Since GSA’s VETS 2 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) opened for business in 2018, agencies from across the federal government have discovered its talented contractor pool, easy ordering, and competitive pricing as a great resource to meet their technology requirements. VETS 2 also benefits agencies by offering both Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned (SDVO) small business credit and access to a coveted Best-in-Class contract solution. This has resulted in 50 task order awards valued at nearly $600M in just over two years.
It’s easy to see why this GWAC has grown so popular. VETS 2 provides access to 69 highly qualified companies capable of completing virtually any IT service requirement, including emerging technologies like agile software development, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing. VETS 2 also happens to be the only GWAC in the federal government that is set-aside exclusively for SDVO small businesses. These features make VETS 2 an excellent choice for customers looking to enhance business processes or solve a problem at their agencies.
In two short years, DOD and civilian agencies have utilized VETS 2 for a range of mission-critical requirements; including cybersecurity, IT helpdesk services, data analytics and an agency-wide web conferencing solution. With agencies continuing to identify GSA Best-in-Class GWACs as preferred sources for IT requirements, the future is bright for VETS 2.
Agencies interested in hearing more about VETS 2 are invited to participate in a future webinar hosted by the GSA VETS 2 team. Information about future training can be found at www.gsa.gov/vets2. Questions pertaining to VETS 2 can also be sent to vets2@gsa.gov.
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The successful transition to Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS), the federal government’s $50 billion, 15-year, Best-in-Class acquisition vehicle for telecommunications and networking, is a strategic priority for GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service.
Originally set to expire in 2020, GSA is extending the expiring contracts by an additional three years to May 2023. In extending these legacy contracts, GSA requires agencies to meet certain critical milestones to continue using services on the extended contracts.
Additionally, GSA is taking steps to curtail the growth of services on the extended contracts by freezing modifications and limiting use. These actions will minimize the impact of GSA having to maintain dual operations.
Freezing Modifications on Extended Contracts
Effective October 1, 2020, GSA will implement controls on its extended Networx, WITS 3, and LSA contracts by freezing all future growth on these vehicles. All new services should be provided under the EIS contracts.
Processing Modifications on EIS Contracts
GSA recognizes that many agencies have released their EIS solicitations and are waiting for EIS contract modifications to be evaluated and awarded by GSA. We are prioritizing modifications needed for agency awards.
Limiting Use of Extended Contracts
On March 31, 2020, GSA will begin to limit the use of its extended contracts for agencies that are not making progress towards transition. GSA will disconnect agencies, in phases, to meet the September 30, 2022 milestone for 100% completion of transition. The first phase will include agencies that have been “non-responsive” to transition outreach from GSA. Future phases will be based on each agency’s status at that time and the individual circumstances impacting that agency’s transition progress, such as protests or pending contract modifications.
Once a phase is complete, agencies identified will no longer be allowed to process any modifications or orders, will be ineligible for an exception, and will have their active services disconnected.
We applaud the agencies that are taking active steps to modernize and we will continue to monitor progress across the federal government. Taking steps to curtail growth on the extended contracts will encourage agencies to transition existing and new services onto EIS. GSA will continue to communicate with agencies at all levels, provide resources and support to agencies through transition, and pull all available levers in support of significant cost savings, greatly improved efficiencies, and enhanced cybersecurity— all achievable through EIS.
Questions? Contact Allen Hill, Executive Director, GSA’s Office of Telecommunications Services at allen.hill@gsa.gov or (202) 701-7891.
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As cyberattacks increase in size and frequency, it is important for every agency to protect its network from incidents that can jeopardize the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of an information system. The Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Homeland Security determined that 74 percent of federal agencies participating in their 2018 assessment had cybersecurity programs that were either at risk or high risk.
While an agency can take proactive measures to prevent cyberattacks, an incident may still occur. When a cyberattack or other damaging incident occurs in an agency’s network, reactive measures such as incident response must be taken to preserve the integrity of the information system.
Incident response is the methodology an organization uses to respond to and manage a cyberattack. A data breach or cyberattack can wreak havoc and potentially affect employee security, intellectual property, and agency time and resources. Incident response protocol aims to reduce this damage and recover as quickly as possible.
Incident response protects organizations against four common types of incidents:
GSA’s Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services (HACS) Special Item Number (SIN) offers incident response services to help organizations with compromised systems. These services help to determine the extent of the incident, remove the adversary from systems, and restore networks to a more secure state.
HACS incident response services can also be used to proactively plan for future attacks. The benefits of preparing and maintaining an incident response plan helps agencies handle cybersecurity events and minimizes the impact of potential threats while strengthening an agency’s defenses against any future incidents.
Below is an example of an incident response plan:
Incident Response Step
Action Taken
Preparation
Create an asset list and system baseline.
Detection and Analysis
Analyze events to determine whether they constitute an incident.
Containment, Eradication, and Recovery
Prevent further damage from an incident, and determine the cause of an incident so that the system can be returned to the previously known neutral state. Restore compromised system to operational status.
Post-Incident Activity
Provide final report of the incident identifying current procedures for efficacy and whether those procedures were followed properly.
Another benefit of the HACS SIN is that the vendors included under the incident response subcategory have passed a technical evaluation and can provide individualized incident response plans. If an agency already has an incident response plan, vendors can evaluate the plan and provide services that adapt to that individualized plan. Vendors use qualified resources to minimize the impact of cyber-attacks and avoid future incidents. Incident response services can also augment agency resources during a large scale incident.
For more information on incident response and how GSA’s HACS SIN can provide your agency with incident response services, please visit the HACS Homepage.
To learn more about the additional services the HACS SIN provides, watch our HACS Overview Video.
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Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) are paving the way to automate business processes and, in turn, free up the government workforce to focus on more complex work activities. As ITC’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Acquisition one of my main priorities is to ensure we have the acquisition resources that agencies need to help them smoothly ride the digital wave of transformation.
An important part of our strategy is to foster collaboration and engagement with government and industry stakeholders – this is key to our success.
International Best Practices
This type of engagement also includes the bi-directional sharing of best practices with our international colleagues. I recently attended an event hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark at the Danish Embassy in Washington, DC. Through a public-private partnership, Denmark has been focusing its government digitization on efficiency, citizen services, transparency, and employee satisfaction. They had a compelling presentation about the importance of understanding and improving the underlying processes related to the areas they want to digitize. ‘Process First, Technology Second’ is a key refrain in a Government of Denmark sponsored whitepaper.
Tejs Knudsen, CEO cBrain (Left), Keith Nakasone, GSA (Middle), H.E. Lone Dencker Wisborg, Danish Ambassador to the United States (Right)
Join the Conversation
There are a number of events coming up where we’ll be talking about AI, ML, and other important government acquisition topics. Chief among them is FAST 2020, where I’ll be participating in three separate sessions. Two in our IT Modernization, Emerging Technologies, and Innovation track; one on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and another, Innovative Methods of Assessing Information Technology Contractors, Changes, Innovations and Best Practices. I’ll also be on a panel with Katie Arrington, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, ASD(A), for Cyber to discuss the release of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, version 1.0.
Additionally, I’ll be speaking at the following events:
In a recent blog post, our Assistant Commissioner, Bill Zielinski, talked about all of the great work we’ve done over the past year to improve the way federal agencies adopt, buy, build, and use technologies such as AI – you should check that out if you missed it.
Events like these give us an excellent opportunity to collaborate with our stakeholders. The lessons that we learn and the best practices we share will make all the difference as we ride the digital wave of transformation together.
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Improve the way Federal agencies adopt, buy, build, and use technology—this is one of the key strategic goals of GSA and our primary job here at the Federal Acquisition Service. But what do we do when the technology in question is more theory than practice? How should we in government plan to adopt, buy, build, and use artificial intelligence (AI)?
2019 saw several key events that could shape the ways we apply AI to the work of government across an ever-changing digital landscape.
We begin in February when the President launched the American AI Initiative—the official AI strategy of the United States. The initiative formalized a governmentwide effort to promote and protect national AI technology and innovation in collaboration and engagement with the private sector, academia, the public, and like-minded international partners.
Having multiple pilot programs already in play, GSA moved quickly to make the most of the new strategy, forming fresh collaborations and leveraging long-standing partnerships to familiarize our customers and vendors with AI applications.
Augmented Intelligence
In June, the White House released its action plan to implement the Federal Data Strategy. GSA was tapped to develop an ethics framework and prepare the federal workforce for critical data-related activities such as analysis and evaluation, data management, and privacy protection. To that end:
We focus on very narrow process improvements with short development cycles using an agile framework that provides us with continuous feedback for better alignment of solutions.
We are investing in training and developing our IT acquisition professionals to be transformative agents of change.
We sought a vision with the customer in mind, a human-centered design.
The goal of AI for the government is not to replace people, but to augment the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of public service. Ultimately, we believe mission success is contingent upon collaboration and partnerships that spur innovation in delivering AI solutions.
Start with a Plan
Thinking about AI but don’t know how to start? The AI Community of Practice produced this handy self-assessment to help select the right automation solution for the job.
Adopt an Agile Framework
AI innovation requires an agile mindset to prove mission value. Technology advances so fast that in order to keep up we must be able to create something usable quickly, to enable faster customer feedback, while leaving room for emerging solutions. Identifying problems and finding immediate solutions early on means that multiple alternatives can emerge more quickly. This lesson has served us well in implementing RPA technology. Using the agile approach, we readily identified what tasks can be and can not be automated, requirements, and potential risks and implications. AI has the capability to eliminate low level tasks that are repetitive and well defined so more focus can be placed on critical business concerns.
Invest and Prioritize in Training
Learn to assess skill sets to achieve mission needs. Conduct market research and review human capital processes to see what courses are offered to educate and empower people to do high-level work and train them for the road ahead. Everyone knows the saying “when you take care of your people, they’ll take care of you.” Invest in people by providing support, trust, and opportunities. This will empower your team and help them to better fulfill mission needs, connect deeply with customers and create memorable experiences.
Human-Centered Design
Our customers and shareholders drive the demand for innovative AI technology. Customer mission needs must come first. Human-centered design is a way of meeting our customer needs by making systems more responsive. We are currently seeking feedback from industry on HCD Services.
Collaboration spurs Innovation
Collaboration not only inspires innovation, it’s essential to educating your workforce and empowering them to deploy effective AI solutions. Joining networks such as the AI Community of Practice helps your team foster best practices, learn from use cases, identify tools, and spark ethical discussions around AI technology. Such partnerships are key to scaling up AI procurement practices. Offices throughout agencies dedicated to developing AI capabilities must start talking. What are your organization’s biggest challenges to achieving your operational mission? Communities of practice can help you find partners across government trying to tackle similar challenges through the use of AI, machine learning and automation.
Preparing for the Future
On January 29th, we held our first in a series of emerging technology events. This first iteration focused on AI and generated interest across government and industry. With an agenda boasting 16 experts in the field, we kick-started a conversation on the benefits that AI could bring to government.
AI in Federal Procurement Event Panels
We’re excited and ready to demonstrate continued success in meeting customer and shareholder needs through innovative AI solutions.
Attend the most comprehensive federally sponsored training event for acquisition professionals – FAST 2020.
The GSA-hosted Federal Acquisition Service Training (FAST) Conference 2020 is a multi-day, national training conference for the federal acquisition workforce, industry partners, and customer agencies. FAST 2020 will be in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center. GSA is offering comprehensive training led by renowned procurement experts free of charge to all federal acquisition professionals.
FAST 2020 will also offer industry the opportunity to network with large and small businesses within the same industry and develop teaming arrangements to win future business. Agency partners will be able to conduct market research with industry partners on-site!
Attend the FAST 2020 Training Conference to help you better meet your agency mission. Network with fellow acquisition professionals and learn from them. Earn up to 20 CLP credits, collaborate with your peers, and see the latest industry solutions in the exhibit hall. ITC is offering over 30 thought-provoking classes so you can learn IT procurement from every angle.
Being Brilliant at the Basics for Industry Partners
IT Modernization Emerging Technologies and Innovation
Leveraging the Power of the Internet eTools
What’s Next in Acquisition
Add FAST 2020 to your Individual Development Plans (IDPs) to begin the travel and conference participation approval process within your agency. To help you, we’ve created a sample justification letter [doc] to attend the FAST conference.
Register Now! for the FAST 2020 conference in Atlanta, Ga., April 14-16. I hope to see you there!
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We pride ourselves on the close relationships that we’ve built with industry. These partnerships enable us to help agencies across the government achieve mission success.
Industry’s solutions and expertise are critical in helping government fuel IT modernization and transformation.
These close relationships don’t come easily, though. Both GSA and industry have to put in the time and effort to get to know each other. This helps us better understand industry’s latest solutions — enabling us to better represent them to the agencies who need them.
That’s why GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service is holding FAST 2020. FAST 2020 will bring together thousands of experts — both government and industry — in one place, allowing unparalleled collaboration. We encourage our industry partners to register today!
Why You Should Attend
Participating industry partners will be able to:
Benefit from accessing the most comprehensive federally sponsored training event for contract management, procurement, and acquisition professionals in the nation.
Directly engage with 3,000+ federal contracting professionals as well as senior policy and program leaders under one roof, saving travel and time away.
Master the latest government e-tools and processes, and learn from the experts.
Meet face-to-face with master contracting officers.
Network with large and small businesses in similar industries and develop teaming arrangements to win future business.
Gather more and better market intelligence to advance your company’s competitive advantage.
Small businesses will benefit in additional ways:
Meet multiple contracting officers in one setting.
Save money: participating in one large event is more efficient than many smaller events.
Two Ways to Participate
Industry can participate in FAST 2020 in two main ways:
Participant – Industry has an entire dedicated training track. We are planning other activities (such as industry matchmaking sessions) to benefit and strengthen our industry partner relationships. Find detailed information about Industry-focused training sessions under the Training Sessions tab on our conference registration site.
Industry Exhibitor – The FAST 2020 Exhibit Show Floor is 270,000 square feet and will be organized into 10 Category Communities.
As GSA, we’ve set aside two huge spaces (50 ft x 50 ft) for us:
We’ll use the first as our main GSA booth, where we’ll host a small training theater, with kiosks dedicated to each of the 10 federal categories.
We’ll use the second space to host our GSA e-lab, where conference participants can get hands-on experience with our suite of e-tools!
When it comes to information technology modernization efforts, agencies have to develop holistic strategies that match their evolving needs without compromising their ability to carry out their mission. The U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) mission is to help others, but when it came to technological transformation, USAID had to start by helping itself.
Let’s take a look at how USAID became the vanguard for smart cloud adoption in support of a complex, global mission.
A Legacy of Innovation
For nearly a decade, USAID has strategically deployed cloud technology to enable and scale its operations both at home and abroad. Working in some of the more challenging locations around the world, USAID often operates in low network connectivity bandwidth environments that present their own unique security vulnerabilities.
To operate in these harsh operational conditions, USAID adopted cloud technology early. In 2010 they moved to cloud-based email, messaging, and collaboration tools. In 2012, USAID completed nearly all of the goals of the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) when it consolidated to a single enterprise data center.
Data Consolidated, Optimized, and Secured
Most recently in 2018, USAID successfully migrated the enterprise data center to a hybrid cloud solution with full disaster recovery capability. The new USAID Enterprise Data Center/Disaster Recovery (EDC/DR) solution provides government Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) as well as redundancy for USAID’s network and business-critical systems.
USAID can now use more modern technology like scalable, on-demand resources; no restrictions for memory, processing, and storage; and the ability to restore data in several hours versus days or weeks. Using tagging in the cloud environments will enhance USAID’s ability to comply with the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) and Technology Business Management reporting requirements. Finally, the cloud solution is FedRAMP-authorized, ensuring the new infrastructure services meet rigorous security standards.
Working with GSA
USAID used IT Schedule 70 for its EDC/DR infrastructure acquisition.
USAID sought to acquire public and government IaaS as standardized, highly automated infrastructure services owned by cloud service providers (CSPs) and offered to USAID on demand.
Before the award, the USAID engineering team performed an analysis of alternatives (AoA) backed by thorough market research. The AoA recommended a hybrid cloud solution to meet USAID’s EDC/DR requirements.
A high-level design that could connect to both public and government IaaS CSP was proposed in the AoA by the engineering team. It suggested two co-locations on opposite ends of the country to ensure operational and geophysical redundancy. A RFQ (Request for Quote) guided by the AoA and EDC/DR requirements was released for competition. The acquisition was structured so that the co-location IaaS solution was purchased as a commodity owned by the CSP. In this modern virtual data center, USAID leverages high availability system components as a Disaster Recovery solution without additional costs.
Solution Acquired, Results Analyzed
The result is a fully scalable virtual data center, with dynamic policy-driven services and improved performance. All of this comes at a 30% lower cost for operations and maintenance.
With cloud, USAID now can use multiple data centers’ hosting systems, services, applications, and storage without relying on any particular geographic location.
This is critical given that USAID leads the U.S. government’s international development and disaster assistance work in over 80 countries around the globe. These efficiency gains have enabled reinvestment in more advanced and innovative technologies. USAID has matured to being 100% cloud-enabled, using all service models. With no legacy systems to support, the agency can move to new, modern solutions in a much more agile fashion than other federal departments that are weighed down by aging systems and infrastructure.
What Does Your Mission Require?
As a facilitator of USAID’s cloud accomplishments, GSA is here to help your agency use the cloud to achieve its long-term mission and strategic goals. This includes aligning with federal mandates like the new CloudSmart Strategy and leveraging government-wide tools to modernize your IT infrastructure.
To help discover ways that GSA can enable your agency’s mission through cloud, contact cloudinfo@gsa.gov, visit our Cloud Information Center at gsa.gov/cic, or use our IT Solutions Navigator to find the vehicle that’s right for you.
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This August, we brought nearly 300 representatives from government and industry together for our 2019 IT Acquisition Summit. Collaborative events like this are critical to our success in supporting agency missions across government.
We met in Fort Worth, home of GSA’s Greater Southwest Region 7, which spans Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. We used a human-centered design approach to generate open communication and collaboration between GSA and our industry partners. Learning through use-cases and sharing information helps us better understand the challenges and constraints both government and industry have.
The summit was held in coordination with the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC) and moderated by its president, Tom Suder. During the first day, attendees heard from various GSA and industry representatives on popular topics such as cybersecurity, mobility, 5G, emerging tech, and IT modernization.
Dennis Shingleton, member of the City Council and mayor pro tempore, opened the summit with a boisterous Texas-style welcome.
I moderated the kick-off session with panelists Bill Zielinski, Assistant Commissioner of the IT Category; Anahita Reilly, Chief Customer Officer of the Office of Customer Experience; and Dominic Sale, Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Operations for Technology Transformation Services. They discussed GSA’s approach to IT modernization, category management, and shared services.
An afternoon panel from the Mobility Services Category Team discussed the 5G rollout, how it will shape public-sector adoption of Internet of Things applications, and its implications for supply chain security. Allen Hill, director of the Office of Telecommunications, opened the session, and Sam Navarro, program manager of the Enterprise Mobility Program, moderated the panel. Representatives from AT&T, Verizon, MetTel, and T-Mobile discussed the state of mobile technology and how consumers of 5G determine the new ways they will use the technology.
Our summit concluded with opportunities to attend one-on-one sessions with GSA acquisition professionals and an interactive use-case workshop.
We plan on hosting the IT Acquisition Summit again in 2020 — slated for Washington, D.C. The open communication and collaboration in a focused setting foster the type of game-changing ideas we need to continue enhancing IT acquisition for the whole of government.
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In July, we gave you a first look at the possibilities of 5th generation wireless technology (5G) in the public sector.
Commercially, 5G devices will deliver voice, video, and data to consumers with unparalleled efficiency for broadband mobility. Providers will upgrade their networks, manufacturers will develop new types of devices, and industry will market products and services around connectivity and mobility.
For the government, a 5G future is more complex since we’ll be tasked with making these technologies useful for everyone. That’s why we’re publishing a white paper on 5G — watch for that after our 5G Technology Customer Event on Oct. 3.
What’s Next for Government 5G
As new technology comes to market, we work with agencies and industry to pair the right wireless solutions to mission needs — focusing on wireless solutions security and cost efficiency.
