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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 16, 2017 FBO #5564
DOCUMENT

70 -- ESE Test and Design Virtualization Solution for VistA Backend Servers - Attachment

Notice Date

2/14/2017
 

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

11817Q1842
 

Archive Date

5/14/2017
 

Point of Contact

William Freer- Contract Specialist
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG15SD26B VA118-17-F-1826
 

Award Date

2/13/2017
 

Awardee

THUNDERCAT TECHNOLOGY, LLC;1925 ISAAC NEWTON SQ STE 180;RESTON;VA;20190
 

Award Amount

$577,466.00
 

Description

VA118-17-Q-1842 1 Control Number- VA118-17-Q-1842 JA Template - FAR Part 16.5 _OCT_31_2014 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, NJ 07724 2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-priced delivery order under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the procurement of brand name Cisco and NetApp equipment. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Information and Technology, Enterprise Systems Engineering (ESE) has a requirement for the acquisition, installation, and maintenance of an integrated computing, networking and storage solution to support a technology refresh activity at the Health Systems Engineering and Design (HSED) Lab in the Austin Data Center. The Converged Virtualization Infrastructure (CVI) sought is a complete solution designed by Cisco and NetApp that consists of Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) servers, Cisco Nexus switches and NetApp unified storage components. This effort will replace existing end of life servers and storage systems currently in place at the HSED lab, allowing ESE to provide increased performance and system availability, and will move to the most current version of the virtualization technology into redundant High Available (HA) systems capable of fault tolerance protocols that are compliant with contingency planning regulations. Maintenance consists of remote assistance, patches, bug fixes, minor and major software upgrades, and replacement parts. Delivery and installation of the CVI is required within 30 days after receipt of order. Maintenance shall be provided for a 12-month base period for both the servers and storage devices and four 12-month option periods for the NetApp storage devices only. The total estimated value of the proposed action 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 market research, as described in section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition among resellers is available for this procurement. The procurement of the CVI solution will allow HSED to migrate existing front end and backend systems to virtualize storage and computing space required for use by existing and future virtualized applications and servers in direct support of VA ESE General Operations, and other critical and necessary services. The CVI components must be fully compatible with existing infrastructure within the HSED lab to ensure full interoperability and compatibility. This will also allow for the transfer of data and access to the VA Wide Area Network (WAN). Specifically, the current infrastructure consists of only Cisco servers and NetApp data storage systems, and associated software and firmware. Utilizing incompatible hardware and software would greatly increase the risk of network outages, data transfer issues, and project implementation impediments, thereby introducing an unacceptable level of risk to the VA network infrastructure and support processes. VA requires a complete solution that can be integrated into the existing infrastructure at the HSED lab. It is impossible to separate these two brand name components because they compromise the complete CVI solution known as the FlexPod. Furthermore, use of any other brand components could potentially cause latency and stability issues to the existing systems within the infrastructure, and could also result in critical downtime and possible corruption of data. Installation and maintenance of the CVI is required to ensure the CVI continues to run efficiently. Failure to acquire the installation of the CVI components will prevent VA from obtaining a warranty for the equipment and could void existing warranties for Cisco equipment already installed at the HSED lab. Failure to acquire the maintenance for the CVI components will prevent VA from obtaining fixes and patches to identify security vulnerabilities and defect resolutions. Due to the proprietary nature of the CVI, only Cisco or NetApp and its authorized resellers can provide the required maintenance and the license keys necessary for the products to operate. Cisco or NetApp, or its authorized resellers are the only source available that can provide software updates, troubleshooting, patches, and version releases as well as replacement parts and remediation services for the hardware components of the CVI. Other manufacturers do not have the proprietary source code or replacement parts necessary to provide the required maintenance. Maintenance performed by parties not authorized by Cisco or NetApp invalidate product warranties and remove liability for performance of the CVI from the manufacturers. VA relies heavily on the data stored within the CVI for various high profile and critical projects. Procurement of the required maintenance and support will ensure that the storage systems remain operational, without interruption. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that could meet the Government s technical requirements. It has been determined however that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the brand name requirements. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2), the resulting contract award will be synopsized at award on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) webpage and this Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity will be posted on the NASA SEWP V website with the solicitation. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the market place that would enable future actions to be competed. Specifically, the government will research similar software and maintenance services to determine if any changes have been identified in the market place. 8. Market Research: VA s technical experts conducted market research to ascertain the ability of any other source other than NetApp and Cisco or the authorized resellers to provide the aforementioned products and services. VA technical experts conducted market research annually starting in 2014 and up to November of 2016 when the acquisition process was initialized. However, upon an exhaustive search, it was determined that there are no other brand CVI solutions in existence meet VA s requirements and can be integrated into the existing infrastructure at the HSED lab. VA technical experts conducted market research by researching other similar server and data storage components available from EMC Corporation, International Business Machines, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Brocade and Juniper. None of these other virtualization solutions were found to be interoperable or compatible with the existing infrastructure, and none of these items were currently available as a complete and fully integrated virtualization solution. Only the Flexpod CVI, a proprietary solution consisting of only NetApp and Cisco hardware and software, will ensure compatibility and interoperability with existing data centers and storage components at the HSED Lab. Any other brand name storage infrastructure components will jeopardize ESE s ability to effectively migrate existing systems to a virtualized storage solution. Similarly, while other vendors possess general capabilities needed to provide similar maintenance services, no other source was found to meet VA s needs due to the proprietary nature of the CVI solution. Unauthorized providers do not have access to the proprietary data, source codes, protocols, and proprietary hardware for the CVI solution. Therefore, acquiring maintenance support services through a non-authorized vendor could potentially result in the VA obtaining gray market or black market goods; therefore increasing security risks for the VA overall. Additional market research was conducted on NASA SEWP to identify resellers of the required CVI components and support services. It was determined that there are multiple vendors that are authorized resellers of Cisco and NetApp hardware, software and maintenance support. 9. Other Facts: None
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/6a213a2030c6a3933062c368218956bd)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG15SD26B VA118-17-F-1826 NNG15SD26B VA118-17-F-1826_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3275267&FileName=NNG15SD26B-086.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3275267&FileName=NNG15SD26B-086.docx

 

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

Record

SN04402839-W 20170216/170214235403-6a213a2030c6a3933062c368218956bd (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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