This Competitor Highlight blog focuses on IBM, who has been working steadily to build a workforce with deep expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity. This includes a range of investments in cyber and AI with some validation through recent significant contract wins in the federal space. Keep reading for more insight into IBM’s notable moves!
Top Federal Customer Portfolio
Below, we highlight significant contract wins among IBM’s key customers. These programs provide support across cloud computing, cybersecurity, and modernization:
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), VA Digital Transformation Center (DTC), Technical and Operations Support– In September 2019, IBM (via legacy B3 Group) was awarded a four-year, $686 million task order to upgrade the VA’s IT environment by creating, maintaining, enforcing, analyzing, and updating the standards and governance established by the current DTC. This work also included providing technical and operational support to the DTC focusing on cloud computing technologies involving Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and other emerging technologies. This work was gained through IBM’s acquisition of Octo in December 2022, which brought over 4,000 employees and increased footprints in the VA, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and DoD.
- U.S. Department of the Army, Army Materiel Command (AMC), Logistics Data Analysis Center (LDAC), Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA) Information Technology Support Services III (LITeS III) – In September 2020, IBM was awarded a five-year, $160 million contract to provide cloud services, software development and cognitive computing for LOGSA by providing managed services covering cognitive computing, application modernization, and cybersecurity. IBM applies risk management framework controls to LOGSA’s IT enterprise and provides overall IT portfolio management and analytics for strategic transformation, implementation of DevSecOps in the cloud, and leverages IBM Garage to rapidly prototype and transition new capabilities to a full delivery model. IBM has supported LITeS since its inception in 2012.
- U.S. Department of the Navy, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Technical Support– In April 2021, IBM was awarded an $850 million SeaPort NxG task order to provide technical support for the Navy’s ERP financial system overseeing more than half of the service’s total obligation authority and has been fielded to 72,000 users across six systems commands. Work covers logistics, sustainment, deployment, business intelligence, data analysis, software design, and integration.
- U.S. Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Information Technology (IT) Enterprise, Development, and Operations (EDOS) Services – In May 2023, IBM was awarded a spot on a seven-year, $2.6 billion shared value contract to support the IRS applications development office. This vehicle aims to integrate 400 legacy IRS systems under one contract to modernize existing systems and enhance analytics and cybersecurity. As a core customer for IBM, being awarded a seat on this contract continues the company’s strong relationship with the IRS. Over the years, IBM has provided a variety of services to the agency including financial systems support, Enterprise Resource Planning, and tax filling system support. This contract expands IBM’s services to the agency to now include application modernization and cybersecurity.
Investments in AI
IBM’s AI work in the federal space includes a collaboration announced by NASA in early February 2023. Through this partnership, NASA is working with IBM to uncover insights relating to NASA Earth science data under the Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT) as part of NASA’s Open-Source Science Initiative (OSSI). Using AI technologies developed by IBM, the collaboration provides an easier way for researchers to analyze and draw insights from large NASA datasets related to Earth processes. NASA and IBM plan to develop additional applications to gather Earth data including geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) and language models based on earth science literature.
A few months later, IBM established a Center of Excellence (CoE) for generative AI, which houses over 1,000 generative AI specialists assisting with AI projects across the globe. The CoE uses the full generative AI technology stack, including foundation models and more than 50 domain-specific classical machine learning accelerators to help clients improve productivity and innovation.
This CoE complements the recently announced IBM watsonx.governance, an AI and data platform that directs, manages and monitors AI activities within an organization. Unique to watsonx.governance is an AI “nutrition label” providing organizations with details about where and how any AI model gets the information for its outputs, so they can meet anticipated transparency and safety regulations.
IBM and Meta ended 2023 with the launch of the AI Alliance, a partnership with 50+ global members, including entities across industry, academia and government. This alliance is focused on developing and deploying benchmarks and evaluation standards, tools and other resources enabling the responsible development and use of AI systems at a global scale.
To kick off 2024, IBM announced the use of its watsonx platform to power a new AI services platform called IBM Consulting Advantage. IBM Consulting Advantage includes a portfolio of proprietary methods, assets and Assistants leveraging technology from IBM and strategic partners to enable productivity improvements. The platform includes Assistants to support teams in day-to-day tasks that are trained on IBM data and composed of tailored prompts, models and output formats to put the collective knowledge of IBM at the fingertips of IBM consultants.
New Moves in Cyber
In the cybersecurity space, IBM was selected by NATO in December 2023 to bolster the Alliance’s cybersecurity initiatives. IBM is providing improved security visibility and asset management across NATO enterprise networks. The goal is to provide a single pane of glass to generate insights into cyber risk and incident management.
Within the same month, IBM was awarded a five-year, $95 million ceiling value contract by USAID to enhance host government’s cybersecurity capabilities in Europe and Eurasia. IBM assists government agencies and critical infrastructure operators to acquire, integrate, and maintain cybersecurity hardware and software, establish networks and procedures to improve threat intelligence sharing, and boost capabilities of cybersecurity personnel through training to conduct cyber response and recovery.
In March 2024, IBM established a cyber response training facility, the IBM X-Force Cyber Range, in Washington, D.C. The range is specifically designed to assist U.S. federal agencies and critical infrastructure organizations to respond to cyber and AI threats. IBM facilitators at the Range guide participants through full-scale breach scenarios ranging from AI code poisoning and destructive attacks to deepfake and zero-day attacks.
The FedSavvy Takeaways
- IBM’s greatly boosted presence in the VA comes from its acquisition of Octo Consulting made in 2022, which includes support for cloud computing and other emerging technologies.
- The IRS EDOS win is significant because it is likely the agency will concentrate its IT needs under this program, and IBM is only one of four potential providers of support in this area.
- The company also has a significant presence within defense customers providing support for application modernization, cybersecurity, and large-scale system sustainment.
- Over the past year, IBM has demonstrated a significant focus on investing in AI-related tools, hubs of talent, and strategic partnerships to improve client productivity, innovation, and serve as a leader in AI safety and security.
- IBM’s establishment of the X-Force Cyber Range specific to federal agencies showcases the company’s cybersecurity depth and ability to provide unique training against threats posed by AI, which could be leveraged as a differentiator compared to competitors.
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