Companies Vie to Update FBI Computers

Three companies will compete for tasks to upgrade and modernize computer systems for the Federal Bureau of Investigations under a contract valued at $290 million over five years.

Apptis and GTSI, both of Chantilly, and Intelligent Decisions of Ashburn will compete for work under the contract.

The modernization effort is a continuation of an initiative launched in 2000 to update the agency's PCs, laptops, printers, servers and applications. The technology refresh program, as the initiative is called, will set new technology standards for the FBI, including criteria for commercial products, said Tom Kennedy, vice president of sales for GTSI. The contract is intended to ensure technology at the FBI does not become obsolete.

"The FBI wants to have a well-thought-out, planned, life-cycle management system for its infrastructure, and the technology refresh program is the contract to facilitate that," Kennedy said.

Systems at FBI headquarters and its field offices will be a part of the program. The FBI plans to modernize 20 percent of its information technology hardware annually under the contract, GTSI officials said.

Federal agencies modernizing and standardizing technology is a trend, and GTSI has been doing work in the bureau's other offices, Kennedy said.

Under the FBI contract, GTSI will create a Web portal that will show agency users the new technology standards so they can make purchasing decisions.

"The contract mostly covers core IT systems, but we think this will evolve in the future to include a lot more specialized programs," said Kyle Myers, GTSI's senior client executive.

A five-year road map for technology at the FBI includes implementing emerging technologies such as thin-client computing. Rather than having applications and data loaded on a computer's hard drive, thin-client computing moves all that to servers in a data room. Intelligence agencies like the technology because sensitive data isn't left on laptops and PCs that can get lost or stolen.

Thin clients will be tested in small pilot projects and then spread across the agency if the pilots are successful, Myers said.

While the program will set standards, it is also flexible enough so the FBI will have access to the most current technology, Kennedy said.

"They left it open, so it does not rigidly require just one kind of PC," he said, noting that there are different levels of standardization. "It is great to see the FBI taking this step -- it is really important."

Doug Beizer is a staff writer at Washington Technology. For more news on government contracts, seehttp://www.washingtontechnology.com.