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Microsoft Wins Homeland Security Contract
syzme writes "According to The Register (as well as Reuters and News.com), 'The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has signed a deal for Microsoft software worth something in the region of $100 million, covering servers and over 140,000 desktops. This does not however mean that Microsoft and its hench-OEM Dell are poised to hoover up all of the Department's lovely IT budget, nor indeed that this is all new money for them; largely, it seems to be more a case of Microsoft holding onto business it's already got.'" This shouldn't be much of a surprise -- remember the Federal government is already Microsoft's biggest customer.
that DHS already has many Open Source (and non-MS) apps widely deployed... They are extensively using Apache, Squid, Open Office (in some places) and things like Java for other day to day operations...
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Some of their integration efforts are mentioned here:
http://www.govexec.com/features/1202/1202manage
(Disclaimer: I work for DHS.)
The RFP (Request for Proposal) should be public information. They're not always easy to find, but they're out there.
Bids, on the other hand, are usually confidential. Pricing models, extra services offered, exact numbers of everything is not available to make sure that bidders don't game (ie, low-ball) their bid to kill the other guy.
... courtesy of the rejected post machine. The government sector news sites are always good - and usually better - for details about contracts of this sort:
Microsoft/Dell Gets $90-$120 Million Homeland Security Contract
Microsoft has been awarded the five-year, $90 million Department of Homeland Security contract for desktop and server software. The contract will be managed by Dell and will provide the DHS with 140,000 desktops running Windows XP and Microsoft Office Professional. When consolidated with current agreements, the contract amounts to a six-year agreement covering 144,000 desktops, worth between $110 million and $120 million. This follows the $478 million, six-year deal with the Army announced last month. More at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Washington Post, InformationWeek, the Register , eWEEK, and Reuters.
If you file a FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request you can get the winning bid (even if you can't find it on a website). Just call the DHS Contracting office and ask them for it. If they refuse ask them to give you the number of the person who handles FOIA requests in their department. I looked at the DHS website and there are several contact #'s so I don't know which one should be contacted...
also anyone see this?
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has landed a $470-plus million contract to issue software to the U.S. Army. Bloomberg reported it was the "biggest order ever for the company's programs. The deal covers 494,000 desktop computers, Microsoft spokesman Keith Hodson said. The Army will buy the software from a Microsoft reseller, Softmart, based in Downingtown, Pa. Hodson declined to say how the companies will divide the revenue," the wire service said.
from july 25, 2003
They shouldn't even have a KVM. If you work on a government site, you get more slack than a contractor, but you still usually have to have an air-barrier between machines of different classifications. Same thing applies for projects of different classifications, usually.
Contractors negotiate the level of seperation, but it's not uncommon that machines of different classification aren't allowed in the same room as each other.
Since businesses usually purchase a volume license, businesses needed an option not to buy Windows again. To get around this, Dell will ship computers with a lite version of DOS. You can't really do much with this version of DOS, but if your company is installing your volume license anyways, you don't need it.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.