Laura Stanton, assistant commissioner for the office of information technology category at the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), said GSA plans to introduce a cloud marketplace that could be used by federal agencies as a one-stop shop for cloud platforms, FCW reported Monday.
"We keep hearing that agencies have to go multiple places to buy cloud," Stanton said. "We decided it was time to take the next step."
She noted that the planned marketplace would feature professional information technology services and post-award contract management tools and would include a “foundational set of requirements” to ensure that cloud platforms comply with Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) guidance and other security requirements.
“We want to put together not just a framework, but a market contractual vehicle that will allow our agencies to buy these core cloud services that we're seeing them need more and more,” Stanton said of the cloud marketplace.
In May, GSA sought industry feedback on plans to release a multiple-award blanket purchase agreement as part of an acquisition strategy for enterprise cloud services. The agency also issued a second draft policy that would enable federal agencies to buy commercial cloud services on a consumption basis under the Federal Supply Schedule program.