State Department deploying SD-WAN with $711M EIS contract to MetTel
The State Department plans to deploy a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) supported by a $711 million task order awarded to MetTel.
A New York City-based small business, MetTel will provide a fully meshed and managed layer-3 multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network using a virtual private network (VPN), it announced Tuesday.
The 13-year task order was awarded under the $50 billion Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract as the State Department looks to modernize its IT and telecommunications infrastructure ahead of the Networx contract expiring March 31, 2023.
“MetTel has a demonstrated track record of successfully transforming legacy networks with a fully-managed service to achieve increased performance and access next-generation capabilities,” said Robert Dapkiewicz, senior vice president and general manager of MetTel Federal.
The State Department’s Telecommunications, Wireless and Data (TWD) Services Division manages equipment and maintenance of unclassified voice and data telecom. A diverse wide-area network will support the division’s work by integrating network connectivity across the department’s locations in the U.S., Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Canada.
Additional foreign sites may be added as the department transforms its network into a contractor-managed, hybrid SD-WAN overlay.
MetTel will also provide data, ethernet transport and Internet Protocol services, which State Department officials can monitor via its EIS portal.
The company has now secured a dozen EIS task orders in 2020 from six Cabinet-level agencies and six smaller agencies and Native American tribes exceeding $1.3 billion. Other agencies MetTel is working with include the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, General Services Administration, and Social Security Administration.
