Juniper Networks, founded by Pradeep Sindhu, and Sycamore Networks, established by Gururaj Desh Deshpande, are two Indian American companies of the six reportedly commissioned by the US to build a global network with optical and data networking gear.
Announcing this, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) said: "The Global Information Grid-Bandwidth Expansion (GIG-BE) programme expects to purchase an estimated $260 million of equipment off the Global Solutions (DGS) contract to support GIG-BE implementation over the next two years."
However, press reports placed the value of the contract at $400 million.
The GIG-BE contracts were awarded based on Science Applications International Corporation's (SAIC) recommendations and the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) subcontracts under the Defense Information System Network (DISN) DGS contract.
In the optical transport system equipment area, it said Ciena Corporation offered the best value technical solution.
In the optical digital cross connect equipment area, DISA determined that Sprint Communications Company, L.P./Sycamore, offered the best value technical solution.
In the Internet protocol router equipment area, Juniper Networks was selected. And in the multi-service provisioning platform equipment area it chose Qwest Government Services/Cisco.
Over 55 proposals were received across the four equipment areas.
{{/usCountry}}Over 55 proposals were received across the four equipment areas.
{{/usCountry}}DISA is a Department of Defence (DoD) combat support agency under the direction of the assistant secretary of defence for command, control, communications and intelligence.
It is responsible for planning, engineering, acquiring, fielding, and supporting global net-centric solutions and operating the global information grid to serve the needs of the president, vice president and the other DoD components under all conditions of peace and war.
It was founded in 1960 as the Defence Communications Agency (DCA) to consolidate the military departments' common communications functions. The name was changed to DISA in 1991 to reflect the agency's role in providing total information systems support to DoD.