The Department of Homeland Security last Friday released a draft executive summary of its requirements for a hybrid cloud computing environment with plans to procure services in three areas: a legacy data center, cloud computing, and professional services.
The department still plans to host an industry day in March on the Data Center and Cloud Optimization (DCCO) requirements, which will be followed by the release in April of a requirements document, and then in May a draft solicitation, according to a Feb. 7 announcement to industry on the federal government’s business opportunities website. DHS hasn’t identified a date for the industry day yet.
“The DCCO requirements will be the core support services capability to drive a more efficient, responsive hybrid information technology (IT) hosting environment that also serves as the foundation for the management and integration of a multi-cloud and co-location environment,” DHS says the draft executive summary. “These services must optimize and ensure continued Data Center 1 (DC1) operations, while implementing and managing the future state enterprise compute and storage environment in support of the DHS mission and, where appropriate, migrate fixed infrastructure and mission applications to a multi-cloud or co-location operating model.”
DHS will continue to acquire services to operate, maintain and optimize DC1, which is located at NASA facilities in Stennis, Miss. Applications that DHS doesn’t migrate to the cloud will be hosted in DC1 or co-location service providers.
Professional services that DHS plans to procure go beyond DC1 and will include assessments of infrastructure and applications for potential cloud migration or co-location, whether services should be repurchased, retained, rearchitected, or provided as service models such as software or platform as a service, implement approved actions, and provide technical expertise such as cyber security and IT management practices.
Cloud services to be acquired include integration to federally certified cloud service providers to support infrastructure, software and platform as a service, services from co-location service providers, cost optimization, and disaster recovery and continuity services.
Under the future IT structure, DHS is looking to improve costs, customer responsiveness, scalability, cyber security, governance, management, and sustain improvements.
“The objective of DHS’s DCCO support services is to expedite the transformation of legacy IT capabilities from an asset-based culture to a service-based, customer-centric IT business model; provide transparent operational expenditures; and reduction in both capital expenditures and time-to-delivery for new capabilities,” DHS said.