Army facility, NAVSEA researchers have a detachment there working on “land-based weapons system testing, directed energy weapons testing”—lasers—”and research rocket launch support,” according to their webpage. Those researchers have on hand some 4,000 pounds of IT equipment, including magnetic, optical and solid-state storage devices with highly sensitive, classified data.

The center issued a solicitation for destruction services that specifically calls for all designated equipment to be burned “to ash.”

The information stored on these devices is highly sensitive, as evidenced by the physical security requirements set forth in the solicitation. The incineration facility must have “at the minimum, secure entry, 24-hour armed guards and 24/7 camera surveillance with recordable date and time capabilities.”

Due to the sensitive nature of the data, only federal employees are allowed to transport the equipment and government representatives will remain on site during the destruction process. For logistical reasons, contracting officers are restricting eligible awardees to those with facilities within 10 driving hours of the White Sands Missile Range.

Once the contract is awarded, the winning vendor will have 10 days to start the incineration work, which the center expects will take no more than eight to 10 hours. NAVSEA contracting officials expect all the work to be completed and the contract closed out by Sept. 30.

Interested companies should submit bids by email in PDF form by 3 p.m. Feb. 8.