To keep the pool of vendors under STRATUS competitive, high-performing, and innovative, USDA has released a request for quotes (RFQ) to on-ramp new vendors onto the STRATUS BOA. 

New vendors will be awarded under Pool 2 of STRATUS—Integration & Development Support—which is scoped to support services such as: unified intake, governance, cloud architecture, cloud engineering/modernization/migration, as well as supporting security approaches, platform operations, CI/CD pipeline engineering, C-ATO, and change management. 

We look forward to the new vendors providing STRATUS customers the flexibility to support digital transformation and cloud maturity across all USDA Mission Areas and the Federal Government. 

USDA will be accepting quotes from interested vendors through July 25, 2025.

An RFQ to on-ramp software providers and resellers to STRATUS will be provided later this year. If any vendor you know is interested in receiving a notification about the next RFQ release, please share the New to STRATUS Vendor Interest Form.

The Enterprise Cloud Vendor Management Program (ECVM) brings unparalleled transparency over invoicing and consumption data to STRATUS customers. 

Right now, ECVM is in the final stages of deploying a suite of dashboards that will allow STRATUS customers at USDA to find greater cost optimization in their cloud portfolios under STRATUS. 

These dashboards are designed to be user-friendly and can be used by anyone on your procurement or cloud management team, regardless of technical experience. 

The ECVM Team is deploying 3 dashboards suites:

Task Order Governance Dashboard: to help the STRATUS program and Contracting Officers monitor overall contractual health

Vendor Invoicing Dashboard: to allow STRATUS customers to parse, visualize, and analyze their spending across STRATUS all in one place

Cloud Usage Dashboard: to monitor cloud consumption data as well as connect that consumption data directly to cost centers so that STRATUS customers can take full control of their cloud spending and cost optimization

The STRATUS ECVM Dashboards are launching soon. If you are from a USDA Mission Area or Agency currently utilizing STRATUS, and are interested in participating in ongoing User Acceptance Testing, please contact ecvmanalytics@usda.gov. 

If you would like to be notified when these dashboards go live and to get your team access to these tools, please contact the ECVM team at ecvmanalytics@usda.gov. 

We sat down with Shane Blay on his experience with STRATUS in the last year. Shane is a Technical Program Manager in the Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Information Technology Division (MRP-APHIS ITD) who specializes in FinOps and Cloud Optimization. In the first year of STRATUS operation, MRP-APHIS has had multiple SaaS (software as a service) procurements, so we wanted to check in and see how this year has been for Shane and his team. 

Interviewer: "What needs or challenges led you to use STRATUS"? 

Shane: "The STRATUS Marketplace has begun to really streamline so much of the procurement process. For those of us “mature” enough to remember the days of shopping malls or department stores, STRATUS’ existing relationships with multiple pre-vetted vendors and resellers provide a very similar experience. For us, the ready access to procure or renew software licensing, even at the desktop level in some cases, has been an enormous time-saver." 

Interviewer: "We're glad to hear that you've been saving time! Can you tell anything else about the procurement process, any difficulties, and whether you'd recommend it to other agencies?" 

Shane: "The immediate benefit has to be the exceptional service. . . maybe a better way to describe it would be “collaboration.” As a team there is always someone available to assist you at nearly every stage. For someone like me, new to the world of (full-time) Federal Procurement, at a time when everything seems to be changing, it is hard to imagine having to address the sheer volume, without their team around me."

Interviewer: "That's great to hear! And would you recommend STRATUS to other agencies?"

Shane: "Absolutely! Many of our long-term vendors already have a footprint within the STRATUS Marketplace, so in many cases it’s just a much easier handoff. Alternatively, if there is not a reseller ready at hand for let’s say a piece of COTS (commercial off the shelf) software, I have seen multiple instances where a vendor will work with one of the current STRATUS participants to engage them so they can deliver the product to us via the marketplace."

Interviewer: Any difficulties so far?

Shane: "There have been very few cases where a procurement just wasn’t a perfect fit for STRATUS and rather than being kicked out and ignored it was quite the opposite. For example, we had a major, long-term relationship with a COTS and SaaS software and services company with a complicated contractual history to say the least. It was determined for various reasons that this would best be serviced outside of STRATUS for the time being and yet our STRATUS point of contact not only stayed engaged but continued to put multiple hours into assisting both myself, the customer, and the vendor in re-writing/re-negotiating a contract that will ultimately guarantee the agency does not overspend on services if not needed and that—with option years in place—our future forecasts and renewal periods will be much simpler. It turned out to be a major “win” for all involved, vendor included."

Interviewer: "Thank you Shane for sitting down with us. We really appreciate it and look forward to working together more soon."

We looking forward to continuing to providing the same level of service to you and your team over the next year, Shane!