The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a $495 million contract to Verizon to provide high-speed and secure network services to assist the agency’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) and Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN).
Verizon’s network support would include “switch, router, firewall, and Edge Compute capabilities, connecting 200 different Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) laboratories and High Performance Computing (HPC) locations across the United States and beyond,” according to a press release.
The secure network would provide DoD with speeds of up to 100Gbps and even 400Gbps, allowing DoD teams to work together in near real-time. The contract has a four-year base period and three two-year option periods.
“Investments across Verizon’s enterprise business enable the kind of tailored solutions our team will deliver to the U.S. Department of Defense and the Defense Research and Engineering Network,” Jennifer Chronis, senior vice president for the public sector at Verizon, said in the release. “Our managed services solutions will create a next-generation user experience for research teams utilizing the DREN platform while also enhancing security across the network.”
The DREN is a high-speed fiber optic network that allows military supercomputers and teams to connect and collaborate in research, engineering, and testing efforts. The HPCMP provides high-performance computing abilities to the DoD, increasing the productivity of the RDT&E community.
