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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF APRIL 18, 2012 FBO #3798
DOCUMENT

70 -- Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) Enterprise Storage - Attachment

Notice Date

4/16/2012
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Office of Acquisition Operations;Technology Acquisition Center - Austin;1701 Directors Blvd, Suite 600;Austin TX 78744
 

ZIP Code

78744
 

Solicitation Number

VA118A12Q0044
 

Archive Date

5/13/2012
 

Point of Contact

Lino Vera
 

E-Mail Address

1-4415<br
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG07DA46B VA118A-12-F-0087
 

Award Date

4/13/2012
 

Awardee

ALVAREZ & ASSOCIATES, LLC;8601 GEORGIA AVE STE 510;SILVER SPRING;MD;209103476
 

Award Amount

$12,635,242.89
 

Description

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY 1.Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Acquisition Operations Technology Acquisition Center-Austin 1701 Director's Blvd., Suite 600 Austin, TX 78744 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) IV Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) required to satisfy immediate storage requests of the Corporate Data Center Operations (CDCO) sites located at the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC), Hines Information Technology Center (HITC) and Philadelphia Information Technology Center (PITC). The proposed contractual action will provide Hitachi brand hardware, the Hitachi Software Management Suite including the Aptare chargeback tool, Cisco hardware, cables, project management, installation, configuration, testing and acceptance, warranty, and training support at the CDCO facilities. The contractor shall deliver the hardware, install and configure the equipment, perform testing and acceptance tasks, provide training (optional line item) and arrange with each manufacturer for all warranty support at each CDCO site. Finally warranty shall be provided for a period of five years beginning on the date of acceptance. 3.Description of Supplies or Services: Currently, CDCO is experiencing storage shortages and therefore requires a second Virtual Storage Head in order to meet the storage demands and accommodate for growing storage demands. Hitachi is the only known manufacturer of a Virtual Storage Head that is compatible with the existing CDCO virtual storage solution. The Hitachi Software Management Suite and the Aptare Storage Reporting Software are also required in order to administer the Hitachi hardware Virtual Storage Head. In addition, CDCO also requires additional Cisco network ports to facilitate network connectivity to the storage environment. Currently, CDCO is aware that only Cisco brand name products will meet the network requirements for the additional storage based on compatibility with the existing network connectivity system. Midrange Storage Arrays are also required; however, since the Hitachi Virtual Storage Head is compatible with several Midrange Storage Array brands, a brand name is not required. The optional line item for training will only be exercised in the event a new Midrange Storage Array system is quoted. Finally, cables, project management, configuration, installation, acceptance testing, warranty, and training are also required in support of the storage system. 4.Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting this exception to fair opportunity is 41 U.S.C. 253J(b) as implemented by 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 paragraph 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available for these brand name items and services. Due to the need for additional storage to support future mission requirements, CDCO requires the acquisition of an additional Hitachi Virtual Storage Head at the AITC site. Only a Hitachi brand Virtual Storage Head is compatible with the existing Hitachi Virtual Storage Head because direct access storage requests from internal and external applications and servers cannot be routed to separate storage systems. All storage requests from applications and servers must be routed central to a Virtual Storage Head, therefore the same brand is required in order to ensure the storage demand is met and no technical infrastructure issues occur. In addition, the Hitachi Storage Management Software Suite is the only software that can manage the Hitachi brand Virtual Storage Head because of manufacturer restrictions within the hardware device. In addition, Hitachi will provide warranty support only on equipment that is delivered and installed by an authorized reseller. Regarding the Aptare Storage Reporting software, the existing direct access storage devices installed at each CDCO site use Aptare Storage Reporting software. Aptare Storage Reporting software is licensed by the amount of storage used. In order to continue the original functionality obtained from CDCO's investment of four petabytes an additional two petabytes of Aptare Storage Reporting software are required because CDCO is increasing the amount of storage as a result of this procurement. Procurement of the same brand storage reporting software is required to ensure a consistent reporting tool is used to monitor the entire enterprise storage environment. As discussed below, market research reveals that no other software operates seamlessly with the existing Aptare Storage Reporting software. Regarding the requirement for Cisco equipment, the existing CDCO Virtual Storage Solution is currently architected and configured to use the Cisco Storage Area Network (SAN) platform of equipment, protocols and functionality. VA requires a solution compatible with existing SAN infrastructure protocols and functionality to continue to provide data storage/protection, and Disaster Recovery/Continuity of Operations services for the CDCO and its customers through electronic replication of data between sites using a single SAN management tool. Only Cisco brand name equipment will work in the existing Cisco SAN equipment and be fully interoperable and compatible with the existing VA SAN infrastructure and support system. The Cisco SAN Model also allows the CDCO to leverage the Cisco National Maintenance contract, which goes into effect in the second year of service, lowering the overall VA network maintenance costs. In addition, Cisco will provide warranty support only on equipment that is delivered and installed by an authorized reseller. The virtual storage solution required by VA is made of up several brand name items and functional parts that interoperate with each other in order for VA Information Technology systems to store data and be accessible to VA users and system administrators. In order to obtain a fully operable, integrated, virtual storage solution, VA requires a single source for delivery, installation, configuration, acceptance testing, and warranty. If multiple vendors were selected for each individual element or brand name, not only would it be more likely that the solution would experience malfunctions due to interoperability concerns, but VA would experience considerable difficulty identifying the applicable contractor(s) and holding the contractor(s) accountable for system malfunctions. 6.Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. Although the Government is limiting competition as a result of specifying brand name items, there are multiple authorized resellers of the brand name items on the NASA SEWP IV GWAC. Limited competition among these vendors is anticipated. The Justification & Approval (J&A) and Request for Quotations will be submitted to four NASA SEWP IV GWAC groups in order to fully notify all interested parties. Any quotations received will be evaluated. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.3 the delivery order award will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) web site. In addition, this J&A will be made publicly available on the FBO web site. 7.Actions to Increase competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the agency will work with the program office to perform additional market research in a timely manner so that other solutions can be considered. 8.Market Research: Hitachi Virtual Storage Head market research was performed in July of 2011 by reviewing recent procurement history and reviewing technical documentation of Hitachi and other Virtual Storage Head manufacturers. Through the market research obtained, the Government's technical experts determined that only the Hitachi brand Virtual Storage Head is compatible with the existing Virtual Storage Head devices installed at each CDCO site. If a different brand of Virtual Storage Head is procured, access to Veteran data will not be available to users of the applications in a timely manner, and the potential for technical issues would adversely affect VA's mission to support the Veterans. In addition, the manufacturer confirmed that only an authorized reseller is able to delivery, install and configure the equipment in order for VA to receive warranty on the system. Aptare storage reporting software market research was conducted in July of 2011 through internet searches and review of information gathered from Aptare and other storage reporting software technical documentation available on the internet. This market research indicated that no other software is compatible with the existing Aptare licenses. If different brand name software was purchased, VA would experience compatibility issues that would not allow CDCO to properly manage the storage solution. These issues could only be resolved by re-procurement of a single storage reporting software. Cisco hardware must be compatible and functional with components currently in place. In February 2011, the Government's technical experts reviewed network hardware with similar capabilities to the aforementioned Cisco hardware via the Internet. Based on this market research, the hardware provided by similar network manufacturers, Blackbox and Brocade, could not meet VA's SAN interoperability, scalability and manageability requirements. Specifically, other brand name hardware would not be compatible with pre-existing Cisco hardware. As demonstrated through market research, any hardware or software purchased from providers other than Hitachi, Aptare, and Cisco would not be compatible with the existing infrastructure and would adversely affect VA's mission to support the Veterans. 9.Other Facts: Market research in December 2011 utilizing the NASA SEWP IV GWAC Manufacturer Lookup tool revealed that 13 authorized resellers of Hitachi brand name items and Cisco brand name items are current contract holders. Additionally, these 13 contract holders can also provide the required support services. Therefore, limited competition is expected for this proposed action. ?
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/dc0764e0d2ee0d4f227e4261293cf177)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG07DA46B VA118A-12-F-0087 NNG07DA46B VA118A-12-F-0087_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=323446&FileName=NNG07DA46B-008.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=323446&FileName=NNG07DA46B-008.docx

 

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

Record

SN02722695-W 20120418/120416234443-dc0764e0d2ee0d4f227e4261293cf177 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

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