SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- USCG IT Infrastructure RFI Q&A Session - RFI HSCG79-16-RFI0001
- Notice Date
- 4/14/2016
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 519190
— All Other Information Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Homeland Security, United States Coast Guard (USCG), C4IT (C3CEN), Coast Guard Blvd, Portsmouth, Virginia, 23703, United States
- ZIP Code
- 23703
- Solicitation Number
- HSCG79-16-RFI0001
- Point of Contact
- Katherine Marie Kearney, Phone: 7572952280
- E-Mail Address
-
katherine.m.kearney@uscg.mil
(katherine.m.kearney@uscg.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Request for Information for USCG IT Infrastructure as a Strategic Asset The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is seeking information and corporate capabilities statements from interested vendors to provide a full range of services and solutions necessary to securely enable the USCG Enterprise IT Infrastructure and meet transformation objectives. The purpose of this request is to conduct market research to collect input from Industry and determine the interest, availability, and capabilities of large and small business firms under various Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts and/or existing Government Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) relevant to USCG's Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure transformation efforts. This request does not constitute a Request for Quotation (RFQ) or a promise to issue an RFQ. This request does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service. USCG is not seeking proposals at this time - only corporate capabilities statements should be submitted. Responders are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay any cost incurred in response to this request. All costs associated with responding to this request will be solely at the interested party's expense. All submissions become the property of the Federal Government and will not be returned. Therefore, all items that are confidential to business, or contain trade secrets, proprietary, or personnel information must be clearly marked. The information provided in this Sources Sought notice is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. VENDOR INFORMATION SESSION USCG intends to host a vendor information session at its facility located at 7323 Telegraph Rd, Alexandria, VA 22315 on April 26th, 2016, to provide additional background information regarding this Sources Sought notice. During this session, USCG will further describe its existing IT infrastructure, the constraints of our environment, and will further elaborate on the objectives and critical success factors listed in this notice. Attendance at this session is not required to submit a response to this Sources Sought notice, but vendors may find the additional information helpful. Any questions that the vendor would like USCG to consider addressing during the session should be forwarded to Katherine Kearney at Katherine.M.Kearney@uscg.mil no later than April 20, 2016. DESCRIPTION: USCG IT Infrastructure RFI Q&A Session WHEN: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 p.m. WHERE: Telecommunication and Information Systems Command (TISCOM) 7323 Telegraph Road, Alexandria, VA 22315 REGISTRATION: • Each individual must pre-register to attend this event. Please register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/uscg-it-infrastructure-rfi-qa-session-tickets-24660354785. Please provide full name, company name, phone number, and email address. • There is no cost to attend this event; however, space is limited to the first 50 registrants. • Registration will be closed on Friday, April 22, 2016, or when the attendance limit is reached. Please note: To enter the base, each attendee must be on the registration list and present a valid government-issued photo identification. Visitor parking is limited at TISCOM; car pooling is encouraged. To drive on base, drivers without a valid government vehicle decal must possess: (1) valid insurance card, (2) drivers license, and (3) vehicle registration. There is no Metro station within walking distance. All guests must be registered with USCG in advance of the session. Walk-ins will not be permitted the day of the event. SOURCES SOUGHT SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS All capabilities statements sent in response to this Sources Sought notice must be submitted via e-mail to Katherine Kearney at Katherine.M.Kearney@uscg.mil no later than 2:00pm EST, May 16, 2016. The subject line of the email must include: 1) Sources sought number. 2) The words "Capability Statement". 3) The name of the submitting vendor. The body of the email must include: 1) Vendor's name. 2) Vendor's DUNS number. 3) Name, phone number, and email address for the vendor's single point of contact. 4) Vendor's mailing address. 5) Brief summary of the email's content, including attached file names and description. 6) Business size The total page count of all files submitted shall not exceed 20 pages in length. Only electronic submissions will be accepted.   INTRODUCTION The Commandant of the United States Coast Guard in his 2015-2019 Strategic Intent announced: Today's United States Coast Guard faces historic challenges. As we strive to meet the increasing demands of everyday operations while remaining prepared for more frequent major incidents, we must confront a host of unprecedented modern risks that threaten our Nation's security and prosperity. From historic levels of violence in Central America to increased activity in the newly-navigable waters of the Arctic, from the vast and complex reaches of cyberspace to the bustling and rapidly-changing energy trade that is now fueled by significant domestic production, we are facing a convergence of risks that demand the Coast Guard's strategic action and commitment of resources......In fulfilling our Service's responsibility to ensure the safety, security, and stewardship of our Nations waters, the Coast Guard must: understand our strategic environment, adapt to the strategic challenges in all domains, and achieve and maintain a resilient service that is always ready for the realities of the 21st century. In addition to the complex threats and challenges this Strategic Intent addresses, it also recognizes that austere fiscal realities demand efficiency in all of our efforts. Reductions felt across government require innovative approaches in our allocation of resources to meet mission requirements in the 21st century... BACKGROUND The United States Coast Guard (USCG) relies heavily on the availability of Information Technology (IT) systems and infrastructure to deliver the information necessary for the USCG to accomplish its Missions. The Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and IT Service Center (C4ITSC) provides full life-cycle support for IT systems and infrastructure across the USCG. The C4ITSC is comprised of three (3) Centers of Excellence (COEs): Command, Control & Communications Engineering Center (C3CEN), Operations Systems Center (OSC), and Telecommunications and Information Systems Command (TISCOM). These COEs support numerous Product Lines, Core Technologies, and Shared Services. Established in 2009, the C4ITSC resides within CG-6 under the Deputy Commandant for Mission Support (DCMS). The organization places all accountability for C4IT systems and assets in a single chain of command headed by an O-6 Commander and O-6 Deputy. The formation of C4ITSC was primarily focused on internal restructuring and management including the consolidation of budget, reporting, and internal processes. Although the restructuring achieved its internal consolidation objectives, C4ITSC continues to face challenges leveraging the consolidation to improve service delivery and offer new capability. C4ITSC is overwhelmed by the challenges associated with operating and maintaining an IT infrastructure that evolved over time in a patchwork fashion while attempting to design, engineer, and deploy future infrastructure and systems that support the rapidly growing demand for secure information availability anytime, anywhere, and anyplace. In order to overcome the challenges associated with maintaining continuity of operations while improving service delivery and offering new capability, C4ITSC has embarked on an ambitious transformation effort. This initiative is consistent with the message in the Commandant's Strategic Intent. C4ITSC is thinking strategically about our environment and the challenges it presents in order to develop and maintain a robust IT infrastructure capable of supporting the information demand of the 21st Century Coast Guard. As we rethink what we do, and how we do it, we will leverage technology innovation and creative solutions to transform within fiscal constraints. USCG must improve the efficiency of our core infrastructure operations and existing service delivery so that we can create more capacity and capability to deliver secure information on demand to a fully mobile workforce. The modernization necessary to fully mobilize USCG's workforce will require us to treat the Network as a Strategic Asset. USCG's IT Infrastructure scope spans data at rest to the delivery of information to an end user. Our future Network will be the key enabler to C4ITSC providing the capability and performance that USCG must rely on to complete its Mission into the future. C4ITSC faces significant challenges in providing a resilient and secure IT Infrastructure necessary for Mission success, including increased demands on services and capabilities, declining budgets and manpower, and rapidly increasing and more sophisticated cyber threats. The future USCG IT Infrastructure must have the ability to support daily operations and the ability to scale and support surge operations. Surge operations range in size, scope and complexity from local sailing regattas to nationally significant events such as Deepwater Horizon, Hurricane Sandy and the Haiti Earthquake. The current USCG IT infrastructure is operated and maintained as a.mil network in accordance with DOD guidance and adheres to DoD policy for DODIN operations. It supports over 54,000 users worldwide at 823 sites throughout CONUS, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico; with many remote locations. It also supports 230 Coast Guard cutters (in port and underway) and the CG fleet of fixed winged aircrafts while flying missions. These services are delivered in both the Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) and SECRET environments. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES USCG recognizes it must partner with Industry to identify an Enterprise approach to achieving the following performance objectives associated with transforming its IT Infrastructure to support USCG into the future: Objective Critical Success Factors/Strategic Challenges 1. Protect Coast Guard's data at rest and deliver information securely. a. Comply with all Federal Security mandates, including DoD, FISMA, NIST, and FedRAMP standards. b. Measure, report, and mitigate vulnerabilities perpetually. c. Operate in a.mil domain and adhere to DoD policy for DODIN operations. d. Retain ownership of key cyber terrain (e.g., the USCG private cloud at OSC Martinsburg and other regional service points) and support a hybrid cloud environment. e. Reduce the overall attack surface (e.g., deploy technologies such as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure). 2. Increase workforce productivity and improve customer satisfaction. a. Provide an IT Infrastructure that will support the demands of a fully mobilized workforce (i.e., deliver reliable access to business services and data across heterogeneous networks from any device and location world-wide). b. Provide capacity that will keep up with the bandwidth-hungry demands of evolving capabilities offered by cloud-based applications and Unified Communications. c. Enable the rapid set-up and/or relocation of facilities or access points by ensuring fast provisioning time for new connection points and circuits, including direct connection to Cloud-based service offerings. d. Provide the capability to instantly set-up collaboration platforms for interoperability in emergency situations. e. Offer creative solutions to compensate for challenges associated with high latency areas. f. Establish meaningful and measurable service delivery metrics that emphasize performance elements critical to client satisfaction. 3. Provide initial cost reductions and offer future cost avoidance opportunities. a. Leverage new technologies and engineering designs to reduce costs by 20%. b. Create a flexible and scalable infrastructure that can evolve with growing consumption of information. Leverage cloud-based services (IaaS, PaaS, etc.), managed services, and existing telecommunications infrastructure as appropriate. To achieve the preceding objectives and meet the strategic challenges faced, USCG is interested in forward looking, but proven technologies, designs, and service models that can be confidently deployed. USCG is very interested in hearing what Industry has accomplished in this space and Industry's thoughts on how it can be applied to meet USCG objectives and strategic challenges. VENDOR RESPONSES For purposes of this inquiry, USCG emphasizes that IT Infrastructure scope spans from data at rest to the delivery of information to an end user. Vendors should focus their responses accordingly. USCG recognizes that a complete solution to our Network modernization may require vendor teaming to achieve a comprehensive solution. Vendors are asked to provide the following information: 1) A description of how your firm would address each of USCG's Performance Objectives and Strategic Challenges. For the solutions suggested, provide specific demonstrated capability where your firm deployed a similar technology or technique and what result was achieved. Areas to include: a. Demonstrated capabilities in providing or procuring publically available, cost effective cloud infrastructure, including demonstrated performance migrating organizations in full or in part to a cloud-based solution; design of internal/external clouds; demonstrated capabilities in secured virtual desktop solutions. b. Demonstrated capabilities in managing data and business services across multiple heterogeneous networks. c. Demonstrated capabilities in mobile and wireless communications. d. Demonstrated capability mobilizing IT solutions immediately for crisis or disaster response internationally, including interoperability capability. 2) If this was a Request for Proposal (RFP), what additional information would you need from the USCG? E.g., specific environment data including network architecture, connection points, current bandwidth consumption by site, list of business applications, etc. 3) A list of relevant Federal Supply Schedules (FSSs) and other Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) that your firm currently holds. Include the contract number, vehicle name, and a brief description of the relevant scope for each mechanism provided.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/fed7512029db347d277dfaacbca19f0d)
- Place of Performance
- Address: DESCRIPTION:, USCG IT Infrastructure RFI Q&A Session, WHEN: Tuesday, April 26, 2016, 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 p.m., WHERE:, Telecommunication and Information Systems Command (TISCOM), 7323 Telegraph Road, Alexandria, VA 22315, Alexandria, Virginia, 22315, United States
- Zip Code: 22315
- Zip Code: 22315
- Record
- SN04083733-W 20160416/160414234135-fed7512029db347d277dfaacbca19f0d (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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