The Navy Department issued a 332-page draft request for proposal (.pdf) Sept. 30 for its massive Navy/Marine Corps Next Generation Enterprise Network. NGEN will replace the Continuity-Of-Service Contract, which is considered the federal government's largest information technology program, serving more than 700,000 users.

The draft RFP was posted to FedBizOpps.Gov and the document will be open for comment through Oct. 30. At an Aug. 18 industry day the department said it would issue a final solicitation on Dec. 21, 2011 and award the contract in spring of 2012.

The RFP specifically requests information on end-user communications and collaboration services, thin client and cloud computing. According to the document, workflow and collaboration services would likely be delivered through a web portal, but near-future provisioning could include mobile and secure mobile devices across the enterprise.

"The Navy expects to accelerate implementation of Thin Client Services (TCS) that provides for client computer or client software in client-server architecture networks that depends primarily on the central server for processing activities, and mainly focuses on conveying input and output between the end user and the remote server," says the RFP. Thin client solutions could leverage virtualization with centrally housed and managed desktops or hosted desktops, adds the document.

The NGEN service delivery frameworks are divided between the two management domains: the Navy Management Domain and the Marine Corps Management Domain.

According to the RFP, the Navy Management Domain will be a government-owned, contractor-operated network. "With the exception of end user hardware, the Navy will purchase NGEN network infrastructure in order to own the network," says the RFP. The Navy also expects end user hardware to be provided as a service by the NGEN ES contractor.

The Marine Corps Management Domain will transition from a single, government-owned, contractor-operated network to a government-owned, government-operated, and contractor-supported network. "The USMC may purchase select services from the ES and TXS contracts including the associated hardware, software, and training," according to the document. 

For more:
- see the RFP (.pdf)
- see the NGEN press release

Related Articles:
Users will see no difference with NGEN, says Hendricks  
Audio: Hendricks on NGEN procurement  
More O&M than procurement for NGEN through fiscal 2014  
GAO urges NGEN pause