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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JUNE 27, 2009 FBO #2770
SOLICITATION NOTICE

D -- Participation fee and port connection fee for UMD MAX

Notice Date

6/25/2009
 

Notice Type

Presolicitation
 

NAICS

519130 — Internet Publishing and Broadcasting and Web Search Portals
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Center for Acquisition Innovation (Austin), VA CAI Austin, Department of Veterans Affairs;OA&L;1701 Directors Blvd;Suite 810;Austin TX 78744
 

ZIP Code

78744
 

Solicitation Number

VA-798A-09-RP-0197
 

Response Due

6/29/2009
 

Archive Date

7/1/2009
 

Point of Contact

Angela DerenContract Specialist<br />
 

E-Mail Address

Contract Specialist
(Angela.Deren@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, has a requirement for participation in the University of Maryland's Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (also known as MAX) project as stated in the below Sole Source Justification. Solicitation VA-798A-09-RP-0197 is being issued as a Request for Proposals (RFP). This requirement is being procured as a firm fixed price contract under FAR 12, Commercial Items. The applicable NAICS code is 519130 and the size standard is 500 employees. This solicitation is issued as unrestricted. Proposals are due on June 29, 2009 at 5:00pm Central time. Please note: Contractor must be registered with Central Contractor Registration to be eligible for contract award or payment from a Federal Government entity. Information on registration may be obtained by calling 1-800-334-3414 or via the Internet at http://www.ccr.gov. Registration requires applicants to have a DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet. Recommend registering immediately in order to be eligible for timely award. Justification for Full and Open Competition Each justification shall contain sufficient facts and rationale to justify the use of the specific authority cited. As required of FAR 6.302-3(c), each justification shall include the following information: 1. Requesting Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology (005) 810 Vermont Ave Mail Stop 005OP3 Washington, DC 20420 Contracting activity:Department of Veterans Affairs CAI - Austin 1615 Woodward Street Austin, TX 78772 2. Nature and/or description of the action: Participation in the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads advanced regional inter-networking project infrastructure to make advanced networking services available among networking participants. 3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs (including the estimated value): 1.Participation fee for the period from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. 2.Port connection at 1,000 mega bites per section for the period from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. 4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition. 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(3)(B) or 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(3)(B). FAR 6.302-3 (a)(2)(ii) To establish or maintain an essential engineering, research, or development capability to be provided by an educational or other nonprofit institution or a federally funded research and development center 5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited. Please provide a complete the description of all unique qualifications provided by MAX and Internet 2 to support the authority cited in the attached document. Internet2 is a consortium led by the higher education and research community in the U.S. that maintains an advanced high performance computer network. Its focus is to provide leading-edge network capabilities to its members and unique partnership opportunities that facilitate the development, deployment, and use of revolutionary Internet technologies, such as the (OMB) mandated Internet protocol, IPv6. A unique qualification of the Internet2 network is that is fully supports the IPv6 protocol, and provides a testing bed for VA's implementation of this new technology. Additionally, many of VA's academic affiliates as well as Federal agencies (e.g. National Institutes of Health) are members of the consortium. Connecting to the Internet2 network allows computer network traffic between VA and these institutions to travel over Internet2 rather than traversing the Internet, and may improve traffic flow to/from the Internet. Furthermore, the Internet2 network can support extremely large volumes of data transfer at very high speeds (1 Gigabit or more) not available over the commercial Internet and that may be required by increasingly sophisticated and specialized multimedia applications. The consortium has projects and programs developing and testing these types of applications (e.g. telepresence) in several areas including education and healthcare. Internet2 is also working with the Federal Communications Commission on the Federal Rural Healthcare Pilot Program, an enhanced funding initiative intended to help public and non-profit health care providers construct state- and region-wide broadband networks to provide telehealth and telemedicine services. With other Federal agencies, such as Indian Health Services participating, this project may help VA improve delivery of remote healthcare services and enhance VA data sharing capabilities. Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (also known as MAX) is one of several research and education regional computer networking organizations across the country known as Internet2 connectors. These organizations serve as network access points or conduits to the Internet2 network for Internet2 members and aggregate network traffic that is destined for Internet2 from various institutions in their local geographic area. MAX is a special type of connector known as a Gigapop, or Gigabit Point of Presence. It is one of several Gigapops across the country that specifically provides very high speed access (at least one gigabit per second - 1 Gbps) to the Internet2 network. MAX provides this service to higher education, Federal agency, and non-profit institutions in the Washington, D.C. area. 6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies. A combined synopsis/solicitation will be issued in FedBizOpps. 7. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. Negotiated costs will be based on available list prices and market research quotes previously obtained. 8. A description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted. VA has two requirements for Internet2 network access. First, VA's originating connection will be made from its Reston, Virginia network center location at Sprint. The second requirement is a connection speed of 1 Gbps. Because the originating connection is in the Washington, D.C area, the Internet2 connector organization should ideally be in the same geographic region to keep down the cost of installing and maintaining the connection. MAX is the only Internet2 connector for the Washington, D.C. region. MAX is also able to meet the second requirement for connection speed. It is a Gigapop organization and can provide the Department with the required access speed of 1 Gbps. 9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition, such as: Please provide: (i) Explanation of why technical data packages, specifications, engineering descriptions, statements of work, or purchase descriptions suitable for full and open competition have not been developed or are not available. Both Internet2 and Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX) are organizations instituted primarily to support the academic and research communities in the U.S. Their mission is to provide the infrastructure to help these communities develop the new technologies and applications. The intent of VA is to use its membership in these organizations to do research and further explore new networking capabilities and applications that can be applied in VA lines of business, including healthcare delivery and education of its workforce. Formal membership may further support research projects already underway between VA staff and other Internet2 members because of enhanced network connectivity and a general awareness campaign by both VA and Internet2. 10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition. Please provide a list of sources that expressed an interest in the acquisition. University of Maryland Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX) 11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required. The University of Maryland is the only group that can provide these services at this time because what we are requesting to participate in is a lab environment. Only local, federal government agencies and educational institutions can participate. No other sources can be solicited for this need.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/f5dfe03f5a281c9420dad1dc3894a01d)
 

Place of Performance

Address: Department of Veterans Affairs;Center for Acquisition Innovation - Austin;1615 Woodward Street;Austin, TX<br />

Zip Code: 78772<br />
 

Record

SN01856313-W 20090627/090625235332-f5dfe03f5a281c9420dad1dc3894a01d (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

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