The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency has signed a framework contract with Bechtle AG for the supply of equipment in support of NATO's IT Modernization (ITM) project.The contract is worth up to 45 million EUR and will be carried out over four years. Bechtle AG has agreed to deliver end-user equipment throughout the entire execution of the ITM project, which represents the largest upgrade of NATO's IT infrastructure in recent years.
ITM will strengthen NATO's IT, enhance information security, and increase the mobility and agility of the workforce, among other benefits.
As part of the project, IT equipment across the Alliance will be refreshed, with Industry partners delivering standardized hardware and homogeneous applications.
Bechtle AG will notably provide laptops, tablets, monitors and other end-user devices in strong partnership with Dell Inc.
General Dynamics IT was awarded the main ITM contract on 30 March 2017. The multinational company is responsible for designing, implementing, testing and activating the project's new functional services, as well as installing and integrating user equipment provided by Bechtle AG.
During the first phase of ITM, two data centres will be established at NATO sites in Mons (Belgium) and Lago Patria (Italy), while other locations such as Norfolk (United States), Northwood (United Kindgom), Izmir (Turkey), and Sigonella (Italy) will host enhanced computing capabilities.
Two geographically separated Service Operations Centres will also be established.
Then, in subsequent phases, the ITM Project will integrate NATO HQ in Brussels (Belgium) as a third data centre, and implement additional enhanced and standard nodes across Europe.
Seven sites will be upgraded in the first phase of ITM, which will eventually cover 44 sites.
The first phase of the project has a very aggressive schedule and is estimated to be completed by September 2018.