Air Force Consolidates Contracts, Software

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November 22, 2004 (Computerworld) -- The U.S. Air Force last week announced an enterprisewide software licensing agreement with Microsoft Corp. that's expected to save it more than $100 million over the next six years and help secure its PCs and Windows-based servers.
Air Force CIO John Gilligan was scheduled to detail the licensing and software standardization initiative late Friday afternoon. In an advance statement, the Air Force said the deal with Microsoft will consolidate 38 software purchasing contracts and nine support pacts into two contracts that all of its operations will be required to adopt.
The Air Force will also mandate the worldwide use of standard configurations of all Microsoft desktop and server software products.
Officials said that "rigorous security profiles" will be implemented and that security patches and software updates will be distributed to systems online. In addition, security, performance and software feature settings will be designed specifically for the Air Force.
Similar Government Pact
Some analysts said the deal appears to be similar to one the U.S. Department of Energy signed with Oracle Corp. in September 2003 that required Oracle to deliver software configured for optimal security .
Clint Kreitner, president and CEO of the Center for Internet Security in Hershey, Pa., called the Air Force's move "a terrific example" of how large users can leverage their overall buying power to require vendors to deliver software configured to meet their functionality and security needs.
But John Pescatore, an analyst at Gartner Inc., said the new agreements with Microsoft may not be that big of a step forward. "It will force the Air Force to have more-secure configurations of Microsoft software by limiting how many versions they use and having configuration guidelines," he said. "But it sounds like they're building in a lot of patch management functions, and that doesn't force the vendor to deliver software with fewer patches."
Alan Salisbury, chairman of the Center for National Software Studies in Upper Marlboro, Md., said standardization usually reduces costs.
"The name of the game continues to be total cost of operations, which is dominated by maintenance and support," he said. "Fewer configurations equals lower costs."

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