Sonny Hashmi, commissioner of the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service as well as a previous Wash100 Award winner, said the Ascend blanket purchase agreement for cloud services will be different from past efforts to develop cloud vehicles because the BPA will focus on addressing an agency’s need, Federal News Network reported Monday.
“It goes back to how we were talking about user centric design. There’s got to be a user need, and in this case, it’s got to be an agency need that Ascend will address,” said Hashmi, a previous Wash100 Award winner.
“That will dictate what the vehicle looks like how it’s going to be designed because without it, it is not going to be successful,” he added.
In late May, GSA started soliciting feedback on a draft performance work statement for the Ascend BPA, which is divided into three pools: infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service cloud computing platforms; software-as-a-service offerings; and cloud IT professional services.
GSA will accept feedback and questions on the draft PWS through June 6.
“We look forward to robust conversations, both from cloud service providers, services companies, system integrators and others, to really help us think about not only the purchasing method, mechanism, the methods, but really help us help shape our thinking around the future of digital transformation will look like,” Hashmi said.
He noted that Ascend will allow agencies to procure cloud services through a consumption-based model and enable GSA to add new cloud service providers through an on-ramping process.
