IBM recently announced that the United States Department of the Interior awarded it a 10-year contract to migrate the DOI's IT systems to a cloud computing environment. The $1 billion contract will commence with an exploratory phase, as the hosted solutions provider and the DOI will work together to determine the best course of action for the agency. Eventually services could include a hosted cloud environment and a bevy of managed services to take care of the DOI's growing data, IT and application needs.
"IBM has been delivering trusted and secure cloud services to business and government clients for decades, and working with virtualization technologies for more than 40 years," stated Anne Altman, General Manager, IBM US Federal. "Our Cloud offerings are backed by a long history of successful work in hardware, software and services wrapped in world renowned security offerings, unmatched R&D, and secure supply chains. We're committed to infusing these capabilities, proven security and reliability, and leading-edge technology into our work with the US Department of the Interior over the next decade."
Partnership Builds on IBM's History Providing Solutions to Federal Agencies
The DOI's affiliation with IBM is part of a larger effort by federal agencies to curb their IT spending. Specifically, the DOI is shifting away from fixed legacy asset management to an outsourced IT management model that they hope will better prioritize the department's use of mission-critical applications and reduce or eliminate superfluous elements. The DOI made a public commitment to leverage this methodology to save $100 million per year from 2016 to 2021, which they can use to buoy new investing potential.
Several factors contributed to the DOI's selection of IBM over other managed solutions providers. Foremost is the company's experience with federal agencies and data centers that are compliant with the Federal Information Security Act and additional Department of Defense regulations. The company has also been open to structuring a ownership and operating plan that fits within the needs of a particularly agency, helping federal organizations to establish facilities that are either directly owned by the government and operated through a contractor, federal data centers for lease or facilities owned and secured by IBM.
IBM also offers a variety of state-of-the-art data center design components, including top-notch energy efficiency, lower hardware costs and optimal floor space usage, that help federal agencies achieve maximum operations potential on closely monitored budgets, the organization reported on its website. Additionally, the company offers Virginia data centers in close proximity to DOI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and also has an Application on Demand data center nearby in Sterling, Va.
