By Ross Wilkers,
Senior Staff Reporter

Software-as-a-service vendors and providers of cloud-related IT professional services are who the General Services Administration wants to hear from now.

The General Services Administration has moved ahead on its new governmentwide cloud computing program known as Ascend with the release of more details on other aspects besides the hosting infrastructure.

A pair of requests for information issued Tuesday seeks feedback from software-as-a-service vendors and providers of cloud-related IT professional services.

GSA unveiled a draft solicitation in May for Ascend’s pool one, which focuses on infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service offerings. The global hyperscale cloud providers are the likely bidders for the pool one contract, which is poised to have a potential eight-year duration.

Ascend is being stood up as essentially a one-stop shop for agencies to acquire cloud computing products and services through. GSA is constructing Ascend to help simplify and standardize those steps, plus streamline how federal customers and contractors alike navigate the government’s security and data ownership requirements.

Pool two is geared toward the acquisition of SaaS applications that are accessed via cloud infrastructure. The pool two RFI asks vendors to comment on the benefits, barriers and challenges they see with respect to this track’s key priorities.

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