IBM has signed a $1 billion IT with the United States Department of the Interior (US DOI).
The technology major will assist US DOI for its IT transformation to a cloud computing model.
As per the 10-year agreement, the U.S. department will use IBM cloud computing technologies, services and hosting as the foundation of their next generation infrastructure.
The US DOI will leverage IBM expertise in data storage, secure file transfer, virtual machines, database, web hosting, development testing and SAP Application Hosting.
The Department will also be able to tap IBM’s Smart Cloud for Government hosted at the IBM Federal Data Center, the Smart Cloud for Enterprise (SCE) commercial offerings and the very cost competitive IBM AIX Cloud.
“Our Cloud offerings are backed by a long history of work in hardware, software and services wrapped in world renowned security offerings, unmatched R&D, and secure supply chains,” said Anne Altman, general manager, IBM US Federal.
Other US government agencies can also gain access to these IBM Cloud solutions via the DOI Foundation Cloud Hosting Services vehicle.
The vehicle also allows request for quotes/task orders to be issued on behalf of other government customers including both civilian agencies and the Department of Defense.
The sixteen Bureaus and Offices spend in excess of $1 billion a year on IT.
The department is shifting to a management model for IT that moves from fixed to variable, assets to services and mission impact instead of IT service metrics.
IBM says the department has a public commitment to save $100 million a year from 2016 to 2021 and then use those savings to fund investments in new business capabilities and applications.
The Interior Department awarded similar pacts to nine other suppliers, including Lockheed Martin. Other winners include CGI Group, Verizon Communications, Unisys and AT&T.
The deals might reach a total of $10 billion, allowing the agency to speed its efforts to move information to the cloud, the Web-based pool of shared resources such as data storage and software. Other U.S. departments may eventually tap the program.
Recently, IBM lost a $600 million cloud contract to Amazon.com with the Central Intelligence Agency.
