General Services Administration (GSA) is going to simplify cloud acquisitions through the new Ascend Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). This BPA is in addition to GSA cloud offerings in the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) and the Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs). The BPA will be awarded in phases. 

GSA recently released a Special Notice with a draft Performance Work Statement to establish a competitive Multiple Award BPA against the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Special Item numbers 518210C “Cloud and Cloud-Related IT Professional Services” and 54151S “IT Professional Services.” Industry was encouraged to provide comments on the draft Performance Work Statement, but that is now closed. 

What Will The GSA Ascend BPA Cover?

Ascend will provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and cloud-related IT professional services based on GSA’s MAS. 

Agencies will benefit from this by getting solutions that from vendors are compliant with cybersecurity and Supply Chain Risk Management Standards. They will also get access to standardized transactional and consumption data and meet category management requirements through this contract vehicle that is well managed.  

Suppliers will be able to follow an acquisition strategy that allows them to participate in both the initial award and be eligible for later task order awards. They will also benefit by gaining access to high-quality leads for BPA holders and small business awardees that offer cloud-related IT professional services will have more opportunities.  

If you have questions on how to pursue the ASCEND BPA, or will need help responding to the BPA when it comes out, please reach out and Coley. Our experienced, in-house, GSA Schedule consultants can help you through the entire process. For over 20 years, Coley has supported clients with all their GSA contracting needs. Please schedule a call or reach out to directly at 210-402-6766, by email at hello@coleygsa.com.