FY 2013 NDAA Pushes the DoD for Greater Software License Efficiencies
Published: January 17, 2013
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In early January the President signed the FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The law impacts several areas of information technology and its acquisition. It also provides further evidence of Congress’ push for the Department of Defense (DoD) to increase its effectiveness in managing its IT spending – especially in the area of software licensing.
- Identify and explain the software licenses that the DoD will consider to be selected software licenses and a summary outline of the software licenses determined not to be selected software licenses.
- Identify the means by which the DoD will assess its needs for selected software licenses during the two fiscal years following the date of the issuance of the plan (FY 2014 and FY 2015).
- Identify the means by which the Department can achieve the greatest possible economies of scale and cost savings in the procurement, use, and optimization of selected software licenses.
The NDAA’s enactment comes on the heels of the DoD’s December announcement of their awarding a three-year, $617 million joint enterprise license agreement (JELA) for Microsoft desktop and server software products. Presumably, this JELA will be enacted in a way that continues to maximize the economies and efficiencies of these particular software licenses. The agreement also recognizes DoD’s ongoing shift to enterprise mobility with a mobile-first focus as well as the DoD’s push to standardize their IT into their Joint Information Environment. As those efforts continue be on the lookout for the potential of additional JELAs that address other functional areas – from back-office systems to geospatial applications – that push forward similar software standardization.