By Chris Riotta
The General Services Administration is soliciting feedback from industry on a planned new, multiple-award blanket purchase agreement to provide cloud infrastructure, storage, software and services to federal agencies and state and local governments.
The agency is seeking responses by May 24 on the new enterprisewide cloud acquisition strategy. A news release announcing the request for feedback notes that the trend towards cloud adoption has been accelerated by the demands of the pandemic and telework.
In a statement released on Thursday, GSA IT Category Deputy Assistant Commissioner Keith Nakasone said the top request his office receives from various agencies is for an acquisition solution which offers a full set of commercial, secure, soup-to-nuts, cloud products and services.
By Chris Riotta
May 14, 2021
Responding to the surge in telework and corresponding demand for cloud services, the General Services Administration is considering a multiple-award blanket purchase agreement that would make cloud infrastructure, storage, software and services available to federal agencies and state, local and tribal governments.
The agency is conducting market research, asking for comments on developing an enterprisewide cloud-based acquisition strategy to deliver pay-as-you-go services from cloud service providers.
In a May 13 statement released on Thursday, GSA IT Category Deputy Assistant Commissioner Keith Nakasone said the top request his office receives from various agencies is for an acquisition solution that offers a full set of commercial, secure, soup-to-nuts, cloud products and services.
GSA starts big push toward commercial cloud
The General Services Administration has made clear that it knows what it wants in kicking off market research phase for what is shaping up as a massive blanket purchase agreement for enterprise cloud services.
A wide-range of commercial cloud services will be available on a pay-as-you-go basis via the BPA: including software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service. The vehicle also will include cloud security requirements and services related to cloud implementation.
All federal, state and local government agencies can have access to the contract. GSA is pushing it as a mechanism for agencies to replace legacy IT services and products, while also leveraging cloud offerings already available through the GSA schedule.