Agencies have a lot of ways to purchase cloud products and services — several governmentwide acquisition contracts, IT Schedule 70 or even their own contracts. However, with the administration's cloud-first policy, the General Services Administration wants to make buying cloud even simpler.

The agency recently created a cloud special item number (SIN) on Schedule 70 and is now turning its attention to evaluating a new cloud-centric contract vehicle.

More: Schedule 70 refresh includes new cloud SIN

The final product is still a "couple years out," according to Marcelo Olascoaga, service line planner at GSA's Office of Integrated Technology Services (ITS), but the agency is combing through responses to a RFI issued earlier this year.

While the agency is moving forward with the evaluation, the new contract is by no means a foregone conclusion.

"GSA at this time is simply seeking to gain information from our partners about alternative models and/or solutions for future cloud acquisition contracts," said Mary Davie, ITS assistant commissioner. "The agency has not made any decisions as to what such a solution would look like or when it would be released."

GSA currently manages two cloud blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) on Schedule 70 — one for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and another for Email-as-a-Service (EaaS) — however those do not cover the broad range of services agencies are looking for.

"This RFI was asking both industry and government agencies whether we needed to create a cloud offering so that all the cloud services would be centralized in a single contract and provide you more clear direction of what you needed to order cloud services," Olascoaga said during a presentation at the Federal IT Acquisition Summit on June 2.

More: New cloud contract in development at GSA

More than 75 responses were sent in by the March deadline, mostly positive, though GSA is still accepting input from interested parties.

After a preliminary review, Olascoaga said the resultant contract will likely be broken into five "lots," or categories:

  • Infrastructure-as-a-Service;
  • Platform-as-a-Service;
  • Software-as-a-Service;
  • Cloud-enabling technologies; and
  • Consulting services.

"By providing this contract, we're going to allow for flexibility to take place," Olascoaga said. "There are other GWACs out there, we have Schedule 70, there are departments that create department-wide BPAs off of Schedule 70 for their components to use. We want to put something out there that's going to benefit the highest amount of population."

More: Dispelling 5 myths about the cloud

Due to the expected size and scope, the final contract will probably have a ceiling around $50 billion, Olascoaga said.

About Aaron Boyd

Aaron Boyd is an awarding-winning journalist currently serving as editor of Federal Times — a Washington, D.C. institution covering federal workforce and contracting for more than 50 years — and Fifth Domain — a news and information hub focused on cybersecurity and cyberwar from a civilian, military and international perspective.

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