1. Image: Iran | July 5, 2011 | 50cm
A New Acquisition Model for a Budget
Constrained Era
Service Level Agreements

2. Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Vendor provides infrastructure and
operations to deliver a service
• Customer makes stable, multi-year
commitment to acquire the service

3. Consumer Electronics

4. Dedicated Manufacturing

5. SLA Manufacturing
• Seasonal demand
• Can repurpose
excess capacity
• Can surge if needed

6. EnhancedView (EV) SLA
•NGA contract to acquire
unclassified, shareable imagery
•10 yr term, monthly fee
QuickBird
On-orbit
0.6m GSD
WorldView-1
On-orbit
0.5m GSD
WorldView-2
On-orbit
0.46m GSD
WorldView-3
2014
0.3m GSD
WorldView-4
2018
<=0.3m GSD
•Priority access to 5-satellite
imaging constellation for much
less than cost of ownership
•Guaranteed capacity, accuracy,
timeliness, availability
•Includes hosting and delivery
•Continuous improvement in
capacity, # sats, resolution,
timelines, etc
•Firm fixed price, low cost risk

7. DigitalGlobe Satellite Acquisitions
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
140%
160%
-200% 0% 200% 400% 600% 800%
ScheduleGrowth(Percent)
Cost Growth (Percent)

8. DigitalGlobe Satellite Acquisitions
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
140%
160%
-200% 0% 200% 400% 600% 800%
ScheduleGrowth(Percent)
Cost Growth (Percent)
WorldView-1
QuickBird, WorldView-2
(All cost growth has been absorbed entirely by
DigitalGlobe; none was passed on to the USG)

9. SLAs Enable This Performance
• Stable requirements
• Stable funding
• Stable, experienced staffing
• Managed innovation
• Eating our own cooking

10. Traditional Acquisition
• You buy the car
• You drive the car
• You pay for gas
• You fix the car if it breaks
Why Are SLAs Better?
• You buy a new car every few years
• And it all costs less than ownership
• When your relatives visit, we provide
extra cars for their use
SLA Acquisition
• You sign up for an SLA
• We drive the car
• We pay for gas
• We fix the car if it breaks
• We add a better car every few years

11. SLAs Most Applicable When
• Up-front investment is needed to create required
infrastructure
• Activity requires development and operations
• Long term, (mostly) predictable needs
• Bleeding edge technology not required
– SLA does allow for technology insertion
• There are multiple customers across whom to
spread costs, and enabling surge capacity

12. SLA Model is Applicable To
Imagery
Geospatial production
• & Analysis?
• Telecommunications
• Launch
• Weather?
• Cyber?