AWARD
D -- Red Hat Enterprise License Agreement Recompete
- Notice Date
- 8/22/2019
- Notice Type
- Award
- 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
- 36C10B19Q0625
- Archive Date
- 10/21/2019
- Point of Contact
- Asif.Damji@va.gov
- Award Number
- NNG15SD25B 36C10B19F0380
- Award Date
- 8/22/2019
- Awardee
- THREE WIRE SYSTEMS, LLC;3130 FAIRVIEW PARK DR STE 425;FALLS CHURCH;VA;22042
- Award Amount
- $10,799,982.61
- Description
- Red Hat software maintenance and technical support subscriptions Control Number: TAC-19-53842 2 Control Number TAC-19-53842 JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY 1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way 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) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the renewal of brand name Red Hat software maintenance and technical support subscriptions. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering, Information Technology Service Management (ITSM), has a requirement for the renewal of 10,446 existing enterprise-wide Red Hat software maintenance and technical support subscriptions for existing Red Hat software in use throughout VA s Enterprise Linux operating systems. The existing Red Hat software architecture and infrastructure allows for VA to monitor the performance of the current computers controlled by the Enterprise Linux operating system to ensure reliable operations. This provides VA the capability to satisfy ongoing maintenance, security, and operational requirements for existing development, test, validation, and production systems executing on Linux-controlled computers. The required Red Hat software maintenance shall consist of version upgrades, patches, fixes, updates, and security resolutions. The technical support services shall provide for Red Hat Technical Account Management, which shall be the focal point for Red Hat Platforms support, consisting of access to Red Hat technical support advisors/specialists during normal business hours. Technical support includes early identification of deployment issues, periodic risk assessments and quarterly reporting of service performance metrics. The technical support shall also provide for the analysis, troubleshooting, and resolution of any other Red Hat software product-related problems or questions encountered by Government users with the specified software products. These software maintenance and technical support services will ensure the current software is continually updated and remains fully operational. This proposed action is for renewal of maintenance services only; no additional software licenses will be procured. The period of performance is 12 months from September 29, 2019 through September 28, 2020. The total estimated price of the proposed action is 4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 16.505(a)(4), the following brand name requirement is being justified and approved as an exception to fair opportunity under the statutory authority of Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by 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 the market research as described in section eight of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is available among resellers for these brand name software maintenance and technical support subscriptions. Only software maintenance and technical support services provided by Red Hat or a reseller can meet the requirements as the existing software is proprietary to Red Hat. Specifically, without access to Red Hat s proprietary source code, no other source is able to provide software upgrades, patches, fixes, updates, or security resolutions. This source code is also required to ensure the services provided to the fielded software are properly configured. No other source is capable of providing the required Red Hat software maintenance that meets the VA's unique end-to-end system and application performance monitoring functionality requirements without access to this source code. Without the required software maintenance and technical support, the existing Red Hat software performance would eventually degrade and would not be usable by VA. In addition, VA would not receive security updates, which could compromise VA s entire network security posture. Since the software is proprietary, no third party source exists that provides analysis, troubleshooting, and resolution of any software product-related problems other than Red Hat or a Red Hat reseller. VA-specific managing and monitoring applications were developed based upon the currently fielded Red Hat brand name operating system. Each Operating System (OS) requires it s own specific system management solution. Although every Linux distribution is based on the same kernel structure, every distribution makes significant changes within the structure of their OS. Because of the complexity that would be involved, this would require instructor-led training being provided to all VA Linux system administrators across the VA enterprise at different dates/times and locations. Training for an alternate system management solution and it s associated Enterprise Linux OS is anticipated to take between three to six months. Migrating existing systems to that new system management solution would take between six to 12 months. The resulting delivery delay would be between nine and 18 months. Until migrated to the new management system and OS, the current Linux systems would be unmanaged, and would rapidly become non-compliant with patching requirements. There are approximately 200 different programs within VA using applications hosted on Red Hat. These applications have already been developed, implemented, tested, validated, and certified using the VA Assessment and Accreditation (A&A) process. Any other alternate Enterprise Linux operating system and management solution would require a complete redesign, re-implementation, retesting, and A&A certification of the configuration of the Enterprise Linux operating system and management tools. Several of these system computers support VA Mission Critical business application systems, and each of these systems would have to undergo validation testing to determine if it could be executed properly on an Enterprise Linux operating system from alternate Enterprise Linux solutions. VA has already performed all of these extensive actions on the Red Hat solution. Based upon past VA, Enterprise Operations A&A certification experience, new certification cost estimates are approximately $75,000.00 per program or $15 Million for the approximate 200 programs that are currently hosting Red Hat software. Executing these steps for an alternate Enterprise Linux solution would therefore be duplicative and the associated $15 million in costs would be prohibitive and would not be expected to be recovered through competition. These efforts would also introduce the risk of delays and interruption of existing services currently provided to the Government and its customers, including Veterans. Due to the labor hours required and number of programs involved, if VA were to choose an alternate product at this time, a delivery delay of a minimum of two-years is anticipated, as redesign, re-implementation, retesting, and A&A certification would have to be completed on every application. VA s existing Enterprise Linux operating systems software infrastructure consists solely of Red Hat s software. The procurement of another vendor s Enterprise Linux operating system and management tools would require a completely new software infrastructure of approximately 4,700 software licenses and impose significant technical risk as VA would have to implement that brand s entirely new software suite. Furthermore, no other vendor s software is compatible with or interoperable with the existing Red Hat infrastructure due to Red Hat s proprietary database structures, protocols, and software application programming interfaces. Specifically, no other brand name software would be able to communicate and function in the current infrastructure. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this justification. Limited competition amongst Red Hat resellers is anticipated for this brand name acquisition. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), award of the resultant delivery order will be synopsized and this justification will be made publicly available on the Federal Business Opportunities Page within 14 days of award. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A), the justification will be posted with the request for quote on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website with the solicitation to notify all interested parties. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the Government will continue to perform market research to determine if there are any new products or maintenance services available in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be fully competed. 8. Market Research: Market Research was conducted by the Government s technical experts in May 2019 to explore alternate software products. Enterprise Linux vendor websites were reviewed for specifications on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux and Software and Systems Development Linux Enterprise Server product offerings, including software maintenance and technical support. No other software products were found to be interoperable and compatible with the existing Red Hat software. Each product distribution has its own calibrations and many of the configuration files are in different places and in a different format. Use of software that is not interoperable or compatible with the existing Red Hat software would lead to system outages to the detriment of patient care, as well as resulting in system administrator re-training on a new platform and additional software costs associated with replacing applications in use that are not certified on Red Hat software. An alternative Enterprise Linux operating system software solution would also require proprietary software maintenance and technical support which would not resolve the inability to obtain software maintenance and technical support from vendors other than through the respective software providers. Additionally, these vendors cannot provide the required Red Hat software maintenance and technical support because these vendors cannot access the source code and technical data of the VA s current proprietary Red Hat software applications. Each software developer offers a proprietary system and associated services that will only operate with its respective hardware and software. Based on this market research, only Red Hat software maintenance and technical support subscriptions can meet VA s technical requirements. In July 2019, the Contract Specialist conducted market research to ascertain the extent of limited competition among resellers of the required software maintenance and technical support subscriptions. Through the use of the Provider Look-up tool on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website, 23 Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses were identified as resellers of the required Redhat software maintenance and technical support subscriptions. Therefore, limited competition is anticipated. 9. Other Facts: None. 10. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Name: Date: ___________________ Title: Project Manager Signature: 11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on anticipated limited competition. Additionally, NASA SEWP V has already determined the prices on contract to be fair and reasonable and more competitive pricing may result from competition. Finally, the successful quote will be compared with the Independent Government Cost Estimate. Date: ________________________________ Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________ 12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Date: ________________________________ Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________ 13. Legal Sufficiency Certification: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support an exception to fair opportunity and deem it legally sufficient. Patricia J. McDaniel Date: ________________________________ Legal Counsel Signature:_____________________________ Approval In my role as procuring Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of Redhat software maintenance and technical support subscriptions on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in paragraph 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition. Date: ____________ Signature: __________________________________ Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement Acquisition and Logistics JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY COORDINATION MATRIX Date Concur/Non-Concur Director, Procurement Services Division F Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics Department of Veterans Affairs NOTE: THIS NOTICE WAS NOT POSTED TO FEDBIZOPPS ON THE DATE INDICATED IN THE NOTICE ITSELF (22-AUG-2019); HOWEVER, IT DID APPEAR IN THE FEDBIZOPPS FTP FEED ON THIS DATE. PLEASE CONTACT 877-472-3779 or fbo.support@gsa.gov REGARDING THIS ISSUE.
- Web Link
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Link To Document
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/c48d4531e3428c023123c367b51fad33)
- Record
- SN05416035-F 20190824/190822230133 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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