News
December 15th, 2011 – TechTrend has been supporting the FAA Data Center Consolidation Initiative (DCCI) and Cloud Services (FCS) programs, both of which are directly relevant to ED’s IT Infrastructure Acquisition Support project. Initially, the DCCI program scope of work included these activities:
- DCCI inventory database development and management
- DCCI metrics reporting
- Engineering support for planning and implementing data center consolidation approaches and architectures – TechTrend provided engineering support during the program Concept Development and Investment Analysis phase of the FAA Acquisition Management System (AMS). Our engineers worked closely with our acquisition lead to develop the architectural concept for the solicitation documents and supported the cost estimating of the technical requirements.
- Data center facilities engineering support
- Capacity modeling and planning for future IT growth – To right-size the technologies and services required by the Contractor and to provide a cost estimate in the IGCE, TechTrend used historical data of FAA’s legacy IT assets and applications/data portfolio to model the current capacity. Using this model, we projected the quantity of technologies and services required in the future based on the migration plan of IT systems to the new service provider(s).
- Determining total cost of ownership of the current infrastructure and alternatives – In support of the business case cost recommendation, TechTrend developed our independent cost model and leveraged the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cost model to estimate the total cost of ownership the current FAA infrastructure. These models also enabled us to model the costs of alternatives (e.g., status quo, new technologies and services, hybrid approach).
- Cost benefit analysis – For each alternative, TechTrend conducted a cost benefit analysis. Using the legacy environment and supporting contract as the basis, we quantified the benefits of the alternatives and the associated life-cycle costs.
- Alternatives analysis – There are various solutions that FAA can leverage to achieve the consolidated data center environment. TechTrend developed three range of alternatives that provides FAA executives engaged in making investment decisions with a basic understanding of each proposed alternative. It provides the technical basis for estimating lifecycle costs and benefits and supports development of rough order of magnitude (ROM) lifecycle cost estimates. Range of alternatives are potential viable solutions that will meet the technical and business requirements for migrating and consolidating legacy data centers’ servers, storage, applications and other IT assets.
- Requirements development – TechTrend led the requirements development for the DCCI program. We used market research data, collaboration with subject matter experts, consulted vendor neutral third party expertise to develop the DCCI requirements.
- Enterprise Architecture (EA) development
- Project schedule management – TechTrend provided project management support to the DCCI program office. We created the Integrated Master Schedule to manage and track project execution as well as to assign resources to specific work packages. We provided project and contract performance status via our Monthly Status Report as well as weekly and ad-hoc meeting with the Government lead and other stakeholders. We created executive level briefing materials and provided technical editing of official acquisition documentations.
The bolded activities are those that are directly relevant to IT Acquisition Support Services. These activities aligns to the FAA Acquisition Management System process to acquire solutions to address capability gaps. The recommended solution for DCCI was to acquire third party cloud computing services. The DCCI program morphed to the FCS program, which the initial phase was to develop requirements and acquire third party cloud services via a full and open competition. The FCS program is one of the most challenging and complex acquisition program due to its scope and depth of requirements and its overall impact to the FAA mission. The FCS program scope of work includes these activities:
- Program management – TechTrend continues to provide program management support to the FCS program office and stakeholders. We used PMBOK to guide our project management processes. We have been instrumental in facilitating and contributing to meetings across the FAA lines of businesses and staff offices.
- Technical requirements definition – TechTrend conducted and used market research data from DCCI and other FAA programs (e.g., National Airspace System’s RFI for Common Support Services – Cloud Services) to define and refine technical requirements. We performed technical editing to transformed raw requirements to requirements that are appropriate for solicitation documents. We ensured that technical requirements are clear, mapped to one or more owner, testable during the pilot phase, and quantifiable to support the cost estimating process.
- Technical support for acquisition activities – TechTrend led or supported the development of the FCS solicitation document (e.g., Section C PWS, Section L & M, Section J Attachments, Section H, etc.) with our Government leads and other support contractor (e.g., MITRE, Noblis, etc.). We worked closely with the Contracting Office organization to ensure these documents meets the FAR and FAA regulations, terms and conditions, as well as formatting them to the proper acquisition document template. We designed, managed, and supported a SharePoint Portal that was the front door for the Contractor communities to view the Solicitation documents, post questions, and review the Government responses. We provided acquisition and technical advisory support to the source selection process.
- Transition-In
- Telecommunication and networks
- Performance Monitoring
- Assessment and Accreditation
- Cyber Security
- Pilot Demonstration
- Sustainability Demonstration
- IT Service Delivery and Management
- Contract oversight and management
- Planning for implementation of cloud computing services – TechTrend provided business and technical support to plan for the implementation of the cloud computing services post contract award. We leveraged our System Development Life-Cycle (SDLC) and the FAA Acquisition Management System’s Solution Implementation phase processes to ensure all deliverables and milestones are met. We addressed all aspects of the implementation phase to include but not limited to:
- Planning for migration support services – TechTrend modeled the migration of legacy IT assets to the cloud computing environment based on clearly defined criteria. The modeling provided us with capacity planning and cost estimating data to better develop the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE).
- Other engineering services related to data center consolidation and cloud migration planning, as necessary – TechTrend provided security and cloud computing architect support for all phases of the acquisition life-cycle. We considered how the architecture impacted the Enterprise Architecture, interfaced with current enterprise systems (e.g., Active Directory, Data Lost Prevention, Incident Response, Encryption, etc.), and the security posture of FAA data in a contractor owned and managed data center infrastructure.
The highlighted activities are those that are directly relevant to IT Acquisition Support Services. More specifically, acquisition activities consist of: analyzing technical and business requirements, conducting market research, analyzing and developing recommendations, developing the acquisition project plan, developing the acquisition documentation, coordinating the RFP process with the Contracting Officers and Offerors, technical advising to the technical evaluation, and developing the plan to on-board and contractually managing the winning Offeror.