Prepare, Protect, Prosper: Chameleon Integrated Services Bridges Today’s IT Systems with the Future

Federal and state government agencies across the country are busy trying to modernize and upgrade their outdated legacy IT systems to keep up with the latest technologies, operate at maximum efficiency and maintain defenses against growing cybersecurity threats. Mandates from the highest levels of government now call for consolidating data centers and migrating systems and processes to the cloud while better protecting information. Public and private sector organizations of all types are facing critical choices in bringing their IT systems into the 21st century and complying with a maze of performance and security requirements.

Enter Chameleon Integrated Services, a small business prime contractor to the United States Department of Defense and other federal agencies that provides a wide range of Information Technology consulting, support and services to agencies and organizations worldwide. Chameleon is a proven and trusted solutions partner that delivers transformational results and successful outcomes to federal agencies, state and local governments, and commercial companies. The company focuses on helping clients successfully capture and deploy critical opportunities in IT modernization, cloud computing and building the workforce of the 21st century while enhancing information assurance by mitigating cybersecurity risks.

“Mainframe migration to the cloud and data center consolidation is the policy of the federal government now, and many of our customers face the overwhelming task of modernizing their IT applications and systems,” said Jeff Kelley, Chief Executive Officer of Chameleon Integrated Services.“The costs and complexity of migrating applications to other platforms and the cloud are full of inherent risks. Deadlines imposed by some government policies can often make the process even more complex, while cybersecurity threats are ever more present and significant. Many of our customers have ‘Top Secret’ security classifications, making them even bigger targets for cybersecurity threats. And the new ‘target’ system must comply with all federally-mandated security requirements.”

Chameleon responds to these challenges with a unique approach that is built around one set of goals: to help its customers Prepare, Protect, Prosper.

Prepare focuses on IT modernization: Chameleon offers a complete suite of services designed to modernize even the most obsolete infrastructure and put customers in a position to succeed now and optimize for the future. This includes testing IT security defenses, preparing a management plan for corrective action to address any issues, leading legacy system retirement projects and managing data center modernization and consolidation efforts. Chameleon assists with large-scale data migrations to the cloud and helps optimize data structures.

Protect focuses on Cybersecurity: The Company understands the threat, knows the landscape, builds cybersecurity into every plan, and uses modern tools to implement highly effective defenses. Across all projects, people and tasks, Chameleon possesses ways to ensure safety and security on networks, storage solutions, application development, and personnel. Its suite of advisory services is designed to assess risk, identify gaps, and create a successful roadmap to transform current cyber practice into a robust line of defense across all channels.

Prosper focuses on Continuous Improvement: Chameleon understands its customer’s Mission and helps plan for the future, leading the transformation of IT mission-critical needs. It looks deeply at the whole picture and prepares a plan to execute against those items. The user experience is at the heart of this process; understanding user requirements, routines,and established protocols, and collaboratively working together to establish new ways of getting the work done with better results.

“Chameleon is differentiated by our technology roadmap approach to achieving business outcomes that include advisory services, cybersecurity, IT modernization, risk management strategies, and cloud solutions,” says Drew Acree, President and Chief Operating Officer of Chameleon Integrated Services. “We also possess a Top-Secret federal government security clearance and have an exceptional past performance record.”

The Genesis and Growth of Chameleon

Kelley and Acree started Chameleon in a small office in 2003 and spent the first year applying for and receiving federal government contractor certifications. Both are serial entrepreneurs who are dedicated to customer success. They both share a mission to help customers prepare, protect and prosper. Their perspective on how to accomplish this mission was well aligned and they both decided to proceed on what has become a very productive journey.

In 2004, Chameleon secured its first federal subcontract in the civilian sector with the United States Department of Agriculture, and in 2007 was awarded its first prime contract with USDA in Washington, DC. At this point, the company expanded to more than 100 employees. Since then, Chameleon has expanded steadily through contracts with multiple agencies inside the Department of Defense and has made Inc. Magazine’s annual 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list four times. Today the headquarters is in a fully renovated 27,000 square foot historically significant building in midtown St. Louis. This past year Chameleon rebranded itself to better reflect its mission to help customers Prepare, Protect, Prosper.

Today the company offers a suite of services that include advisory, cybersecurity consulting, cloud, IT modernization, managed services, and network engineering.

Advisory Services: These services are designed to help facilitate improved processes, optimization of people, resources, and budgets, and managing programs and projects on an on-going basis. They include IT Strategy Development, Cybersecurity, Regulatory, Compliance, Risk Assessment, Risk Management Framework (RMF) Design & Implementation, Program & Risk Management, Cost & IT Optimization and Efficiencies Analysis, Requirements Analysis, IT Asset Management Planning, and IT Solutions Engineering & Architecture Development.

Cybersecurity: This suite of advisory services is designed to assess risk, identify gaps, and create a success map to transform cyber practice into a robust line of defense across all channels, projects, people and tasks. Chameleon finds ways to ensure safety and security on networks, in storage solutions, in application development and personnel by reducing an organization’s Cyberattacks surface.

IT Modernization: Chameleon offers a complete suite of services designed to modernize even the most obsolete infrastructure. A team of experts can test IT security defenses, prepare a management plan for corrective action to address any issues and lead legacy system retirement projects and data center modernization and consolidation efforts. This includes assistance with large-scale data migrations to the cloud and helps optimizing data structures. This end-to-end IT modernization solution puts customers in a position to succeed now and optimize for the future.

Cloud Services: Whether the business outcome is to reduce hardware costs or comply with migrations of applications to an approved DoD, Civilian or Commercial cloud, Chameleon possesses the experience to successfully migrate applications and infrastructure to the cloud. Services include Cloud & Cloud Migratory Advisory, Infrastructure Management,and Network Engineering.

Managed Services: Chameleon is known for recruiting sought-after IT employees across the country from a wide range of backgrounds, including many with Top-Secret government security clearances, and leveraging their strengths into successful teams that consistently make a difference in our nation’s security.

Network Engineering: Chameleon offers a suite of services to ensure the blocking and tackling work gets done, from network infrastructure installation and management to network monitoring and patch management. Its network engineering group can assist with wireless and virtual network needs, as well as help design and implement enterprise voice-over-internet protocol (eVoIP) systems.Services include Enterprise Network Monitoring, Patch Management, Configuration Management, Cabling & Network Installation, VPN, VDI and SDN, eVoIP and Information Security Continuous Monitoring.

As a minority and SBA-certified Small Disadvantaged Business prime contractor to the federal government, Chameleon typically contracts with government agencies for a fixed scope of services and time period. Other contracts are part of a Defense Information Systems Agency IT Enterprise Support Services (DISA) contract awarded to Chameleon to compete for more than $400 million of military IT services and equipment over a five-year period.

“The Department of Defense is our largest customer,” says Acree. “We have had great success in areas that require a Top-Secret classified security clearance as a prerequisite to serving the customer. Organizations and companies operating in regulated industries are our sweet spot. The Department of Defense, as well as the energy, financial services, and healthcare industries, all have security and compliance constraints that are an everyday part of operating their business. We understand those constraints and how to navigate effectively within those business models.”

“The federal government is a very large market, and looking ahead our focus will remain on helping its many agencies update and migrate their legacy systems and processes to the cloud and other modernized platforms while managing the ever-increasing cybersecurity risks,” says Kelley. “We will continue to help our customers Prepare, Protect, Prosper!”

Greet the Leaders

Jeff Kelley is the CEO of Unitech Consulting, LLC (D/B/A Chameleon Integrated Services) and serves on its Advisory Board. Jeff is responsible for the strategic vision, financial infrastructure, and all aspects of corporate operations. In addition, he serves as an advisor for business development and customer relationship management. Prior to founding Unitech Consulting, Jeff founded Interlock Resources, Inc. and was a partner/owner in other Information Technology firms. He earned an MBA and a Bachelor of Business & Information Technology from Wayne State University.

Drew Acree is the President of Unitech Consulting, LLC (D/B/A Chameleon Integrated Services) and serves on its Advisory Board. Drew is responsible for the sales and operations of all classified and unclassified Federal contracts Chameleon supports as a prime or subcontractor. He interfaces with Government leadership and develops and executes strategic plans focused on helping the company meet long-term performance targets. Prior to founding Unitech Consulting, Drew was in Business Development focused on IT managed services projects and staff augmentation. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Washington University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Computer Information Services from Missouri State University.

“We bridge the gap between strategic vision and functional delivery by deploying transformational results to our clients.”