The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is asking technology vendors for input on whether to expand its enterprise cloud environment beyond its current two providers.
In a request for information (RFI) published on Oct. 28, the VA asked for insight into the potential benefits of adding more Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High certified cloud service providers (CSPs) to the VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC).
Specifically, the VA wants to know if those benefits would “outweigh potential duplicative up-front and ongoing sustainment costs,” according to the RFI.
Currently, the VAEC consists of two FedRAMP High CSPs, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Together, they support roughly 757 VA applications and systems, including the Veterans Health Information System Technology Architecture (VistA).
With more CSPs obtaining FedRAMP High certifications, the VA also wants to know how industry would approach “CSP alignment of applications/systems hosted in VAEC.” The department is seeking information on cost, risk, schedule, and operational and sustainment impacts of vendors’ recommended approaches.
The RFI also requests feedback on how to design contracts that allow for flexibility, incremental adoption of artificial intelligence, continuous innovation, and maximum cost efficiency.
The RFI follows the General Services Administration’s launch of FedRAMP 20x, a revamp effort focused on automation to accelerate the approval of secure cloud services.
Responses to the RFI are due by Nov. 12 at 10 a.m. EST.