The GSA's new Apps.gov initiative is designed to provide storage, virtualization, and Web hosting solutions to all levels of government in the US.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In an effort to make cloud solutions more easily available to government agencies, the US General Services Administration (www.gsa.gov) has awarded 11 companies a five-year, government-wide Blanket Purchase Agreement to make Infrastructure as a Service solutions available to all levels of government through the gateway “Apps.gov”.
Accoridng to the GSA’s announcement this week, Apps.gov will feature storage, virtualization, and Web hosting solutions several vendors to support federal, state, local, and tribal governments. These new Cloud Infrastructure offerings are expected to help agencies realize cost savings, efficiencies, and modernization without having to expend capital resources expanding their existing infrastructure.
“Cloud computing services help to deliver on this Administration’s commitment to provide better value for the American taxpayer by making government more efficient,” federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra said in a statement. “Cloud solutions not only help to lower the cost of government operations, they also drive innovation across government.”
IaaS offerings available through Apps.gov will include on-demand self-service that allows government entities to utilize and discontinue use of products when and as needed, as well as resource pooling for practically unlimited storage and automatic monitoring of resource utilization.
IaaS offerings will also be provided with rapid elasticity for real-time, customizable scaling of service and automatic provisioning of virtual machines, storage, and bandwidth, and visibility into service usage and order management through measured services.
“Through offerings such as IaaS, GSA is providing government entities with easy access to cost-saving, high-value, more efficient technology solutions by doing a major part of the procurement processes upfront,” GSA Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies associate administrator Dave McClure stated. “By continuously working with industry, GSA’s cloud-based services available through Apps.gov are secure, compliant, and save taxpayer dollars by reducing duplication of security processes across government.”
Prior to making IaaS products available through Apps.gov, vendors must complete the Certification & Accreditation process at the FISMA Moderate Impact Data security level as administered by the GSA. Once granted authority to operate, services will be made available for purchase by government entities through the Apps.gov storefront.
Many of the qualifying vendors have assembled teams to support and cooperated with partners on the development of quality services for government agencies. The awarded vendors and their associated teams include Apptis (which partnered with Amazon Web Services), AT&T, Autonomic Resources (which partnered with Carpathia, Enomaly, and Dell), CGI Federal Inc., Computer Literacy World (which partnered with Electrosoft, XO Communications and Secure Networks), Computer Technologies Consultants (which partnered with Softlayer), Eyak Tech LLC, General Dynamics Information Technology (which partnered with Carpathia), Insight Public Sector (which partnered with Microsoft), Savvis Federal Systems, and Verizon Federal Inc.
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