The U.S. Navy plans to kick off a prototype project in the spring of 2019 to determine whether to outsource long-haul telecommunications support to one or more cloud service providers, Federal News Network reported Tuesday. The service currently relies on the Defense Information Systems Agency’s wide-area network for telecom services.Â
“So the purpose is to set up alternative connection methodologies to allow our users to get to the cloud through the CSP’s own internet access point, and also to get connectivity from one base to another using the CSP’s services rather than our current way and services, which we know are a little bit difficult — they’re not dynamic to allocate and adjust,†said Will Stephens, head of business and technology strategy for the Navy’s program executive office for enterprise information systems.
“It will be a connection to our production environment, and we’ll have two network paths from that point of presence: one across our current network path, and one across the new network path that we’re setting up as part of this Network as a Service architecture,†Stephens noted.
The service plans to create an award for the network-as-a-service project by April 26 through a $100 million transaction authority for cyber and IT prototypes – Information Warfare Research Project – and have a prototype in place by July 26, according to the report.