The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) housed within the Department of Education is seeking support for its cloud hosting, system administration, and website support and development.
Currently, IES maintains a virtual data center with approximately 60 virtual servers which hosts web servers, database servers, a vast array of websites and data-driven web applications, a system management and web development environment, terminal servers housing analytical and statistical software, and other system support servers. According to the statement of work (SOW), the offeror must provide access to its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS); system administration and support staff; website administration and development staff; and system, security, and analytical software.
“The Contractor shall provide system operations support staff, able to perform their work off-site. Support staff shall have experience working with systems in a Federal owned data center and demonstrate an understanding through past performance of government IT mandates, regulations, and best practices,” the SOW said.
Additionally, the contractor must provide a cost-effective infrastructure “that meets Federal IT security requirements and utilizes industry standards and best practices,” along with the following:
- Assume cloud account ownership from incumbent contractor, including gaining full control of all IES-owned system resources and accounts;
- Provide cloud services currently utilized in the IES Data Center, and provide the ability to expand cloud services as usage demands change over time;
- Provide access to cloud services that meets or exceeds FISMA requirements for information systems categorized FIPS-199 defined Moderate and complies with FedRAMP requirements;
- Provide a solution that is physically located within the continental United States;
- Provide physical colocation space to house MTIPS security equipment and cross-connect provider circuits;
- Provide a robust, fault-tolerant infrastructure that would allow for a high availability of 99.9 percent and a one-hour recovery time after failure; and
- Provide technical documentation required for certification and accreditation.
