The NCI Agency has called on Allied Nations and their Industries to propose innovative solutions for NATO's cyber shield refresh.
The Alliance's cyber and tech arm hopes to leverage the creativity of the private sector to refresh and boost the Alliance's existing Communication and Information Systems (CIS) security capabilities.
The Agency's Acquisition team released a market survey request on 11 September 2017. Companies from NATO's 29 Nations have just over one month – until 18 October 2017 – to send their proposals.
This is the first step of a fundamental upgrade of NATO's cyber capabilities, worth 70 million EUR.
Frederic Jordan, Head of the Cyber Security Capability Development Branch at the NCI Agency, noted: "Though technology remains crucial, the possible reduction of operating costs over the whole lifecycle of security solutions is also a major objective for NATO.
As a consequence, the NCI Agency is looking for innovative solutions – whether this stems from cheaper solutions, or more integrated and less vendor-specific options, is obviously a question better left to the expertise of the respondents.
The information collected will solely be used by the NCI Agency to support architecture decisions, requirements and identify broad cost estimates for funding and affordability purposes.
It will not be used in any manner to select specific products or vendor solutions prior to any formal NATO procurement process".