GSA refines its cloud strategy

The General Services Administration is turning a page on its plans to offer cloud infrastructure services to government agencies.

Although it released a request for quotations nearly a year ago, GSA canceled the request and is now planning to offer a new one. The reason: It received constructive feedback from agencies and vendors about what it was proposing and is now offering one that reflects the changing nature of the market. 

"Since GSA began this procurement 11 months ago, both the marketplace and definition of Infrastructure-as-a-Service and the marketplace have evolved and matured," said GSA spokeswoman Sahar Wali.

"This evolution includes more industry players, more diverse product offerings, and more market experience by both industry and government. GSA has made the decision to issue a new RFQ that takes into consideration this dynamic marketplace, feedback from the vendor community, and needs of federal agencies. Under the new RFQ, vendors will be able to make offerings for a moderate level of security in addition to providing offerings for low level security," she added.

Dave McClure, associate administrator for GSA's office of citizen services and communications, said the revised request is responsive to both industry and agency customers.

"Eleven months in cloud computing time is really about 11 years," McClure said. "The market is changing fast, experience in the market is changing daily, and customer needs are becoming better defined."

The new BPA will have a number of changes, including security. It will require vendors to meet moderate-risk standards, McClure said.

"We've learned we need to interact with industry very carefully. As we go out with the new RFQ, we're going to be reaching out and making sure we pull in as big a pool of vendors as possible," McClure told Information Week.

For more on GSA's cloud offering:
- see this Information Week article

Related Articles:
Census tapping cloud computing
Hidden costs of cloud computing
Cybersecurity, cloud computing top IT spending list