The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has issued an update to its request for information (RFI) seeking industry input as it looks to invest in ship-mounted cloud computing infrastructure as part of the Navy’s broader future strategy for network-centric naval warfare.
In the original Aug. 25 RFI, NAVSEA turned to the private sector for help on migrating away from its current systems and data. Specifically, the Navy said it is looking for information on how to – with a private sector vendor – architect, implement, and migrate to a universally managed computing infrastructure (CI) delivered as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), enabling Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), to support the Surface Navy fielding in 2023 and thereafter. In a March 18 update, NAVSEA provided answers to questions submitted by the private sector.
The Navy said that the edge cloud architecture using IaaS is comprised of networked equipment; network, compute, and storage components; and the underlying software IaaS layer that provisions the CI resources to mission applications and other Navy components that will reside on the CI.
In the update, NAVSEA said it hasn’t placed an estimated value on the contract, but rather the “estimated value of resulting contract(s) is dependent on [the] scope of proposed solutions and capability of [the] potential performer(s) to address government requirements.”
When asked about their overall approach to security, specifically if they are considering implementing a “security from day one” approach, NAVSEA said that “security is intended to be an inherent and integral part of the IaaS, and must support a security control inheritance model.” Further, “the IaaS is intended to provide a layered security approach to meet as many security controls as possible at the network and infrastructure level, reducing the security control burden on platform services and applications that reside on the infrastructure.” NAVSEA also clarified that the new solution will be deployed on computing infrastructures with varying levels of classification, but did not list specific classification levels.
NAVSEA also announced that they do not have an estimated timeline for when it will release a request for proposal.
