By Calvin Biesecker
The Navy “imminently” expects to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the first of five segments for a secure enterprise network that will succeed the Navy Marine Corp Intranet (NMCI), a service official said yesterday.
The RFP is for the Independent Security Operations Oversight Assessment of the Next Generation Enterprise (NGEN) program and will provide the Navy and Marine Corps with a vendor to conduct independent validation and verification (IV&V) of the current NMCI and the NGEN, which is expected to begin operating in 2014, Capt. Timothy Holland, the Navy’s NGEN program manger, said during a conference call with media.
The NMCI contract was awarded to the former Electronic Data Systems in 2000 and resulted in a shore-based enterprise network for the Department of the Navy in the continental United States and Hawaii. NMCI represents about 70 percent of all Navy information technology operations and serves more than 700,000 users and 384,000 workstations and laptop computers. Hewlett-Packard [HPQ] acquired EDS in 2008.
In July, the Navy awarded HP a potential $3.4 billion Continuity of Services Contract for NMCI, which allowed for network operations to continue after the original contract expired on Sept. 30 and for a “controlled” transition to NGEN, Capt. Scott Weller, the NMCI program manager, said during the call. The contract also enabled the Navy to purchase intellectual property from HP to execute NGEN and to acquire from HP as needed any of the NMCI infrastructures for NGEN, he said.
NGEN is essentially the same network at NMCI, at least from the get-go. It will allow the Navy and Marine Corps to sustain the NMCI at a minimum at its current level of service, provide continued information assurance, add the IV&V capability for the Navy, and get command and control of the network, Holland said.
But whereas NMCI relied on a single contractor who owned the intellectual property and much of the network, NGEN has a different acquisition process that will give the Navy the authority over when and how to introduce new technologies onto the network, Holland said.
NGEN will include at least two vendors. The vendor for the security operations segment must be independent, guaranteeing that there will be at least two contractors on the program, Holland said.
Holland said a contract award for the independent security operations component of NGEN is expected in spring 2011 with execution beginning shortly after.
An RFP for the second segment of NGEN, Transport Services, is being finalized although still requires more approvals before it is released, Holland said. Industry is currently reviewing a draft of the forthcoming request with the final expected to be issued after Jan. 1, 2011, he said.
The Transport Services that will be contracted out is for infrastructure, both hardware and software, between base posts and stations, Holland said. The Defense Information Systems Agency controls the wide area portion of the network, which is not being recompeted.
The third segment to NGEN is end user hardware such as desktop and laptop computers, which is being worked by the Marine Corps and will be acquired using other government contracting vehicles, Holland said. The RFP for this is expected late next spring or early next summer with awards in late 2011 and into 2012, he said.
Enterprise software licensing represents the fourth segment, which in a nutshell is the “CD that goes into every machine and makes it work,” Holland said. The NGEN program is using the DoD Enterprise Software Initiative as the “primary vehicle for getting our licenses,” he said. The software license awards are also expected in late 2011 and into 2012, he added.
The final segment is for Enterprise Services Support and Coordination, which brings together the software licenses and end user hardware to create the experience for the end user, Holland said. The RFP for this component is expected at the latest to be released a year from now, he said.
So the transport infrastructure will begin in about a year and the enterprise services support about nine months later, Holland said.