Pentagon awards EMC $40 million contract

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Jan 26, 2004

EMC Corporation has announced a $40 million competitive award of EMC's networked storage, business continuity software and open management software for the Pentagon Renovation Office (PENREN), a large-scale initiative to modernize the Department of Defense's IT infrastructure. PENREN supports multiple agencies within the Pentagon, including the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army, Navy, Air Force and the Marine Corps.

PENREN intends to use the new contract to build on the Pentagon's existing infrastructure of one petabyte-plus of EMC networked storage and advance its information lifecycle management (ILM) strategy for optimally managing and storing information throughout its useful life, thereby lowering operational costs and improving data availability. In a separate $4.3 million award, PENREN will utilize LEGATO Software's business continuity solutions for automated monitoring and failover of critical applications coupled with EMC's SRDF (Symmetrix Remote Data Facility) and Global Services (see separate LEGATO news release).

Michael Sullivan, PENREN's Program Manager, said, "Business continuity and information lifecycle management are essential to the secure future of our information infrastructure. With 200 percent storage growth in certain operations, we are helping to manage a complex environment that includes thousands of data ports and hundreds of servers running on multiple operating systems. Our storage environment is becoming increasingly stratified with tiers of requirements for data availability, scalability, and different service level agreements. To execute our vision, we required a vendor that commits to working with us as a partner, satisfies our multi-tiered environment with a full range of solutions and delivers the best value."

Steve Alfieris, Vice President of EMC Federal, said, "EMC strives to be a strategic partner to its customers by consistently delivering innovative technology and services. We are proud to provide the Pentagon with advanced storage systems and software to ensure mission readiness and enable the continuity of government."

This agreement provides PENREN with access to EMC networked storage products and Fibre Channel switches for its storage area network (SAN), content addressed storage, and network attached storage (NAS). PENREN also will use EMC's open management and business continuity software, and LEGATO's storage and e-mail management software. A team of EMC Global Services consultants will assist PENREN with solutions assessment, project management, design and implementation services.

The infrastructure provides centralized storage for hundreds of Pentagon servers, and includes command and control and continuity of business applications.

The Pentagon Renovation Program is charged with transforming the 60-year-old headquarters of the United States military into a modern, flexible and efficient work environment. The project requires the phased relocation of 25,000 Pentagon tenants, removing thousands of tons of hazardous materials, modernizing the utility and IT infrastructure and improving force protection and energy efficiency.