Following NATO’s new dynamic and competitive procurement process, featuring regular workshops, sprints and continuous communication with industry, the NCI Agency selected IBM to deliver a custom made, performance-based Asset, Configuration, Patching and Vulnerability (ACPV) Management service to the Alliance.
In light of more complex, frequent and sophisticated cyber threats, this solution will help NATO to enable effective situational awareness, prevention and response, improving the level of protection of NATO’s communications and information systems and networks.
The ACPV customized service will offer a unified view of NATO’s security posture, providing a consolidated ‘single source of truth’ on information about assets, configurations, vulnerabilities, and patches across NATO. This will improve the Alliance’s visibility into cyber risks and empower it to manage potential issues with more ease and speed across its networks.
Cybersecurity functions across NATO will be able to use the ACPV service as the interface to access and dynamically query asset and configuration data, with a special focus on vulnerability management.
The contract was awarded for three years, with two additional one-year options of service, and is the result of a pilot procurement process.
In comparison with NATO’s traditional competitive solicitation methods for a procurement of this size and complexity, this new dynamic sourcing approach is noticeably faster and more agile. The new process includes a series of engagements with industry, aiming to collaborate on a desired solution, while leveraging industry expertise against NATO requirements.
