As the Navy gears up to re-compete a massive networking contract, service leaders say they are looking to bring a broader group of players to the table this time around.
The Hewlett-Packard Co. won the current Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) contract in 2013. With NGEN set to expire in June 2018, the Navy is considering dividing up the $3.5 billion contract among multiple vendors, whose efforts would encompass the government-owned Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), the Marine Corps Enterprise Network and the worldwide OneNet.
“We are trying to align with industry best practices today and in the future,” said Naval Enterprise Networks Program Manager Capt. Michael Abreu. “The areas we are focusing on are intended to allow us more flexibility, more speed to outcome and potentially lower cost of ownership.”
Toward the cloud
In looking at ways to break down the behemoth contract, planners say they believe it should be possible to handle end-user hardware as a discrete item within the larger contract. “We believe we can approach that in a semi-commoditized manner, which is how industry is approaching that today,” Abreu said.
Still, the idea of a separate hardware buy – in fact the entire premise of a multi-piece contract – is not yet set in stone. Navy has been meeting extensively with industry trying to determine how best to go about structuring the contract, a process that still is ongoing. There have been multiple industry days as well as three formal requests for information, the last issued in July.
“We have had multiple engagements with the user community and we also are learning lessons internally from how we are doing business today,” Abreu said. “We see a need for greater network awareness and situational visibility from the operations perspective, so we are focusing very closely on that. There is also the demand for mobility.”
The wish list goes on from there, as planners consider the needs of a contract that will ultimately provide IT services to more than 700,000 Navy and Marine Corps users.
One area under close consideration is that of cloud-based services. As the RFI points out, “the Navy is expected to use cloud-based technologies to more efficiently deliver services and support applications.” Vendors are asked to detail their vision, describing their optimal approach to a cloud transition and their ideal strategies for driving user acceptance of a cloud-based approach.
“There are services that are being provided today that would transition to cloud productivity,” Abreu said. “So I might be using Microsoft Office products today, and tomorrow those might be in a Microsoft cloud. That would mean that I as the end user no longer have to provision that through my infrastructure, but there would also have to be a methodical transition to that.”
Planners also are looking at cloud solutions to application-hosting needs on the network. While the capability exists to host applications on the commercial cloud, Navy needs to sort through the complexities of the marketplace to determine which applications might fit well in which clouds.
“That means trying to find good homes for all Navy applications at competitive price points,” Abreu said.
Whatever configurations eventually emerge, they will all need to work seamlessly together. “We are going to make that an explicit requirement on the re-compete contract,” Abreu said. “The end user should not know and should not care who is on the back end delivering those capabilities. The network needs to work for the end user and for the commander every day.”
Seamless integration extends beyond the day-to-day needs of the end user. As they work to structure the NGEN contract, planners also are looking at how the end result will dovetail with other military networking efforts, including the Joint Information Environment (JIE), the Defense Department’s vision for a unified command, control, communications and computing enterprise information environment. This in turn drives the need to work within the parameters of the Joint Regional Security Stacks, or JRSS.
In so far as NGEN will determine the architecture and technology behind NMCI, there is a need to be responsive to these larger-scale networking dynamics evolving across the military. To this end, “we are diligently improving out security requirements” in formulating NGEN, Abreu said.
“Today we are planning to test at a small scale toward the end of this calendar year, with further testing and analysis toward the end of 2017 that will inform our future approach to how we will address the JRSS in 2018 and beyond,” he said. “We want to flesh out the specifics of how we want to architect this and what capabilities we want.”
Other defense-wide constraints also come into play. The Pentagon, for example, has mandated Windows 10 as the de facto future operating system, something NGEN planners say they are working to accommodate. “The DoD mandate, and our intention, is to get to Windows 10 in January 2018, and that is well before the end of the NGEN contact. That will be done before the recomplete,” Abreu said.
Virtualized solutions
In step with trends across private industry, Naval Enterprise Networks also is taking a deep dive into the realm of virtualization, which will likely be a driving force in the next NGEN contract. Navy already operates a limited number of virtual desktops, and it’s probable the service will be looking to extend that capability – but the “how” remains a work in progress.
“To get to a virtualized infrastructure will require a massive change on the enterprise infrastructure side of the house,” Abreu said. “We believe those environments will offer greater capability for the same or less cost, but to have that capability work properly is a big shift for us.”
Part of the challenge here lies in bringing multiple new tools to the table simultaneously. If the networks are going to migrate to the cloud, for example, how does that impact the push to virtualize? It is probably possible to do both, “but we are looking to see what that mix should be, what the balance can be for any future contract,” Abreu said.
All these efforts to re-envision NGEN come against the backdrop of a contract that already has been largely successful, according to the Navy’s own estimation.
“NGEN provides increased contract flexibility, government oversight, plus command and control, security and competition at a lower cost,” John Zangardi, then-acting Navy CIO and deputy assistant secretary for C4I & Space, told the House Armed Services Committee in February.
NGEN has accomplished “a few really great things,” Abreu said. “We have saved over $1.2 billion through competition. We took government control of the network. We have great command and control capability, and we have a business model that we have been working to optimize.”
Looking ahead, he said, Naval Enterprise Networks is tasked to design the next NGEN iteration not just to satisfy the present-day needs, but also to take advantage of emerging opportunities. It’s much the same challenge as may be seen in the commercial sector.
“The problem is no different than any other large-scale network provider is facing,” Abreu said. “Stakeholder interest changes and evolves. Technology advances quickly over time, and industry trends change over time. We’re looking at how all those demand signals are changing and trying to ensure that we architect the next-generation contract to meet those changing demands.”
The Navy anticipates releasing the initial draft RFP for end-user hardware by March 2017. Other draft RFPs in the NGEN re-compete should follow during 2017.
Inside the Navy’s push to broaden NGEN re-compete
