Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 25, 2011 FBO #3592
DOCUMENT

D -- TAC-11-02469 - Hitachi Server - (Submitted as 1 package broken into 5 packages due to Brand Name) - Justification and Approval (J&A)

Notice Date

9/23/2011
 

Notice Type

Justification and Approval (J&A)
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Technology Acquisition Center;260 Industrial Way West;Eatontown NJ 07724
 

ZIP Code

07724
 

Solicitation Number

VA11811RQ0637
 

Archive Date

11/15/2011
 

Point of Contact

Tony Owens
 

E-Mail Address

8-5585<br
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG07DA46B VA118-11-F-0434
 

Award Date

9/16/2011
 

Description

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY 1.Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Acquisition and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 260 Industrial Way West Eatontown, NJ 07724 2.Description of Action: The proposed action is for a Firm-Fixed-Price Delivery Order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) IV Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), for Hitachi servers and associated hardware with (3) three-year warranty the servers are required inorder to upgrade the currently fielded disaster recovery plan utilized at the following Virtual VA environment locations: Hines, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and, Fort Snelling, Minnesota. 3.Description of Supplies or Services: This proposed action will provide Hitachi hardware upgrade to the current legacy disaster recovery plan used by various Virtual VA environments. The Virtual VA environment is an infrastructure comprised of various hardware and software that allows veteran's claims to be processed. The current Virtual VA disaster recovery plan is a manual process that can require as much as (1) one work-week to re-establish the production system in the event of a catastrophe. The upgraded disaster recovery plan will allow VA to provide seamless data transmission to claims processors if the Virtual VA environment were to experience technical difficulties and/or operational downtime. If the Virtual VA environment were to experience these technical problems, the veteran's claims data would be transmitted to the Corporate Data Center Operations (CDCO) storage solution through the disaster recovery plan. The disaster recovery plan must include Hitachi hardware as described below: DescriptionPart Number Quantity Hitachi Dynamic Replicator SRVR-16G-8C-4D146G Server: w/4 146GB HDD, 16GB, 8cores, 2U, R710SRVR-16G-8C-4D146G5 Dummy drive for Modular/RAID 6001508441-001.P63 Modular 600GB SAS 15K RPM HDDDF-F800-AKH600.P7 Modular 1TB SATA 7.2K RPM HDDDF-F800-AVE1K.P35 Modular SAS/SATA Storage Expansion TrayDF-F800-RKAK.P7 36 Month 24x7 with 4 hr response Warranty for all equipmentNot Provided5 Installation & Configuration ServiceNot Provided5 The total estimated price of the proposed action is 4.Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting this exception to fair opportunity is 41 U.S.C. 253j(b) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) entitled, "Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized." 5.Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on extensive market research, as described in paragraph 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available for these brand name items. Currently the Virtual VA environments cannot be restored quickly and efficiently in the event of a catastrophe due to an inefficient disaster recovery plan. This proposed action will provide the Virtual VA project team the ability to immediately establish a disaster recovery plan that leverages the CDCO storage solution. The CDCO storage solution is comprised of Hitachi brand name hardware and software. Only a disaster recovery plan comprised of Hitachi hardware and software can provide compatibility and interoperability within the CDCO storage solution. Additionally, only the Hitachi hardware and software required for the disaster recovery plan provides a proprietary Hitachi synchronization capability called, "True Copy." "True Copy" provides high speed, low bandwidth data replication which is essential to the disaster recovery plan data transmission capability. Meeting the requirement of a high speed, low bandwidth dependent synchronization and replication is a critical requirement within the CDCO storage solution. Additionally, it is estimated that without the use of the proprietary "True Copy" Hitachi storage solution, the replication and synchronization of data would increase as much as fifty-percent (50%). The impact of the increase in replication and synchronization would directly affect bandwidth availability nationwide which would significantly increase network latency and slow the veterans' claims adjudication process. As noted, the Virtual VA environment is the means by which veterans' claims are processed. Furthermore, the additional infrastructure and resources required to implement and test a non-Hitachi disaster recovery plan would delay the implementation of the disaster recovery plan and place the Virtual VA environment at risk. If the Virtual VA application were to experience a catastrophe due to its current requirement to process a higher demand of claims, the harm to the veterans' would include an inability to process claims and provide benefits. The current Virtual VA disaster recovery plan manual process requires as much as (1) one work-week to re-establish the production system in the event of a catastrophe. It is estimated that the loss of production hours and rework would cost VA as much as $2.4M per disaster recovery incident. This procurement under TAC# 11-02469 identified required Hitachi hardware in order to make use of already invested procurements VA118-10-F-0457 Cisco and VA118-10-F-0452 Hitachi awarded September 30th, 2010. These procurements are in support of the Virtual VA production, disaster recovery, and testing environments as stated in Paragraph 3. Also, this Hitachi equipment is required in order for implementation of the procured solution for disaster recovery and test environments, under contract GS-06F-0514Z VA118-10-F-0010. 6.Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market Research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. Limited competition is anticipated for the required brand name items. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.3, this action will be synopsized at award on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) Page. In addition, this Justification will be made publicly available on the FBO Page. 7.Actions to Increase Competition: Although the Government is limiting competition as a result of specifying a brand name item, there are authorized resellers of these products on the NASA SEWP IV GWAC. Per the terms of the NASA SEWP IV contract, requirements for brand name specific equipment should be solicited to all four (4) groups (A, B, C, D) in order to fully notify all interested parties. However, since there is adequate competition among small businesses, quotes will only be accepted from Groups B (service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses) and C (Small businesses). Finally, in order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the Government's technical experts will work with the program office to perform additional market research so that other solutions can be identified and considered. 8.Market Research: The Government's technical experts conducted market research in August 2010 by reviewing similar hardware and software from Oracle Sun 7000, EMC (EMC Corporation), and Net Appliance. Based on an extensive technical review of these company's products, it was determined that none of these items could provide the required compatibility and interoperability with the CDCO storage solution. Additionally, none of these company's products can provide the "True Copy" high speed and low bandwidth data replication capabilities. Based on this market research, the Government's technical experts determined that only Hitachi hardware and software can meet all of the Government's aforementioned requirements. Additional market research was conducted in August 2010 utilizing the NASA SEWP IV GWAC Manufacturer Lookup tool and it was determined that thirty-three (33) authorized resellers of the Hitachi brand name items are current contract holders. There are four (4) groups under SEWP; the results found six (6) in Group A (Value Added Reseller and Computer System Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)); six (6) in Group B (Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)); and, twelve (12) in Group C (Small Businesses), and nine (9) in Group D (Value Added Resellers). Other vendors interested in competing for the award will be able to add the products, if they choose. Therefore, limited competition is expected for this proposed action. 9. Other Facts: Based on extensive market research as described above, the Government's technical experts determined that only Hitachi hardware and software can meet all of the Government's aforementioned requirements. Failure to acquire the aforementioned items would result in an inability to provide an upgraded disaster recovery plan, critically needed to ensure veteran's claims can be efficiently processed during a catastrophic event that would render the Virtual VA environment inoperable.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/4b274291fbf316279d4aa2a83e002484)
 

Document(s)

Justification and Approval (J&A)
 

File Name: NNG07DA46B VA118-11-F-0434 NNG07DA46B VA118-11-F-0434_1.doc (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=261478&FileName=NNG07DA46B-003.doc)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=261478&FileName=NNG07DA46B-003.doc

 

Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
 

Record

SN02591135-W 20110925/110924000645-4b274291fbf316279d4aa2a83e002484 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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