DOCUMENT
D -- Cloud Bridge - Attachment
- Notice Date
- 5/18/2015
- Notice Type
- Attachment
- NAICS
- 541519
— Other Computer Related Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Veterans Affairs;Technology Acquisition Center;23 Christopher Way;Eatontown NJ 07724
- ZIP Code
- 07724
- Solicitation Number
- VA11815N0124
- Response Due
- 5/26/2015
- Archive Date
- 7/25/2015
- Point of Contact
- Sarah H Kuna
- E-Mail Address
-
0-9651<br
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Introduction This Request for Information (RFI) is issued for market research and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation nor does it restrict the Government as to the ultimate acquisition approach. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Any contract that might be awarded based on information received or derived from this market research will be the outcome of a separate process. The purpose of this RFI is to identify qualified contractors who are able to meet the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) requirements, determine if commercial items are available or, could be modified to meet VA's requirements, determine the appropriate contract type i.e., firm fixed-price or cost-reimbursement or time and material, understand commercial pricing practices and other market information readily available. Background The fundamental mission of VA is to fulfill President Lincoln's promise "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan" by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's Veterans. VA works to fulfill this promise by providing Veterans, service members, and their families the benefits they have earned throughout their military service to the United States. VA accomplishes its mission by delivering client-centered, personalized services that assist Veterans with re-adjusting to civilian life and enhancing their lives. The types of client service interactions that are common to Veterans and their families in society are changing rapidly, along with their expectations for service levels. VA has an obligation to offer Veterans and their families the experiences they seek, leveraging technological advances to learn more about the needs and preferences of our clients, and becoming more proactive in serving them in an integrated fashion. The scope of this project is to provide information technology services related to the continued operations and maintenance of Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS) applications, Identity Access Management (IAM) applications and Chapter 33 applications. The Space and Naval Warfare System Command (SPAWAR), through implementation of the Agile Integrated Development Environment (AIDE), has been providing an enterprise-wide environment, accessible virtually from any location, which supports all aspects of the VA development lifecycle. This includes concept exploration and planning, business process modeling, requirements elicitation, architecture, detailed use cases and requirements, agile development, test-driven development, continuous integration, capacity planning, and all levels of testing. AIDE supports multiple development and testing environments and sustains these environments for product development, testing, performance testing, user acceptance testing, demonstrations, and training. AIDE also supports pre-production and production environments. VBMS is a multi-year project that has started the Veterans Benefit Administration's (VBA) transition from a paper-intensive claims processing environment to a paperless-based environment. This has allowed migration to electronic claims processing through the deployment of technology-based applications. Processing steps continue to be automated and existing applications modernized, resulting in more standardized, tracked, and efficient claims processing. IAM is a multi-project effort consisting of Identity and Access Services and twelve sub-activities to support a full integration across the IAM spectrum. These activities enable Veterans, beneficiaries and business partners to find information about VA's benefits and services; complete transactions with VA; be identified quickly by VA without having to repeat information; and seamlessly access multiple VA service lines. Chapter 33 is the Post 9/11 GI Bill application that automates the process for the Education Assistance as required by LAW. In July 2008 the Post-9/11 GI Bill was signed into law, creating a new robust education benefits program rivaling the WWII Era GI Bill of Rights. The new Post 9/11 GI Bill provide education benefits for service members who have served on active duty for 90 or more days since Sept. 10, 2001. These critical applications are currently hosted at Terremark through a contract between VA and Verizon Terremark Federal Group, Inc. The current contract expires on October 13, 2015. A competitive action is in process but may not be awarded before contract expiration. This action has generated the requirement for VA to issue a sole source contract to Terremark to continue seamless support while a competitive acquisition is processed. The sole source contract will be used to continue current services until a replacement environment is acquired through VA's competitive acquisition process. The sole source contract will be with Verizon's Terremark Federal Group, Inc., (One Biscayne Tower, 2S Biscayne Blvd, Suite 2900, Miami, Florida), for Cloud Infrastructure and System Administration Services to include the Terremark Data Storage environments. Requirements The Contractor will provide a Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) service model to support a 'Private Cloud,' which includes completely dedicated and shared components. This environment will deliver the essential characteristics (as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Definitions of Cloud Computing (NIST Special Publication 800-145)) that are unique to cloud computing services. This environment will additionally support failover to a secondary site, enhanced security services, disk backup, and encrypted tape backup (as directed), with offsite media storage at an approved storage facility (as directed). The Contractor also will offer dedicated support services for this environment. The provider must have an existing 10Gbps VA Business Partner Extranet (BPE) installed and operating at their location. The provider must maintain a FISMA High rating. The provider must also currently have obtained VA Authority to Operate (ATO) at the infrastructure level for FISMA High and FISMA Moderate. The time required for VA to acquire and implement a 10Gbps BPE connection is between six months and two years. It takes approximately six months to obtain a temporary VA ATO. The estimated transition of VA applications and data is 12 to 18 months. The services under this contract must be fully operational with all VA applications and data in place and running by October 14, 2015 to avoid any loss of critical VA services to Veterans. The estimated duration of the contract is 12-months to allow continued seamless support until the competitive acquisition is complete and allow for transition of support. Submittal Information This is a RFI only. A DRAFT PWS is attached to this RFI. It is requested that all companies capable of providing the required support in the timeframe required provide indication of their respective capabilities to perform the effort described above. Marketing material will not be accepted as an indication of capability. It is also requested that the vendor respond to the following questions: 1.Does your company have an active VA FISMA High ATO for a cloud infrastructure? 2.Does your proposed facilities each have an operational 10Gbps VA BPE? 3.Can your company provide seamless support by October 14, 2015? 4.Describe how your company can transition the environments, how long it would take, and how you will achieve operational status before October 14, 2015. Your description at a minimum should include the following: a.The process you will use and the timeline required to modify and obtain FISMA High ATO with the new applications; b.The process and timeline you will utilize to modify your current environment to physically and logically accept the new applications; c.The process and timeline to migrate the application and data while guaranteeing full functionality with no loss. It is requested that interested contractors submit a response (electronic submission) of no more than 15 pages in length, single spaced, 12 point font minimum that addresses the above information. In response to the RFI, interested contractors shall submit the above information by 5:00PM ET on May 26, 2015, via email to sarah.kuna@va.gov. This RFI is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered an Invitation for Bids, Request for Task Execution Plan, Request for Quotations or a Request for Proposal. Additionally, there is no obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services described in this RFI. Your response to this RFI will be treated only as information for the Government to consider. You will not be entitled to payment for direct or indirect costs that you incur in responding to this RFI. This request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated or received for this effort. The information provided may be used by VA in developing its acquisition strategy and Performance Work Statement. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government does not intend to pay for the information submitted in response to this RFI. Points of Contact: Sarah Kuna, Contract Specialist, Department of Veterans Affairs Technology Acquisition Center, Phone (732) 440-9651, Email sarah.kuna@va.gov.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/9e1129fcc732712f31f86dad9dc86de0)
- Document(s)
- Attachment
- File Name: VA118-15-N-0124 VA118-15-N-0124.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2052523&FileName=VA118-15-N-0124-000.docx)
- Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2052523&FileName=VA118-15-N-0124-000.docx
- File Name: VA118-15-N-0124 Cloud_PWS DRAFT Version.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2052524&FileName=VA118-15-N-0124-001.docx)
- Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2052524&FileName=VA118-15-N-0124-001.docx
- Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
- File Name: VA118-15-N-0124 VA118-15-N-0124.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2052523&FileName=VA118-15-N-0124-000.docx)
- Record
- SN03734816-W 20150520/150518235301-9e1129fcc732712f31f86dad9dc86de0 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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