NSA to Pursue Government-Industry Partnership For Information Technology Infrastructure Services

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.nsa.gov/releases/partnership_06072000.html

NSA PRESS RELEASE

June 7, 2000
For further information, contact:
NSA Public Affairs, (301) 688-6524

In a move to modernize and improve its information technology
infrastructure (ITI), the National Security Agency plans to pursue
private sector performance of its non-mission related IT support. Lt
Gen Michael V. Hayden, USAF, Director, NSA, announced this decision
after the completion of an extensive 15-month feasibility study that
evaluated and compared private sector performance to internal
government service staffing options for the Agency's ITI.

The decision to pursue a government-industry partnership by moving
into a managed competition for the ITI is a dramatic change in NSA's
long-standing IT operations and is an effort to refocus Agency assets
on core functions that directly support its national security
missions.

"In order to remain successful in our foreign signals intelligence and
information assurance missions, we must immediately begin to invest in
our IT infrastructure to secure NSA's agility and adaptability in the
Information Age," Hayden said. "It is critical that we have a robust
and reliable infrastructure capable of supporting our missions."

Last year, NSA embarked on a 15-month feasibility study, called
Project GROUNDBREAKER, to assess whether NSA's ITI needs could be met
through a government-industry partnership. The GROUNDBREAKER Study
identified ITI areas appropriate for private sector performance.
Internal service options were also considered. The following four ITI
areas will be included in the managed competition: Distributed
Computing, Enterprise/Security Management, Networks, and Telephony.
Other ITI services will continue to be provided by government
personnel with re-engineered processes and performance metrics. Over
the next year as part of the managed competition, NSA will balance the
cost, benefits, and performance factors of private sector performance
before making a final decision in the Spring of 2001 whether to move
to an external service provider.

"Explosive growth in the global network and new technologies makes our
partnership with industry more vital to NSA's success than ever
before," Hayden said.

This latest decision to further consider a government-industry
partnership follows the 1998 pilot program, Project BREAKTHROUGH, an
employee-friendly approach to outsource 20 legacy software systems.

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