DISA extends bids for cloud storage contract again

The Defense Information Systems Agency has again extended the bidding period for its Enterprise Storage Service II (ESS II) contract, Frank Konkel of sister publication FCW reports.

The bid submission deadline for ESS II was extended in October, and DISA responded to a flurry of questions from potential cloud storage vendors by extending the deadline a second time to Nov. 19, FCW reported.

DISA has reportedly modified the ESS II solicitation a half-dozen times since its initial release.

ESS II is designed to provide “on-demand” storage capabilities tied to a specific but unspecified computer chipset architecture.

The $427 million cloud storage contract will run for four years and include two 1-year options. Responses to the DISA solicitation had been due on Oct. 21.

The agency awarded Vion Corp. a $700 million contract in January 2007 to provide enterprise storage services at 17 U.S. data centers. It recently decided to re-compete the storage contract as ESS II.