DISA Projects $36 Billion in Awards Through 2026: This Is IT

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has been boosting its IT spending on projects related to cybersecurity, commercial networks, secure mobile services, analytics and high-performance computing, among many others. At its annual forecast to industry event on Nov. 4 in Baltimore, the agency provided a detailed assessment that companies can use to gain insights into future DISA contracts.

(Defense Department)

The presentation slides can be found here.

Slides are available on numerous major initiatives, such as the Commercial Ethernet Gateway (CEG) and the Fourth Estate Network Optimization Project, as well as lower-profile projects such as crytography, mitigating electromagnetic risks, and speeding background investigations processes through cloud computing and automation.

Briefing Highlights

According to DISA’s overview briefing, in fiscal 2018 the organization spent $6.1 billion on procurement actions, and $6.6 billion in fiscal 2019 (final spending reports for the fiscal year won’t be complete until January). DISA met its small-business goals of 28% in both years and in fiscal 2019 obligated $1.86 billion to small businesses, a record for the agency. Among the opportunities highlighted in the overview slides, three were identified as being Other Transaction Authority (OTA) opportunities, an approach generally used for advanced research and development and prototyping.

Bloomberg Government data shows that in fiscal 2018, the most recent year for which complete data is available, DISA obligated $3.3 billion to contractors. The totals DISA reported in the briefing are higher, most likely because they include classified work for the National Security Agency and other elements of the intelligence community that are not required to report transactions to the federal procurement data system.

The top contractors for DISA in fiscal 2018 were Leidos Holdings Inc. with $419 million in obligations, Perspecta Inc. with $198 million, and CenturyLink Inc. with $124 million. The top small-business contractor for DISA in fiscal 2018 was VAE Inc. with $56 million. Almost all of VAE’s work was done through NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) V, which is designated as a best-in-class IT contract by the Office of Management and Budget.

Opportunity Outlook

DISA also released a spreadsheet with detailed information on 273 upcoming contracts for information technology programs planned through the end of fiscal 2026. The total maximum value for all of the future contracts is about $36 billion.

Twenty five of the awards are expected by the end of this December — the close of fiscal 2020’s first quarter. Two of those awards have the highest value on the entire list: Department of Defense Network Support (DoDNet) – 1st Generation, and Enterprise Storage Services III. Both have an estimated value range of $250 million to $1 billion.

Of the opportunities on the list, 21 are valued from $100 million to $250 million. Only nine of the contracts are identified as multiple-award, and more than 100 will go to small businesses. While much of the work will be overseas, much of what’s performed in the U.S. will be at Ft. Meade, Md. The work ranges from unclassified through top secret, and contracting officers for each opportunity are identified.

DISA provides one of the most detailed and long-range procurement forecasts of any government agency. If your company operates in the information technology and cybersecurity fields, the DISA forecast is a good tool for identifying opportunities that could fit into your pipeline over the next several years.

To contact the analyst: Robert Levinson in Washington, D.C. at rlevinson@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Snyder at dsnyder@bgov.com; Jodie Morris at jmorris@bgov.com