Foundation Cloud Hosting Services 2 (FCHS2) Solicitation Released
Justin Siken04/21/2023
HigherGov
Foundation Cloud Hosting Services 2 Solicitation Released
The Department of Interior (DOI) has issued the solicitation for the next generation of its ten-year Foundation Cloud Hosting Services (FCHS) IDIQ. The FCHS2 IDIQ will be is centered on cloud license and support services for Infrastructure, Platform, Software, and other as-a-service cloud environments.
DOI anticipates awarding contracts to three to five prime contractors with a shared contract ceiling of $1 billion. As with the prior vehicle, FCHS2 will be available for use government-wide. Five task orders are anticipated to be awarded immediately upon the award of the IDIQ.
The FCHS2 solicitation is due on July 30th, 2023, with an award expected before the existing vehicle expires in October 2023. The government is requesting comments by April 27. The original Request for Information (RFI) for FCHS2 was released last year.
Cloud Transition Requirements and Objectives of FCHS2
Per the Statement of Work, DOI is seeking contractors that have demonstrated results as industry leaders with experience providing security, interoperability, portability, reliability, and resiliency. Contractors should be at the forefront of adopting automation and artificial intelligence to collaborate with multiple agencies. They should also offer cloud services that are prepared to meet stringent cybersecurity initiatives such as IPv6, quantum computing, trusted internet connectivity in hybrid cloud environments and provide innovative technology solutions addressing climate change impacts and supply chain disruptions.
A key business objective of the FCHS2 contract is transitioning from on-premises infrastructures to the cloud to enhance response capabilities and strengthen the resilience of agency IT systems. This transition will also increase disaster recovery options like initiating multiple geo-replications or performing load balancing and enable the management of a wider range of virtual environment compute services throughout IT systems life cycles.
The original FCHS contract focused on single large IT systems prepared for cloud migration, while the FCHS2 IDIQ is shifting towards a multi-service provider focus and integration among solutions and a hybrid model hosting environment vision in order to facilitate interoperability and data integrations between multiple technologies and services across department bureaus and offices.
Accordingly, the DOI is seeking a smaller group of single integrators with extensive resources to innovate business processes and enable solutions across multiple platforms than on the prior vehicle.
Overview of the Original FCHS IDIQ
FCHS Award Trend
HigherGov Analysis
The original Foundation Cloud Hosting Services vehicle was awarded in 2013 with ten prime awardees. To date, $470 million has been obligated on the contract, significantly below the $1 billion ceiling that was available to each of the original awardees.
Smartronix, CGI, and SAIC have won approximately 80% of the work on the vehicle so far. At least 30 contractors have split an additional $138 million in subcontracts. While the DOI has been the largest user of the vehicle, the USDA has awarded over $100 million through it (mostly to CGI for cloud hosting), and the CFTC has been running a $45 million cloud hosting task order through it as well.
FCHS Obligation Market Share By Prime Contractor
HigherGov Analysis
