Defense Mapping Agency, ATTN: (AQCA)/MS D88/4600 Sangamore Road, Bethesda, MD 20816-5003

B -- CLIENT/SERVER TECHNOLOGY SURVEY-PRESENT AND FUTURE POC Contracting Officer, Ms. Mary Ann Klaner, (301) 227-2235 CLIENT/SERVER TECHNOLOGY SURVEY - PRESENT AND FUTURE - SOURCES SOUGHT RFI CSQ053095, POC Mary Ann Klaner, 4600 Sangamore Road, Attn AQCA: Mail Stop D-88, Bethesda, MD 20816-5003 Telephone (301) 227-2235, Facsimile (301) 227-2218; will be issuing a questionnaire be 31 May 1995 to determine the state of client/server technology and vendor product expectations for hardware platforms (servers and workstations with their attendant operating systems) supporting a client/server architecture. This request for information is published pursuant to the requirement of Federal Acquisition Regulation subpart 5.205. There is no intent to award a contract on the basis of the information collected with this RFI. This request for information is NOT a formal solicitation NOR a request for proposals. Availibility of any formal solicitations will be announced separately. Participation in this survey is not a prerequisite for consideration in any future formal solicitations. The Government will incur no formal obligation nor any costs associated with providing this information. The responses to this RFI and subsequent questionnaire will be used to develop vendor and standard profiles on which to base planning decisions regarding the migration of selected DMA production systems to a client/server architecture over the coming years. The questionnaire will require detailed and specific responses from vendors regarding: (1) Current hardware platforms for Database Servers to support imagery storage and retrieval, cartographic and image processing applications, and large scale distributed databases in a client/server environment; (2) Current hardware platforms for Workstations to support enterprise management applications and universal cartographic applications including, but not limited to, data extraction form imagery and product finishing; (3) Current hardware platforms for ''super computers'' to support intense computational or input/output requirements; (4) Scalability, extendibility, and reconfigurability of all the hardware platforms with respect to growing needs or modified requirements; (5) Support of current and future communications interfaces and protocols on all hardware platforms; (6) Operating systems, relational, object-oriented and relational/object -oriented DBMS products, and Software Development platforms supported on the hardware platforms, especially as they relate to interoperability and compliance with selected standards; (7) Vendor's assessment of applicable standards, standards developement efforts, and plans for implementations of these standards on the vendor's products; (8) Maintenance issues, e.g. availability of 24-hour-a-day support in geographically separate locations to minimize downtime in a real-time production system; (9) Benchmarks and standards conformance data for standalone products and integrated systems; (10) Experience providing client/server solutions and current research into related technologies; (11) Vendor's views of the future and their strategies to accommodate new technologies (both hardware and software); and (12) Availability of, and integration issues associated with the use of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS), Government-Off-The-Shelf (GOTS), and other reusable software products. The detailed questionnaire is under development at this time with an anticipated release date of 31 May 1995. Any vendor wishing to participate should have: (1) An installed active customer base of at least 5,000 workstations and/or servers; (2) The ability to provide a range of both Workstations and Servers for a client/server architecture; (3) Substantial experience in-house or through third party teaming arrangements in the design, installation, and maintenance of client/server based solutions; (4) The ability to offer follow-up future briefs and demonstrations. Requests by vendors for the questionnaire must be received at DMA on or before 15 May 1995. No requests for the questionnaire arriving at DMA after 15 May 1995 will be honored. If a vendor is interested in receiving the questionnaire and responding to it, please provide a POC with an e-mail address to whom the questionnaire may be provided when it becomes available. Address your request to Mary Ann Klaner at the address stated above. Facsimile responses will be accepted to the number stated above. No telephone calls nor inquiries on this RFI are encouraged. Each vendor's request will be positively acknowledged with additional information regarding the distribution fo the questionnaire. The vendor will have thirty calendar days to respond to the questionnaire from the date it is officially published. Responses arriving more than thirty calendar days after publication of the questionnaire will not be considered for inclusion into the final survey results. (0129)

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