In my experience with dealing with purchasing agents for "Certain Government Agencies", one can easily get around sole-source restrictions simply by making ordering/feature "requirements" so narrow, that they can *only* be fulfilled by the target vendor/supplier. Just by "requiring" a specific obscure "feature" (especially proprietary ones) there's no way to *avoid* getting a specific product.
They can pass all the JWOD-like legislation they want, but there will always be ways to circumvent them in that manner.
And frankly, there is so much historical momentum and inertia with the MS platform, short of Microsoft's utter collapse, I can't foresee any substantive changes in the way USG/DoD procures their IT platforms. It's just too greatly entrenched. Besides, there's *still* a tremendous bias against anything "Not Windows" in management, despite the fact that "Must Be MS Office Compatible" stopped being a legitimate argument over a decade ago.
Indeed many of the "Usual Suspects" of common software packages are conspicuously multi-platform nowadays. Until that bias is "retired out" I don't suspect we will see any kind of noticeable change in the current purchasing practices.
Just my 0.00003 Bitcoin.
YMMV.
Regards,
JL -
Just Another Alpha Geek
-
Sent from 20 minutes into the future
Considering the VHA side (maybe all 3 branches?) has contracted with Exchange online services this past spring for email, and they JUST rolled out
Windows 7, I really can’t see a MS alternative coming for the next 10 years.
Reads like someone got busted for sole-sourcing a whole ton of tech work and now needs to retroactively prove that there were no other products capable of doing the work. :P
-------------------------------
Matt Linton - GCIH, EZ2C
Cyber Security Operations Lead
NASA Ames Research Center
email@hidden : (c)650.380.4281
On 12/20/2013 10:26 AM, William Cerniuk wrote:
Interesting…
VA has an extensive investment in Microsoft technology and extensive experience with that
technology. VA's desire is to assess the current marketplace for an alternative to the comprehensive, seamless integrated environment currently provided by the Microsoft products to supplement the current environment. Manufacturers that provide a seamless
integrated solution equal to or greater than the environment provided by Microsoft, of the same size and scope that is currently operating within VA, are requested to provide a description of that product set and provide examples of that environment currently
operating in implementation of the same size and scope.
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