DAF seeks industry feedback to strengthen Platform One DevSecOps, cloud management

Members of the 56th Air and Space Communications Squadron at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam operate cyber systems using a Enhanced communications flyaway kit during the Global Information Dominance Experiment 3 and Architect Demonstration Evaluation 5 at Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, Alpena, Michigan, July, 12, 2021. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Amy Picard)

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Air Force is turning to industry to shore up Platform One, the software development program created by the Air Force and used DoD-wide to create, integrate and launch software.

According to the solicitation posted today, the DAF is looking for vendors, technologies and system integrators to provide “dual-use commercial products and/ or services” for cloud management and infrastructure for the platform’s development, security and operations (DevSecOps). DevSecOps is a framework that incorporates security practices into all phases of the software development cycle. 

“Ideal solutions should be effective for workloads operating across multiple AWS [Amazon Web Services] GovCloud accounts; however, preference will be given to solutions which are agnostic of cloud service providers,” the request for information states. 

The RFI also states that industry solutions “at a minimum” should be capable of managing, sustaining and deploying distributions of Kubernetes — the open-source container arrangement platform that automates the deployment and management of containerized software, otherwise known as packages of software that contain all the files needed to run an application independently of other software components in any environment, according to Amazon Web Services.

Further, solutions should be compatible with Platform One’s Big Bang, the DoD’s “trusted” open source DevSecOps platform which can cut the time it takes the department to approve software from years to 90 days utilizing authority to operate, or ATO, procedures, according to Platform One’s website. 

“Product vendors should anticipate the need to include integration services within this effort either internally or in partnership with a systems integrator. System integrators without a vendor partnership will be considered if leveraging commercial and/or open-source tools in accordance with all applicable licenses,” the RFI reads. 

This effort to bolster Platform One comes after the Pentagon has affirmed its commitment to accelerating software development, as seen in a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week. As Breaking Defense previously reported, the memo directed the Pentagon to adopt the Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP), a streamlined method for procuring software programs bespoke to DoD requirements, as the preferred method for software development.

Interested parties are to respond to the solicitation by March 31, per the RFI.