Notice ID: RFQ1694175
GSA’s Information Technology Category is moving forward with the next steps for the Ascend Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) Pool 1. Ascend is a competitive, multiple-award, multi-agency BPA that addresses the governmentwide need for cloud solutions, including:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud solutions;
- Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud solutions; and,
- Cloud related IT professional services.
The Draft PWS and associated documents can be found on eBuy under RFQ1694175.
It remains GSA’s intent to award the Ascend BPA in a phased manner as a featured part of GSA’s Cloud Marketplace. We plan to make multiple awards in each pool, each with its own specific scope that will allow all federal agencies and other eligible entities to acquire and implement secure, integrated commercial IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS cloud solutions, including cloud-focused labor services.
Objectives. The ASCEND BPA will support the strategic sourcing of cloud services (i.e., IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and cloud related IT professional services from authorized vendors, authorized vendors are defined as those that currently hold a multiple award schedule, that meet or exceed applicable legislation, regulations, standards, policies, guidance, and government and industry best practices. This will result in the procurement of compliant, secure, and efficiently / effectively managed cloud services and cloud related IT professional services.
The ASCEND BPA will establish baseline requirements for acquisition, business, data, environmental, sustainability, operational and technical requirements.
The BPA will also establish baseline cybersecurity requirements ensuring procured cloud services and cloud related IT professional services are continuously and securely operated and maintained for CIA, cybersecurity responsibilities and liabilities are appropriately allocated and assigned, and authorized vendors have appropriate cybersecurity incident coordination (e.g., CISA, DoD, FBI), mitigation, and remediation capabilities.
The BPA establishes baseline governance requirements ensuring procured cloud services and cloud related IT professional services are procured through streamlined acquisitions procedures, maximize cost avoidance and cost savings (e.g., BIC, CM), are effectively efficiently operated and managed (e.g., DevSecOps, FinOps), and leverage the full capabilities and investments of the Federal Government (e.g., EPA, FedRAMP, GSA, DCAS).
The BPA will support the administrative agency’s General Services Administration (GSA) mission to provide a governmentwide acquisition vehicle (i.e., strategic source) that streamlines the acquisition process, leverages the buying power of the FederalGovernment, and procures compliant, secure, and effectively / efficiently managed services.
Scope.The BPA allows eligible users to procure cloud services and cloud related IT professional services. Cloud services throughout this BPA refers to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) unless otherwise specified.
The BPA is partitioned into three (3) primary pools; Pool 1: Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (IaaS, PaaS), Pool 2: Software as a Service (SaaS), Pool 3: Cloud Related IT Professional Services) with each primary pools’ scope further partitioned into discrete and defined sub-pools.
The administrative agency shall define sub-pools (e.g., requirements) and add sub-pools to the BPA over the lifetime of the BPA ordering period.
The sub-pools shall be independently solicited and competitively awarded based on the sub-pool’s respective requirements (e.g., cybersecurity, evaluation criteria, technical) defined by the administrative agency.
The period of performance for this draft PWS is a base period of 3 years, Option 1 of 3 years and two additional option years.
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