Agencies appear increasingly willing to turn some of their IT operations over to industry in a contractor-owned, contractor-operated (COCO) arrangement.
Making such a shift is an opportune time to evaluate the IT operations in questions and ensure they are serving the agency’s mission, said Richard Blake, senior technologist with the General Services Administration’s Office of Integrated Technology Services.
It’s also important for the government agency to indicate ownership of all solution components and outline a clear and measureable transition path when a vendor is substituted or replaced, according to Blake and Stan Kaczmarczyk, GSA’s director of the cloud computing services program management office.
Otherwise, “critical assets may be compromised,” the two said in a statement. This explicit information needs to be laid out in the solicitation, not left for later, they added.
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