Information Technology Support Services (ITSS) Bridge Contract

Background
The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), part of NOAA, is responsible for managing one of the most significant environmental data archives on Earth, encompassing over 229 terabytes of data each month from more than 130 observing platforms. The agency's mission includes providing critical oceanic, atmospheric, and geophysical data to various organizations and businesses to support informed decision-making.

The contract aims to support the operations and maintenance of the NOAA5009 Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA)-moderate Local Area Network (LAN) as NCEI transitions its systems to a Commercial Cloud environment by the end of FY26, in compliance with Executive Order 14028 on improving national cybersecurity.

Work Details
The required services for maintaining the NOAA5009 system include:
- Operations support
- Configuration management
- Help Desk operations
- Data Center Infrastructure Management
- Cable management
- Network and security operations
- Wide Area Network (WAN) and LAN support
- Security configuration management
- Continuity of operations
- Network and system administration
- Network faults management
- Networks account administration management
- Networks performance and security management
- System administration and user support
- System fault management
- System administration performance management and security performance
- Database administration
- IT System analysis
- Capacity planning
- Preventative maintenance on operational equipment including replacement parts modification and upgrades
- Obsolescence prevention and remediation
- System hardware and software inventory
- Hardware procurement support
- Software and software license procurement and maintenance support.

This bridge contract is essential to ensure that the incumbent contractor, AOI, who has specialized knowledge of the legacy system, can complete the mandated security transition without disrupting mission availability or violating federal cybersecurity deadlines.

Period of Performance
The period of performance for this bridge contract is set to begin on December 1, 2025, following the expiration of the current contract on May 31, 2026. The migration process is expected to be completed by October 2026.

Place of Performance
The services will be performed at NCEI's facilities located in the United States.