procurement

HP wins $2.5 billion contract with NASA

Hewlett-Packard has won a contract from NASA worth up to $2.5 billion.

The contract was awarded Monday and calls for Hewlett-Packard to provide and manage up to $2.5 billion worth of PCs, software, peripherals, and associated end-user and IT services for the space agency over 10 years, according to a NASA press release. Specifically, HP will offer services to support NASA personnel in business, science, research, and computation.

HP beat out longtime NASA contractor Lockheed Martin to pick up the lucrative project.

"Our team is disappointed that NASA selected another solution," Sheila Collins, a spokeswoman for … Read more

Last of the storage independents

A recent frenzy of storage acquisitions--with 3PAR going to HP, Isilon to EMC, and now Compellent to Dell--brings storage full-circle. Your next enterprise storage purchase? Almost guaranteed to be from a leviathan.

One of the once-amazing changes in the computer business was the birth of independent storage vendors. For decades there've been a few odd after-market and third-party storage vendors. But they were mere pilot fish congregating around the truly big, important swimmers: systems vendors. When you bought storage, it generally came from the same company that made your computer. That was the natural order.

But in the 1990s, … Read more

IBM federal contracts ban lifted

IBM and the U.S. government are back in business.

The company announced Friday that a temporary suspension order, which had banned IBM from participating in new federal government contracts, has been lifted.

But while the ban, which lasted nine days, has been removed, Big Blue is still busy cooperating with the Environmental Protection Agency with the investigation that had triggered the broad suspension. The environmental agency is examining possible violations of its procurement process over IBM's bid for EPA business.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia is also investigating the issue.

For … Read more

US Navy's new policy: Only open software

The US Navy just announced a bold IT policy: no more proprietary software:

"The days of proprietary technology must come to an end," [Vice Admiral Mark Edwards, deputy chief of naval operations for communications] said. "We will no longer accept systems that couple hardware, software and data."

The reasons? Innovation and cost are considered superior when delivered by open source and open standards:… Read more