U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Finance Center (NFC), 13800 Old Gentilly Rd., Bldg 350, MAF, New Orleans, LA 70129

70 -- MAINFRAME BASED OPTICAL STORAGE SYSTEM POC Gerald Spears, Computer Equipment Analyst, (504) 255-5456, Contract Specialist, Florence Collins (504) 255-5910 E-MAIL: usda, national finance center, gerald.spears@usda.gov. The United States Department of Agriculture, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, National Finance Center (NFC), is seeking information on the latest technology for a large mainframe based Optical Storage. This information will be used in an evaluation to replace NFC's current archival, storage and retrieval system, Kodak's Automatic Disk Library (ADL) 6800 Optical Storage System(OSS). The NFC is seeking information on any and all systems, with related hardware/software, that meet and exceeds its current Optical Storage configuration. The NFC's operating environment currently uses a combination of the IBM ES-9021 Model 9X2 and the IBM R65, supplying government users worldwide with business applications and information services. OS390 is the operating system for both mainframes. The currently installed Optical system operates in an IBM mainframe environment, combining IBM plug-compatible storage capability with Direct Block Retrieval, high-density storage media, and advanced robotics. It emulates standard IBM cartridge tape subsystems, providing rapid on-line storage and retrieval of information using the benefits of Write-Once-Read-Many(WORM) technology. The current system, in combination with its related software for writing and reading reports to and from archival storage systems, provides a method for capturing, storing, indexing, and retrieving a computer generated report data. Indexing and archival parameters for each report are used by the software to process the data, save the index information and store the data and index on one or more types of devices (i.e., Optical disk, DASD, cartridge tape). More than 600 users access the report data stored on the current system, and that number is expected to increase considerably. Future plans for 20,000 or more users obtaining access to the information are possible. The NFC has recently purchased and installed a software package, Enterprise Output Solution(EOS) by RSD (http.//www.rsd-intl.com), that will take over the responsibilities of accessing stored reporting. So any proposed new Optical environment must be capable of interfacing with the EOS product, and accept its functionality. In addition to accepting the functionality of EOS, the proposed new system must meet the minimum capacity requirements of one (1) terabyte and be expandable to seven (7) terabytes. At no cost to the Government, we request that any OEM specializing in the area of Optical, archival WORM storage, provide all available information, as well as availability for evaluation, of all identified equipment and software. It is also requested that published list prices for any or all of these products be provided. This is NOT a Request for Proposal. There is no RFP or SOW available, nor is their commitment to actually purchase a product. There will be no contract award resulting from this effort. The Government will use the information obtained from this effort to understand the capabilities of the marketplace for this environment. All information is to be forwarded to: Gerald Spears, Computer Equipment Analyst, IRMD/CRMB, USDA/OCFO/NFC, P.O. Box 60000, New Orleans, LA 70160. Posted 03/25/99 (W-SN312579). (0084)

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