Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 FBO #5424
DOCUMENT

D -- Enterprise WAN Acceleration Phase II Hardware - Attachment

Notice Date

9/27/2016
 

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

VA11816Q1438
 

Archive Date

12/31/2016
 

Point of Contact

Amy Schmalzigan
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG15SD31B VA118-16-F-1583
 

Award Date

9/23/2016
 

Awardee

I3 FEDERAL, LLC;11400 QUAILWOOD MANOR DR;FAIRFAX STATION;VA;22039
 

Award Amount

$3,516,728.24
 

Description

On September 23, 2016, the Technology Acquisition Center awarded Delivery Order VA118-16-F-1583 under the terms and conditions of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V contract NNG15SD31B with i3 Federal, 11400 Quailwood Manor Drive, Fairfax Station, VA 22039. i3 Federal will be providing Riverbed hardware and software maintenance, the total order value of $3,516,728.24. ? 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, New Jersey 07724 2. Description of Action: This 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 brand name Riverbed hardware and software maintenance. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering, Information Technology Service Management has a requirement for Riverbed Gold Level Hardware and software support and maintenance to optimize its existing brand name Riverbed wide area network (WAN) acceleration communications hardware at all VA locations in the Continental United States, as well as locations in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines, Korea, and Germany. This effort supports the OneVA Network, serves as the primary service delivery mechanism for, and supports communication critical to the efficient operation of the broad portfolio of VA applications necessary for day-to-day functionality. VA's network and bandwidth needs continue to grow year-to-year due to the increase in network users. Implementing WAN acceleration will provide a more robust, optimized, and fault tolerant enterprise network that supports many IT projects and technologies that directly provide and improve Veteran services. Enterprise WAN Acceleration will allow VA to optimize performance of its current network resources and will support its increasing business needs by ensuring sufficient capacity and compression of increasing data for processing and transfer. WAN acceleration supports the overall VA mission and will help reduce application response times and increase performance. Without the required hardware and software maintenance, in the event of a system failure, application performance would degrade potentially to the degree that VA WAN and supported applications become inoperable. The Contractor shall provide Gold support which shall include 24x7 telephone, email, web technical support, software maintenance (patches/updates) and next-business day hardware replacement. The period of performance shall be 12-months beginning September 30, 2016 through September 29, 2017; re-instatement fees for lapsed maintenance are required and included in the resultant order. 4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting this exception to fair opportunity is 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 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 eight of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is available for the required brand name Riverbed hardware and software maintenance among authorized Riverbed resellers. The current VA WAN acceleration infrastructure includes existing Riverbed hardware and software and VA requires support compatible with the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. For its current Riverbed infrastructure, VA requires hardware and software updates to include 24x7 telephone, email, web technical support; software maintenance (patches/updates) and next-business day hardware replacement. The hardware and software updates are required for existing Riverbed equipment. Only Riverbed hardware and software maintenance, through an authorized reseller, can provide the necessary support due to the propriety source code required to develop and implement hardware and software updates. No other source is capable of providing the required hardware and software maintenance due to the Riverbed proprietary protocols. No other maintenance is compatible or interoperable with the existing Riverbed hardware. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section eight of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government's requirements. It was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the required brand name Riverbed hardware and software maintenance. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), notice of award of this action will be synopsized and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award on the Federal Business Opportunities Page. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A), this justification will be posted with the request for quotation on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website 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 agency will work with the program office to continue to perform market research to consider and ascertain if any other sources can provide these services in the future. Specifically the Government will continue to investigate alternatives to Riverbed hardware and software maintenance that may be compatible with the current infrastructure. VA technical experts will conduct this market research throughout the year. 8. Market Research: The Government's technical experts performed on-going market research from early 2014 through June 2016 by reviewing similar hardware and software maintenance brands to ascertain if alternate brand support could meet VA's requirements. Specifically, the Government's technical experts conducted web-based research on web sites of vendors including Blue Coat Systems and Cisco Systems, both of which provide similar type WAN acceleration hardware and software maintenance. As a result of the market research, the technical experts confirmed that neither Blue Coat Systems nor Cisco Systems could meet VA's requirements due to interoperability and compatibility issues with the current WAN acceleration infrastructure. No other brand has the capability of developing and issuing hardware and software maintenance coverage for the existing brand name Riverbed hardware necessary to support existing VA requirements. Based on this market research, the Government's technical experts have determined only Riverbed brand name hardware maintenance can meet all of the Government's requirements. Additional market research was conducted in May 2016 by utilizing the NASA SEWP Provider Lookup tool to determine whether the brand name Riverbed hardware and software maintenance is available from NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. It was determined that there are several resellers of the required brand name Riverbed hardware and software maintenance that hold current GWACs such that limited competition is anticipated. 9. Other Facts: None.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/9464d293057012cf12de05402581a365)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG15SD31B VA118-16-F-1583 NNG15SD31B VA118-16-F-1583_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3027529&FileName=NNG15SD31B-021.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3027529&FileName=NNG15SD31B-021.docx

 

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

Record

SN04290316-W 20160929/160928000039-9464d293057012cf12de05402581a365 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

---

| FSG Index  |  This Issue's Index  |  Today's FBO Daily Index Page |