The Protection Division announced plans in October to maneuver its main biometrics database wholesale to a cloud atmosphere, particularly Amazon Net Companies’ GovCloud. Nonetheless, a brand new replace to the solicitation has broadened the scope of the migration contract to incorporate different cloud service suppliers.
In an October request for data and subsequent efficiency work assertion, program managers for the Automated Biometric Identification System, or ABIS, outlined necessities for shifting your entire program to cloud.
The present atmosphere is cut up between DOD-owned, on-premise methods and AWS-hosted cloud backups. Underneath the most recent effort, DOD plans to maneuver the principle operational environments to the cloud and start a set of main functionality enhancements.
The solicitation posted to beta.SAM.gov outlines the division’s plans for Biometric Enabling Functionality Increment 1, the second part of a program that acquired its begin in 2007 with Increment 0, which resulted within the launch of ABIS v1.2 in 2014. Since that point, this system has upgraded ABIS to model 1.3 and established plans to broaden the system with new capabilities and a cloud structure that permits world entry.
The system accommodates 18 million biometric identifier data—together with face, fingerprint, iris and others—principally related to enemy combatants.
Within the seek for a vendor to handle the total cloud migration, the PWS cites the present cloud vendor—AWS—and in a number of cases refers to “GovCloud,” the title of an AWS’ cloud providing particularly tailor-made for presidency businesses.
“The contractor shall develop and execute a Cloud Transition Plan emigrate on-premise DOD ABIS to an IL5 licensed GovCloud and the [non-production/development environment] to an IL2 licensed GovCloud,” in a piece titled “Transition DOD ABIS to the Cloud.”
Additional, below the Operations and Sustainment activity, the PWS requires offerors “function and maintain DOD ABIS cloud operational environments—i.e. any atmosphere that makes use of stay biometrics information—in an IL5 GovCloud atmosphere,” including that “AWS is the present cloud supplier utilized by” the product supervisor for the Biometrics Enabling Functionality.
Nonetheless, an amendment issued Nov. 19 informed distributors that internet hosting in AWS won’t be a part of the requirement.
The modification supplied few particulars however pointed offerors to a forthcoming questions and solutions doc posted Nov. 20.
“Is there a selected technical justification for naming AWS all through the requirement versus different accredited cloud suppliers?” the primary query asks.
“No,” program managers responded. “The system integrator’s proposal will decide the cloud service supplier. The federal government’s curiosity is in the very best worth proposition to satisfy the federal government’s necessities. The RFI Draft PWS Part 3.2.7.1,” quoted above, “precisely displays the federal government’s place on the necessities for cloud providers. The present system integrator subcontracted AWS because the CSP.”
This identical sentiment and language are used to deal with related questions all through the Q&A doc, reiterating at occasions that “Modification 0002 states that there is no such thing as a model title specification to solely AWS.”
According to the Defense Information Systems Agency, 5 corporations at the moment provide cloud infrastructure providers at IL5: AWS GovCloud (excessive), IBM SmartCloud for Authorities (reasonable), Microsoft Azure DOD (excessive), MilCloud 2.0 CSRA (excessive) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Authorities Cloud (reasonable).
Based on the Q&A doc, the primary request for proposal is about “to be issued no earlier than” the third quarter of fiscal 2021.
The Nov. 19 modification additionally pushed the response date for the RFI out to Dec. 4.
