NASA awards $2.9B IT services contract to Leidos
NASA has awarded a follow-on IT services contract worth $2.9 billion to Leidos.
Under the contract, dubbed NEST — short for NASA End-user Services & Technologies —Leidos will provide, manage and secure the space agency’s IT services with a focus on end-user computing, software, mobile services and any associated infrastructure.
NEST follows in the footsteps of the preceding ACES contract held by HP Enterprise Services, which faced some challenges in 2016 regarding an authority to operate.
The End-User Services Program Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will manage the contract to be used by all NASA offices.
NASA describes the contract as “transformational” in procurement documents.
“NASA desires to move from a traditional PC (thick client) to a model that is more flexible in addressing customer requirements,” the original solicitation says. “We seek to achieve the goals of supporting the NASA workforce in a device agnostic, mobile friendly environment with built-in security and cloud-based resources. We envision a secure edge computing model similar to eBanking.”
The contract will kick off with a two-year, three-month base period, followed by a two-year option, another one-year option, and then five one-year award term options. If all options are exercised, the contract will expire May 31, 2029, the space agency says.
The procurement award comes just months after a NASA system was breached. The agency said that an unauthorized user accessed a server containing Social Security numbers and personally identifiable information on current and former employees last October.
