AWARD
D -- Splunk Perpetual licenses and maintenance
- Notice Date
- 12/10/2018
- 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
- 36C10B19Q0006
- Archive Date
- 2/8/2019
- Point of Contact
- Joseph.Pignataro@va.gov
- Award Number
- NNG15SD26B 36C10B19F0048
- Award Date
- 12/10/2018
- Awardee
- THUNDERCAT TECHNOLOGY, LLC;1925 ISAAC NEWTON SQ STE 180;RESTON;VA;20190
- Award Amount
- $10,516,100.74
- Description
- Splunk Perpetual Software Licenses and Maintenance Support Control Number: TAC-19-52778 1 Control Number XX-XXX 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, New Jersey 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 brand name Splunk perpetual software licenses and software maintenance. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Cybersecurity Operations Center (VA CSOC) has a requirement for one brand name Splunk perpetual software license and associated maintenance support. Additionally, maintenance support is required for four existing VA-owned Splunk perpetual licenses and an additional Splunk perpetual software license with associated software maintenance support will be purchased in each option period. VA CSOC manages, protects, and monitors the cyber and security posture of the VA and currently uses Splunk to perform Security and Compliance analyses along with Infrastructure and Operations Management. Splunk is the engine for machine data generated by VA information technology (IT) systems within physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructures, and provides a means to capture data generated by VA s IT infrastructure. Splunk s log management tool provides VA CSOC s security and analysis teams with a definitive record of all user transactions, customer behavior, machine behavior, security threats, fraudulent activity and other activity in the raw data form that can be stored indefinitely. VA CSOC uses this data to provide rapid incident response, correlation, and in-depth monitoring across all data sources, monitor equipment uptime, and rapidly pinpoint and resolve problems with security and performance. The period of performance is 12 months from date of contract award with two 12-month option periods. The total estimated price of the proposed action, inclusive of all options, is $ 4. Statutory Authority: The specific authority for providing for brand name award is Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 16.505(a)(4) entitled, An item peculiar to one manufacturer can be a particular brand name, product, or a feature of a product, peculiar to one manufacturer. A brand-name item, even if available on more than one contract, is an item peculiar to one manufacturer. 5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in Section 8 of this justification, it has been determined that limited competition is available for these brand name items and services. VA CSOC currently has a Splunk log management tool in place. Due to the growth and expansion of VA s network, VA CSOC is planning for future capacity by expanding on the current Splunk architecture. VA utilizes Splunk to triage and investigate potential cybersecurity incidents. With 13 months worth of VA Enterprise Network log retention, Splunk provided VA not only a very granular view of specific events under investigation but also a historical look for similar or related activity. The aggregation of data from appliances throughout the security stack expedites and enhances investigations by providing a single platform for archive collection and searching. Loss or replacement of Splunk will result in significant impact as a key tool for Trusted Internet Connection security compliance and enforcement to protect the internal VA applications, users, and assets from malicious external sources. Splunk software is a proprietary software product and no other log management software is capable of integrating with the existing Splunk log management tool. Specifically, if another product is utilized, it will not communicate with the existing infrastructure due to these proprietary constraints. For this reason, any other brand name software would require a complete redesign, reengineering, and redevelopment of the existing infrastructure which could take up to a year. VA intends to continue using the VA owned Splunk licensing, therefore the procurement of another log management solution would result in having two independent solutions operating in parallel which is unnecessary and unacceptable and would result in duplicated costs of millions of dollars on top of the already in production Splunk software. Specifically, VA CSOC currently has 5 Splunk licenses (1 ES (Enterprise Security) and 4 Enterprise ). If another brand name software was used, it would result in replacing this entire infrastructure which would result in duplicated costs of $17.5M. This is based on previous efforts to create the infrastructure. Without there being a comparable alternative solution in the marketplace, replacing the current Splunk infrastructure would result in extensive delivery delays, reduction in critical functionality, and extensive duplication of costs that would not be recovered through competition. Furthermore, Splunk software has already been deployed and tested in VA s environment, and meets all of VA s requirements. The necessary Splunk maintenance support will require access to, and use of, both Splunk proprietary code and its Intellectual Property to ensure providing functional patches and upgrades and continued functionality of the software. No other source can provide the required maintenance support inclusive of software patches, updates, as well as technical support. Splunk owns the proprietary Intellectual Property rights to the enterprise software and only Splunk or a Splunk reseller has the required access to the source code and other proprietary data of the software in order to meet the Government s needs. Access to this code is also needed to ensure all services provided are properly configured. Failure to acquire this software will result in security events missed allowing possible data loss, data exfiltration, security breaches or system outages to occur. This could lead to VA not meeting Office of Management and Budget Trusted Internet Connection requirements and also hinder the effectiveness of conducting investigations by the VA CSOC, United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team and Office of Inspector General. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this justification. Limited competition amongst Splunk 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: In August 2018, VA conducted market research to determine if there were viable products from other manufacturers besides Splunk to meet VA s requirements. Similar products from Trustwave SIEM Operations Addition, Advanced Analytics, Nagios, LogRhythm and Tenable were analyzed and reviewed. Based on this analysis, the Government s technical experts determined that none of the software solutions offered by these companies could meet VA s requirements as outlined in Section 5 of this justification. It was determined that none of these products can integrate into VA s current Splunk architecture. Based on this market research, the Government s technical experts determined that only brand name Splunk software and associated software maintenance support can meet all of VA s requirements. In September 2018, the Contract Specialist conducted market research to ascertain the extent of limited competition among resellers of the required software licenses and associated software maintenance. Through the use of the Provider Look-up tool on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website, 12 Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses were identified as resellers of the required Splunk Software licenses and software maintenance support. 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. Date: ______________________ Contracting Officer Representative 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. Date: ______________________ Legal Counsel Signature: ______________________ Approval In my role as Head of Contracting Activity, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of brand name Splunk software licenses and associated software maintenance support on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the statutory authority cited in section 4 above, subject to the availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition. Date: ____________ Signature: _________________________________ Head of Contracting Activity Technology Acquisition Center 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 Date Concur/Non-Concur Advocate for Competition 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 (10-DEC-2018); 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.
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Link To Document
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/8758f0e17b893100a6a6a2e0e13d7755)
- Record
- SN05171232-F 20181212/181210230103 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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