The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded Lumen Technologies an 11-year task order worth more than $1.2 billion to modernize the agency’s IT infrastructure with “a fully integrated wide-area data transport service with secure remote access, contact center, and cloud connectivity solutions.”
The task order was awarded under the General Services Administration’s 15-year, $50 billion Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) program. The contract will impact nearly 100,000 USDA employees and more than 9,500 USDA locations across the country and abroad.
“One of America’s largest cabinet agencies chose Lumen to securely modernize its network and IT services. We’re excited to help the USDA benefit from today’s digital technologies that are transforming farming into precision agriculture,” Zain Ahmed, senior vice president at Lumen public sector, said in a press release.
“Lumen is bringing modern technology solutions that will make it easier for the USDA to accomplish its mission of promoting the production of nutritious food that nourishes our people, providing economic opportunity to rural Americans, and preserving our nation’s natural resources through smart forest and watershed conservation,” Ahmed added.
USDA will now have managed network, managed security, and voice solutions that support speeds up to 100 gigabits per second.
These solutions include: “software-defined wide area network services (SD-WAN); managed trusted internet protocol services (MTIPS); zero-trust networking solutions; edge computing and remote access solutions; virtual private network services; cloud connectivity; unified communications and collaboration solutions; contact center solutions; voice over internet protocol (VoIP), wireless and satellite services; ethernet transport; optical wavelength solutions” and more.
