Data Center Bridge VI Order for Continuity of Operations

The purpose of the bridge order is to maintain continuity of operations of all the tasks in the FDA Data Center and Infrastructure Support Task Order until such a time when a new contract is awarded and transition activities are completed. Tasks include the management of FDA’s four data centers, providing enterprise services, data center lease and operations, application operations, database operations, running the System Management Center (SMC), and related project management activities.

The services to be provided under the bridge order are mission critical to the FDA; without the services, the FDA would not be able to serve the public as the FDA would not have any network connectivity, or data center and enterprise services. The incumbent contractor has all the necessary the staff in place with expert knowledge for operating and maintaining the data center and networks. A rushed and improper transition from one contractor to the next could severely impact the continuity of operations for the FDA and creates a great potential for an overarching agency failure.

The FDA is seeking the same level of support services with the incumbent until a new competitive procurement is awarded in FY2026. The bridge order serves an important role in bridging service gaps and risks to the Agency’s public health mission.

The FDA’s four (4) data centers are located in Silver Spring, MD (9,300 SF), Jefferson, AR, College Park, MD (2,570 SF), and Ashburn, VA (5,300 SF). All of the data centers are Government-owned facilities except for the 5,300 SF data center in Ashburn, VA, which is leased from Digital Realty by the incumbent contractor. This commercially leased data center in Ashburn, VA is considered a Tier three (3) Data Center (as described by uptimeinstitute.org) facility. The lease includes the Data Center Pod and a separate storage room for the storage of equipment and deliveries.

The task areas defined below will support lights-on activities as the FDA works toward realigning its next generation data center requirements. Some tasks from previous bridge orders have been removed as the tasks have been completed. The task areas defined in the scope of work include managing the FDA’s four data centers (subtask areas include providing Enterprise services, Data Center Operations, Application Operations, Database Operations, and running the System Management Center (SMC) (includes the FDA’s SOC and NOC)); managing the FDA’s IT infrastructure (Infrastructure Operations); conducting an inventory of the hardware and software which comprise the FDA’s data centers and IT infrastructure; providing program management support; and transition in and out support.