Cloud Brokerage Services

Request for Information (RFI) Cloud Brokerage Services Issued: March 7, 2014 - 1.0 INTRODUCTION This Request for Information (RFI) is being issued to help the Department of Commerce (DOC) better understand current and future market solutions, availability of services, and industry best practices, related to procuring, migrating to, and managing cloud services. For the purposes of this RFI, the government defines a "cloud broker" vendor as an entity that manages the use, performance and delivery of cloud services, and negotiates relationships between Cloud Providers and Cloud Consumers.[1] Subsequent to the receipt of responses to this RFI the DOC may invite select RFI respondents to a technical interchange session to discuss their response with Government representatives. This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quotation (RFQ), or an invitation for bid, nor does its issuance obligate or restrict the Government to an eventual acquisition. All information received from this RFI will be used for Market Research purposes only. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses to this RFI nor otherwise reimburse vendors for the preparation of any information submitted or Government use of such information. Acknowledgement of receipt of responses will not be made, nor will respondents be notified regarding the outcome of the information received. - 1.1 BACKGROUND In today's budgetary environment, all government Departments must strive to spend taxpayer dollars as efficiently as possible. The DOC, like other Departments, faces the challenge of providing important services and products to the American people while simultaneously reducing costs. The DOC is comprised of 12 Bureaus of varying sizes and diverse missions. Presently, most Bureaus independently manage their own business systems and IT infrastructure and services (including web site infrastructure and support). Bureaus are currently in various stages of migrating different services and business systems to the cloud, with many still evaluating the potential for cloud services for new and existing requirements. Senior leaders at DOC believe savings, service level improvements, and security enhancements can be achieved by 1) moving more systems and services to the cloud and 2) taking a more collaborative approach to procuring and managing Cloud Services across the Department. A broad initiative is underway with several near-term objectives: Reduce the price DOC pays for Products and Services that can be provided through cloud solutions Provide increased quality of services Create opportunities for service expansion Streamline the acquisition process Enable future technological, process, and acquisition efficiencies Integrate with DOC Enterprise Architecture (EA) Enable mobile access and content management Specific Government objectives have also emerged that have unique requirements and challenges that have elevated Cloud Services requirements, i.e. the Open Government Directive and Cloud First Policy issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). These objectives include: Meet the Cloud First Policy established by the OMB Adhere to all statutory compliance measures (audit trails, rules-based policy enforcement, etc.) Integrate previously disparate departments and isolated information systems Centralize shared services Realize Cost Savings Meet mandated security compliance, including FIPS 199 and NIST C & A (National Institute of Science and Technology, Certification and Accreditation) Improve Customer Service and Marketing Outreach Enhance Performance Management and Analytics Enable Cradle to Grave Performance Tracking Facilitate Data Exchange - 2 - 2.0 RFI INSTRUCTIONS Responses should be submitted in Microsoft Word format and excluding attachments, and should not exceed five (5) pages with Arial font greater than or equal to 10 pt. Responses are to be submitted via e-mail to Kirk D. Boykin at contact@example.gov no later than 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time March 17, 2014. Approximately two (2) to four (4) weeks after receipt of RFI responses, and based on the quality, specificity, and thought leadership demonstrated in the RFI responses, DOC may invite select respondents to individually discuss their services and solutions and conduct a technical interchange at a place and time to be specified by DOC. - 3 - 3.0 RFI TOPIC AREAS Topic 1: Vendor Demographics DOC is interested in understanding the profile of the companies responding to this RFI. Accordingly, responses to the following questions are requested. Information Requested Response Organization Overview Organization Name NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) Codes Number of years of corporate experience Business Classification / Socio-Economic Status (e.g., large, small, 8(a), women owned, hub-zone, SDB, Service-Disabled Veteran Owned) Services Offered Describe your primary line of business In addition to cloud broker services, what additional cloud related services do you provide? Organization Size & Volume 2011 2012 Annual revenue Percentage of revenue derived from Federal government customers Approximate number of employees Geographic Scope To what geographies do you provide services (i.e., regional (specify region), national, international)? Topic 2: Cloud Broker Provided Services The Cloud Broker model is a relatively new concept and as such, capabilities and breadth of services of firms serving in this role continue to change. NIST defines a Cloud Broker as providing services in three categories[2]: Intermediation: A cloud broker enhances a given service by improving some specific capability and providing value-added services to cloud consumers. The improvement can be managing access to cloud services, identity management, performance reporting, enhanced security, etc. Aggregation: A cloud broker combines and integrates multiple services into one or more new services. The broker provides data integration and ensures the secure data movement between the cloud consumer and multiple cloud providers. Arbitrage: Service arbitrage is similar to service aggregation except that the services being aggregated are not fixed. Service arbitrage means a broker has the flexibility to choose services from multiple agencies. Questions for Industry What are the specific roles, functions and services your firm provides to customers as part of a cloud brokerage model? What are the benefits and cost savings opportunities provided to customers through this combination of services and functions? What are the risks to DOC through a cloud broker model? Please highlight any unique strategies or capabilities that your firm provides to successfully assist government agencies migrating services to the cloud and subsequently managing those services. Please provide a copy of your standard Cloud Brokerage Agreement, or equivalent. What are typical Service Level Agreements (SLAs) your firm uses for cloud broker services? Topic 3: Applicability of Cloud Broker Model The DOC is looking to implement several cloud related initiatives in the next several years, including migrating a majority if its 800 internal and external websites to the cloud. DOC is interested in gaining more information into the range of cloud services that would benefit from the cloud broker model, as well as value-added services that could be provided to increase cost savings and efficiencies. Questions for Industry What are the cloud services that you recommend would be best suited to being offered under a cloud broker model? What organizational environments or other constraints/restrictions would you suggest would not lend themselves to benefiting from the cloud broker model? Topic 4: Information for a Potential Acquisition As part of this initiative to migrate services to the cloud, DOC is evaluating the benefits of issuing a solicitation for Cloud Broker requirements. As such, DOC would like to understand the vendor community's perspective on several questions that may impact such an acquisition. Key Questions for Industry Given the size and variety of potential cloud migration efforts that could utilize a cloud broker, would you recommend a single or multi-vendor award to provide DOC with the best pricing and risk mitigation? Please explain your response. If a multi-year contract were to be put in place, how should pricing be structured to enable both vendors and DOC to manage risks and costs? What information and data do vendors require in order to develop a competitive and "high confidence" bid (i.e., estimates of total contract value, detailed descriptions of types of cloud initiatives, etc.)? [1] National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Reference Architecture, SP 500-292 [2] NIST Draft Definition of Broker