The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded Equinix a contract for colocation services for its Homeland Security Enterprise Network.
Published on SAM.gov on September 17, the tender called for "power, connectivity and related operations and maintenance," adding that the services will cover the "Homeland Security Enterprise Network (HSEN) COLO East and West Enterprise cloud access points."
The contract was awarded to Equinix on September 5. According to a heavily redacted document attached to the tender, Equinix is the only provider up to the job.
The document said: "Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required."
It adds: "This service provider must be used because DHS requires an East and West Coast colo facility presence that provides direct network access to all the CSPs and DHS current[ly] does business with and will do business within the future."
Network connections must be direct from within the data centers providing for a "zero network hop connectivity" between the DHS and CSP networks. The document also notes that the data centers must provide "direct access to all major telecommunications carriers" to enable direct connectivity to the DHS' wide area network.
The DHS further justifies its selection of Equinix by noting that, due to its existing partnership with Equinix for DHS' HQ, using another contractor would create network performance and latency issues as additional hops would be needed. The document goes so far as to say: "The use of any other colo facility hosting provider could negatively affect the DHS mission."
Even if another provider could meet Equinix's standards and pricing, the DHS states that the time and cost to move to another provider would rule them out.
The department claims that it conducted a market research study before deciding on Equinix - noting that it identified nine potential sources, though the names of those others were redacted. Equinix was found to be the only provider meeting all criteria.
The tender does not note which specific data centers the DHS is hosting hardware in.
In 2022, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) was seeking bids for a company to provide, install, and maintain a 10GB ethernet line from an Equinix data center to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) facility.
At that time, the DHS had a cage at the Equinix DA6 data center and had previously awarded the company a $3.3-7.3 million contract in 2021 to provide interconnection and hosting services.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also a customer of Equinix data centers. In August 2024, the department put out a tender for high-speed direct connections between its data centers and cloud service providers (CSPs).
