Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF JULY 28, 2016 FBO #5361
DOCUMENT

R -- GenISIS Hardware Maintenance for HPC - Attachment

Notice Date

7/26/2016
 

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

VA11816Q1359
 

Archive Date

11/2/2016
 

Point of Contact

Joe Pignataro, Contract Specialist
 

E-Mail Address

5-1115<br
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG15SD25B VA118-16-F-1238
 

Award Date

7/26/2016
 

Awardee

THREE WIRE SYSTEMS, LLC;3130 FAIRVIEW PARK DR STE 425;FALLS CHURCH;VA;22042
 

Award Amount

$165,032.39
 

Description

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY 1.Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Acquisition Operations Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, New Jersey 07724 2.Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), for hardware maintenance and telephone support services for a currently fielded solution comprised of brand name Arista Networks (Arista), Dell Inc. (Dell), EMC Corporation (EMC) Isilon, and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) hardware, software and firmware that make up the Genomic Informatics System for Integrative Science (GenISIS) High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC). 3.Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to provide maintenance and support for the hardware, software, and firmware components that comprise the GenISIS HPCC, which is no longer under warranty support. The GenISIS HPCC is located in both Boston and Pittsburgh presently. The HPCC consists of products from multiple vendors: Arista, Dell, EMC, and IBM. VA Office of Information and Technology has a requirement for an authorized service provider be able to support the entire suite of components concurrently. Maintenance and support for hardware includes break fix, part installation, and configuration consultation. Software support and maintenance includes bug fixes, patches, upgrades, and feature releases. Firmware support includes fixes and upgrades. The period of performance shall be 12 months from date of award, with two 12-month option periods. The total estimated value of the proposed action (inclusive of two 12-month option periods) is 4.Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) 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 section 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers of these brand name hardware, software, and firmware support services. This acquisition is to support the current GenISIS HPCC with continuous coverage and support for hardware, software, and firmware support services. The GenISIS HPCC components are interconnected and inter-dependent on each other, acting as one complete system and therefore requires a single solution for support. Due to this inter-dependency, all the hardware, software, and firmware in this system require a holistic solution for troubleshooting to ensure proper root cause analysis. Having multiple non-integrated service providers will likely result in extended downtimes due to lack of clear ownership and accountability by multiple vendors, confusion on who to engage when issues arise, and logistical difficulties in organizing multiple vendors to support integrated solutions. This will result in extended downtime which will cause GenISIS to be unable to retrieve, process, and catalogue the 500 vials of blood received daily from Veterans across the country in support of the Million Veterans Program. Furthermore this could potentially result in the loss, contamination, or the inability to use the sample for research as well as result in the inability of the 50 national sites to recruit, schedule, and process volunteer Veteran's demographics, or catalogue their biological medical samples in the field. Only an authorized and certified service provider for the existing Arista, Dell, EMC, and IBM equipment will meet the Government's requirement due to the proprietary nature of the hardware, software, and firmware. Only authorized service providers will be able to acquire and implement vendor specific software upgrades, patches, bug fixes, and revision upgrades. Any attempt by non-authorized service providers could result in the need to get the equipment re-certified by the vendors, should the Government require future warranty and support services for these components. Additionally, replacement parts may be required to complete hardware repairs to ensure the performance of the system is maintained. The GenISIS HPCC service is required to utilize vendor specific parts to ensure compatibility, consistency, reliability, quality control, and manageability of the entire HPCC computing platform. Based on the above, only an authorized and certified for the existing Arista, Dell, EMC, and IBM equipment that comprise the GenISIS HPCC will satisfy the Government's requirement. 6.Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government's requirements. It was determined however that limited competition is viable among Authorized Public Sector Resellers for this brand name hardware, software, and firmware support services. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(2), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all interested NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), notice of award of the resulting order will be synopsized and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days after award on the Federal Business Opportunity website. 7.Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the Government's technical experts will continue to perform market research to determine if there are any suites of support available that will enable future requirements to be competed. 8.Market Research: Government technical experts conducted market research was in May 2016 by researching other services offered on the NASA SEWP V GWAC, researching internet sites, and contacting vendors for information on supporting the GenISIS infrastructure. Furthermore, the technical experts reviewed support services offered by other manufacturers who make similar products. The other manufacturers cannot provide the licensed product renewals, product updates, maintenance, support, and proprietary code updates. Software and firmware are proprietary and market research showed that only authorized service providers can access the code to implement software and firmware patches as well as software bug fixes. Based on these findings, the Government's technical experts determined the support services from Arista, Dell, EMC Isilon, and IBM can meet all of the Government's requirements for GenISIS HPCC. 9.Other Facts: None.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/c638470b2075dd69e768187609856cee)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG15SD25B VA118-16-F-1238 NNG15SD25B VA118-16-F-1238_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2899416&FileName=NNG15SD25B-012.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2899416&FileName=NNG15SD25B-012.docx

 

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

Record

SN04196526-W 20160728/160726235205-c638470b2075dd69e768187609856cee (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

---

| FSG Index  |  This Issue's Index  |  Today's FBO Daily Index Page |