Darwin McDaniel
The General Services Administration has clarified that vendors interested to pursue the Department of Defense’s potential $7.8B blanket purchase agreement for back-office cloud services will not be required to be certified to host classified data prior to the date of award.
GSA said in a FedBizOpps notice posted Monday that businesses with level 5 certification can bid for the potential 10-year Defense Enterprise Office Solutions contract.
However, the agency noted the winning contractor must secure a level 6 or classified certification as it begins work under the BPA to provide enterprise cloud services to DoD.
GSA made the clarification about the security requirements for DEOS ahead of the Feb. 15 deadline for vendors to submit questions on the contract.
The program seeks an integrated cloud platform to support communications, productivity and collaboration across the department.
An initial DEOS solicitation stated that GSA will evaluate potential vendors based on proposed technical or management approach, past performance and price.
The agency expects to award the BPA in April.
