CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) has won a potential $750 million contract from the Defense Information Systems Agency to install a fiber-optic network for connecting the Defense Department‘s supercomputers and researchers.
DISA’s defense information technology contracting organization awarded the Defense Research and Engineering Network III contract as a potential 10-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, CenturyLink said Tuesday.
CenturyLink will provide the agency a network intended to have connection speeds of between 50 megabits to 100 gigabits per second.
The company will also supply Ethernet, Internet Protocol and optical wave services to the agency through a virtual private local area network service intended to link defense scientists and engineers at research institutions, laboratories and test facilities at more than 150 Defense Department locations nationwide.
Diana Gowen, a CenturyLink senior vice president and general manager, said scientists and engineers will work together to research and develop new technologies under DREN.
Gowen added the company intends to make DREN III a network for exchanging research and help users collaborate throughout the network.
“DREN is an essential component of our program, connecting defense researchers located throughout the country with the department’s supercomputing resources, ” said John West, director of the Defense Department’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program.
