The U.S. National Security Agency has awarded IBM a technology and services contract for the High Assurance Platform (HAP) program. NSA and IBM will work together to design and develop the next generation of high assurance workstations, servers and pervasive computing technology. The contract, awarded in the fourth quarter, has an estimated contract value of $9.4 million over 15 months.

The goal of the HAP program is to assist the IT industry with an approach that can be used by government and private sector organizations to support secure virtualization, compliance checking, cross-domain collaboration, and enterprise management. The use of secure virtualization technologies will also help eliminate the need for multiple classified workstations and servers; as well as enable agencies to achieve their 'green' data center consolidation goals.

"The NSA's strategic approach to technology recognizes that a secure COTS environment is fundamental to the mission of both government agencies and private sector, offering assured information sharing that is cost effective," said Todd S. Ramsey, Managing Director for IBM U.S. Federal. "IBM is pleased to continue its support of the NSA for this mission critical program."

The NSA will offer the new capabilities to government agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice and the broader intelligence community. IBM will use COTS (commercial off the shelf) software and hardware in order for both public and private sector organizations to take advantage of the investment in these advanced security improvements.

IBM will leverage its work in secure virtualization, trusted computing, and advanced software technologies to improve the cross-domain access and secure distribution of classified data across agencies. It will be responsible for providing research and design, engineering development, fabrication, and testing and security certification. The IBM team will collaborate with General Dynamics C4 Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics and an existing contractor for the HAP program. IBM's subcontracting business partners include Trusted Computer Solutions, Harris Corporation, and Innovative Security Systems/Argus Systems Group.

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