Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF OCTOBER 08, 2003 FBO #0680
SOURCES SOUGHT

D -- Maintenance and Support Services for Certain Community-Supported Linux Distributions

Notice Date

10/6/2003
 

Notice Type

Sources Sought
 

Contracting Office

Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office, SSMC4 - Room 7601/OFA61 1305 East West Highway, 7th Floor, Silver Spring, MD, 20910
 

ZIP Code

20910
 

Solicitation Number

Reference-Number-RFIPDO1
 

Response Due

10/17/2003
 

Archive Date

10/31/2003
 

Point of Contact

Phillip Osborne, Contract Specialist, Phone 301-713-3405, Fax 301-713-1024, - Anita Middleton, Contract Specialist, Phone 301-713-0828 x129, Fax 301-713-0806,
 

E-Mail Address

Philip.Osborne@noaa.gov, Anita.R.Middleton@noaa.gov
 

Description

The National Weather Service (NWS), within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), requests information from parties who are interested in and capable of providing maintenance, support, and system integration services for one or more of the following Linux distributions: Debian Gnu/Linux; Red Hat Linux Project Linux; or Slackware Linux. For convenience, those distributions will be referred to hereafter as ?community supported Linux distributions? (CSLDs). Generally speaking, the service provider will provide those services which would, in the case of a commercial distribution, be provided by the distribution vendor. The required services include all of the following: a) Providing patches as required. In the event that the CLSD?s organization does not provide an acceptable patch for a bug that has the potential to impact NWS operations, the service provider will provide such a patch. b) Testing patches. On request, the service provider will test patches on specified configurations of the CSLD. Those tests might be carried out on Government-furnished equipment or at Government sites. c) Adapting drivers. In the event that the NWS equires a driver for a device that is not supported for a CSLD version the NWS is using, the service provider will adapt an existing Linux driver. d) Installation support. The service provider will provide consultation and possibly on-site support for installation of the CSLD on off-the-shelf and customized X86-based desktop, workstation, and server systems. It is expected that the NWS will require support, as outlined above, for a given CSLD version for about three years following its initial release. Target platforms include high-performance graphics workstations, high-availability server clusters, office desktop systems, web servers, and other configurations. NWS will use its own servers to deploy patches. Responders are encouraged to suggest additional support and system integration services that might assist the Government in using one or more of the above-listed CSLDs in mission-critical, enterprise-scale systems. However, the following are explicitly outside the scope of this Request for Information: deployment and installation of patches; update management systems; and configuration management systems. Interested parties should respond in writing with the following information: a) A description of the scope of the services the vendor proposes to offer to meet the above-described needs. b) The approximate number of employees the vendor has who are qualified to provide the service. c) Whether the vendor would use subcontractors in providing this service. d) A description of any relevant past experience. For example: which CSLDs and versions the responder has supported; what kind of support was provided; types and numbers of hardware platforms on which the CSLD was supported; length of relevant experience. Where possible, names of customers should be provided. e) Any other information that will assist the NWS in judging the vendor?s qualifications for this task. f) A suggested fee structure. (No actual cost or pricing information is required at this time.) Responders to this RFI should provide a point of contact, including the representative?s name, email address, and telephone number. Written responses to this RFI should not exceed ten (10) pages. Please submit digital copies to Phillip D. Osborne (Phillip.Osborne@noaa.gov) in either WordPerfect or Microsoft Word formats. Responses should be received no later than 10/17/2003. Responding to this RFI is not a prerequisite for participating in any subsequent acquisition.
 

Place of Performance

Address: 1325 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD

Zip Code: 20882

Country: USA
 

Record

SN00448151-W 20031008/031006213114 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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