FCHS2_Section_J_Attachment_9_Question_and_Answer_Amd_0008_0008.pdf

RFP No. 140D0423R0002: FCHS2 Section J Attachment 9‐Question and Answer Template

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Question # Document Section or Paragraph # Page Number Question Answer RFP

Change

Sol_140D0423R0002_Amd_0006 Item C 1 Item C of Amendment 6 asks for a “Breakout for Time and Materials total estimated hours” for the EUMS task order.

Sol_140D0423R0002_Amd_0004, page J-05 41, states, "Items that can be fixed-priced (e.g., a fixed multiple of licenses) should be built into a single CLIN with an explanation of how the fixed-price was built. Items that cannot be fixed-price, shall be quoted on a Time and Materials type basis utilizing a detailed price build-up."

and that "The pricing is anticipated to be based on a Fixed Price (FP) and Time and Materials (T&M) for each of the Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs) identified.

Also, each CLIN identified must be priced out individually."

Can the government confirm that they will still accept both T&M and FFP CLINs for Task Order Pricing?

Yes the Government will accept both T&M and FFP CLINS for Task Order pricing.

No

Sol_140D0423R0002_Amd_0006 Item E 3 Item E asks the contractor to provide "Licenses for Open Source Geospatial Foundation technology stacks".

Amendment_0003_Q_A_Consolidation_Sections_0003, page 21 of the Q&A states that the Open-Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGEO) components used are "Geonetwork, Geoserver, PostGIS, QGIS, GDAL/OGR."

It is our understanding that these OSGEO components are free/do not have a cost associated with them.

Given that the components listed are free of cost, can the government provide specific OSGEO tools that require pricing?

The government is asking for hourly rate and title on the technical support and configuration expertise on Open- Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGEO). Total support cost estimates can be for the GeoPlatform project and not itemized by application or tool set.

No

Sol_140D0423R0002_Amd_0006 Item F 3 Item F asks contractors to submit the revised price volumes in separate workbooks/spreadsheets.

Can the government please confirm that offerors should resubmit the price volume narratives that address the corresponding information contained in the originally submitted price volume narratives that will change as a result of this Amendment?

Yes all pricing volumes shall be resubmitted to include pricing narratives.

No

FCHS2_Section_J_Attachemnt_07a_Usage_Su mmary_of_June_2023_Cloud_Services_Amd0 003.xlsx

Tab 2 Tab 2 "Azure" has 2 colums "Description" and "Quantity" and seems to be missing the column "Units". This missing information means that we cannot price these resources. Even after consultation with Microsoft directly wee have determined that, while this data may have been exported from Azure, it is insufficient to perform costing on. We will need a billing statement or itemized invoice that more accurately depict the descriptions, types, and units for each item. This will ensure all bidders are developing pricing based on information provided by the Government to ensure procurement integrity. As such, we recommend a 2-week extension to allow the Government time to obtain and publish the required information. Please advise.

See Response #30

No

In Amendment 6, E, GEO Platform Day One Use Case, the government is requesting integration services for the public-facing OSMRE GeoMine. FCHS Amendment 3, Attachment J6 describes the OCIO GEO Platform Day One Use Case. While there is a link to the GeoMine site, there was no requirement for integration services for GeoMine in the Original solicitation nor in Attachment J6. What is the government's intent in presenting new requirements at this time?

To clarify, the requirement is for ongoing support, not new integration support: As described in the Background Section, pages D-1 and D-2: The OSMRE GeoMine is an interactive web-based mapping application that supports the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) by providing public access to surface coal mining and reclamation geospatial data within the United States. It merges data from numerous state and federal sources to create standardized, seamless layers that cross state boundaries.

No

RFP 140D0423R0002: Section J Attachment 9 - Question and Answer Template

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Question # Document Section or Paragraph # Page Number Question Answer RFP

Change

Can the government specify what application(s) are to be integrated along with technical specifications of those applications such that vendors have access to equal information?

Integrated Applications are (1) GeoMine which is based on ESRI technology and heavily uses FME to pull data from multiple data sources into the system. (2) Other applications in the environment that commonly request integration support and technical expertise are: ESRI, MapBox, CKAN , Top Quadrant, CARIS, Bentley, Trimble, Carto (NPS), Rstudio, Burp Suite Pro (GP), and Voyager.

No

Will the government be sharing technical information that describes the OSMRE GeoMine integration requirements for the platform?

Yes. The GeoMine integration is already complete, but requires continued support and the government is seeking hourly expertise in ESRI support services. More detailed configuration particulars will be provided during initial and ongoing technical coordination sessions.

No

In Amendment 6, E, GEO Platform Day One Use Case, the government is asking for the cost of Esri ArcGIS licenses. How many licenses does the government need?

What is the part number?

DOI and most other agencies order ESRI licenses off another contract and will provide them to this contract team. One program within USACE orders their 2 desktop, 2 portal, 3 server licenses within this task order.

All agencies are requesting technical support; deployment and ongoing expertise in managing and working with ESRI ArcGIS licenses.

No

In Amendment 6, E, GEO Platform Day One Use Case, the government is asking for the cost of Open Source Geospatial Foundation tech stack. How many licenses does the government need? What is the part number?

DOI and other agencies are requesting deployment and ongoing hourly support expertise for Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGEO). There are no licenses or part numbers, just hourly support cost and associated support title(s).

No

In Amendment 6, E, GEO Platform Day One Use Case, the government is asking for pricing for VM requirements. The government states that there are 850 VMs with 3000 subnets. However, the government then states that there are 400 EC2 environments running Windows and Linux. What are the remaining 400 VMs running?

Correction: GeoPlatform environment has about 850 Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) with 3000 subnets. All 400 EC2 Instances within are running Windows and variations of Linux.

The government understands will pay for actual AWS usage, but is looking for a proposed cost estimate and comparison.

The Day One team does not have specifications broken down by project or by each VPC and these change frequently. Cost proposals should summarize with an optional narrative an estimate of 850 VPCs and Storage equal to 250TB Elastic Block Storage, 10TB Simple Storage, and 60TB Relational Database Storage. Other cost estimates requested in Amendment 6 can be bundled and described in a narrative.

No

In Amendment 6, E, GEO Platform Day One Use Case, the government is asking for pricing for VM requirements. In order to provide pricing, the government needs to provide specifications for each VM. For example, how much CPU is needed? How much RAM? How much data is moving in and out of each VM? What are the storage requirements?

See Response #10

No

In Amendment 6, GEO Platform Day One Use Case, the government is asking for pricing on bundled services for "140 IAM users and 1000 groups". DRFP, Amendment 2 and Amendment 4 identify pricing on bundled services for "1400 IAM users and 1000 groups". Please identify the number of IAM users and groups to be priced.

Correction: The number of AWS IAM users is 1400 users and 1000 groups

No

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Question # Document Section or Paragraph # Page Number Question Answer RFP

Change

In Amendment 6, E, GEO Platform Day One Use Case, the government is requesting a T&M hourly rate and estimated annual hours to support MapBox, CKAN, Top Quadrant, CARIS, Bentley, Trimble, Carto (NPS), Rstudio (FWS ECOS), Burp Suite Pro (GP), Voyager (USACE DISDI), and Esri (USACE). There is not enough information to calcuate the price. Can the government provide the data flows into and out of each platform? What tools are used for managing data flows?

To assist in identifying total hours and activities required to support the GeoPlatform environment, including support for these tools, use a base estimate of 75% of total cost is for providing professional support services and estimate about 18 full time equivalents.

Regarding technical support for the various apps within the GeoPlatform environment, the government will accept the hourly rate per skill set and associated job title(s) to support MapBox, CKAN, Top Quadrant, CARIS, Bentley, Trimble, Carto (NPS), Rstudio (FWS ECOS), Burp Suite Pro (GP), Voyager (USACE DISDI), and ESRI.

Total support cost estimates can be for the GeoPlatform project and not itemized by application or tool set.

No

In Amendment 6, E, GEO Platform Day One Use Case, the government is requesting a T&M hourly rate and estimated annual hours for program management to support individual accounts, including 100,000 open geospatial data assets, services, applications, and community tools. There is not enough information to calculate the price. Can the government specify what application(s) are to be integrated along with technical specifications of those applications such for services, applications, and community tools that vendors have access to equal information?

This question doesn't match the government ask. The government is looking for Project Management, accounting, administrative support, overhead type rates and title(s) to manage about 40 individual projects across multiples of agencies.

To respond to the question, different agency accounts commonly use AWS services along with ESRI, MapBox, CKAN , Top Quadrant , CARIS, Bentley, Trimble, Carto (NPS), Rstudio, Burp Suite Pro (GP), and Voyager.

No

Will the government allow for updated technical proposals in order for offerors to describe their approach to integration services and platform support for the GEOP Use Case?

No. The government is good with the technical, only need cost breakdowns for Day One use cases. No

In Amendment 6, D, USDA Day One Use Case, the government is requesting Cloud consumption pricing based on the Usage Summary provided in FCHS2 Section J, Attachment 7a. Will the government allow for a pricing narrative to accompany the pricing revision to allow offerors to explain their discount structure for each CSP?

Yes. The government will allow a pricing narrative to accompany the pricing revision.

No

In Amendment 6, D, USDA Day One Use Case, the government is requesting Cloud consumption pricing based on the Usage Summary provided in FCHS2 Section J, Attachment 7a. Please confirm that Microsoft products and services should be provided through an approved EA company.

Yes. The USDA confirms all Microsoft products and services should be through an approved Microsoft Azure Enterprise Agreement (EA) No

Amd_0006 SUPPLIES/SERVICES (B)

pg. 2 Referencing the statement, "Virtual Private Machines estimated at: 850 total VMs within 3000 subnets". Should this read, “Virtual Private Clouds estimated at: 850 total VPCs within 3000 subnets”?

See Response #10

No

Amd_0006 SUPPLIES/SERVICES (B)

pg. 3 Referencing the statement, "40 configuration channels". Is this referring to AWS Config?

40 configuration channels is referring to the number in independent agency/program system configurations. This reduces the ability to automate or deploy, or manage consistently. There are 40 different configurations

No

Amd_0006 SUPPLIES/SERVICES (B)

pg. 3 Is the government asking us to price CloudFormation, which does not incur a charge, or to price the platform services created by CloudFormation? If the latter, we will need more information detailing what the 1200 CloudFormation templates are creating.

Since the CloudFormation does not incure a price, include only labor estimates (if any) for managing 1200 CloudFormations

No

Amd_0006 SUPPLIES/SERVICES (B)

pg. 3 Lambda incurs charges when it is run. How often will the 550 Lambda functions be called, and what is the execution time?

Since the government does not have the frequency or averages of Lambda functions called, include only labor estimates (if any) for managing 550 Lambda functions.

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Question # Document Section or Paragraph # Page Number Question Answer RFP

Change

Amd_0006 SUPPLIES/SERVICES (B)

pg. 3 Given that there is no additional charge for AWS Elastic Beanstalk, you pay for AWS resources (e.g., EC2 instances or S3 buckets) you create to store and run your application. Is the government asking for additional pricing based on the resources that will be deployed? If so, please provide details for these resources.

Since there is no additional charge for AWS Elastic Beanstalk, include only labor esimates (if any) for managing the AWS Elastic Beanstalk) configuration No

Amd_0006 SUPPLIES/SERVICES (B)

pg. 3 Will the government please specify the quantity of Oracle/postgres/Sequel Servers?

Additionally, can the government please specify how many should be multi-AZ?

The government does not have the exact breakout between Oracle, Postgres, Sequel Servers. For a base cost use, 10 Oracle, 20 Postgress, 140 Sequel for a total of 170 Relational Database Services (RDS)

No

Amd_0006 SUPPLIES/SERVICES

(B)

pg. 3 Will the government please specify the OS, server sizes (ex. how many Linux, Windows), and instance type?

The government does not have the exact breakout between Linux and Windows. For a base cost, separate in equal halves

No

Attachment_07a_Usage_Summary Row 638 and 639 N/A Based upon the support charges priced in Attachment_07a_Usage_Summary, in comparison to the other technology quantities, it seems that the spreadsheet is a snapshot from the beginning of the month rather than the end of the month. Will the government please provide an updated version?

See Response #30

No

Day One - EUMS Use Case, Amendment 6 Items C-7 and 8 transition of services back to BIA and MS Dell

BPS.

Can the government please clarify if it intends for BIA to maintain Azure and Application security support services to meet all security requirements of the application when BIA stated, "Ongoing Azure environment support for remaining years reduced as BIA staff take over."

BIA is seeking the contractor to provide Azure technical expertise, including Azure Windows, Structured Query Language (SQL), Identity Information Services (IIS) qualifications along with managing the Azure environment to keep the application operational and optimal in performance.

The BIA team is well versed in the current on-premise operating environment and the EUMS application, but not yet Azure. Initially BIA requires full Azure support with a goal to learn the Azure environment and take over some of the environment technical support in out years. The Contractor shall partner with BIA technical staff to support all security, assessment and authorization requirements. BIA will perform the administrative duties of the application but seeks ongoing application support pertaining to the operating environment including operating system, databases, backup, and network performance.

Additionally, BIA will obtain all Azure licenses from the Dell Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) per DOI priority policies. This does not include any labor, just Azure CSP services.

No

FCHS2_Section_J_Attachemnt_07a In FCHS2_Section_J_Attachment_07a there is a usage summary which the Government indicates we should use to inform our cost proposal for the USDA DISC Day One Task Order. We are having difficulty understanding the unit type for each line item in the “Usage Type” column. We are having trouble identifying whether these units are in hours, dollars, numbers, etc. Could the Government provide the unit of measure for each line item?

See Response #30

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Question # Document Section or Paragraph # Page Number Question Answer RFP

Change

Amendment 6 EUMS Item C

Can the Government please clarify that the contractor scope of work for the EUMS "Ongoing Application support", only covers ongoing Azure environment support and administration services, and coordination, as provided in SECTION J – ATTACHMENT 05 - page 2.

BIA is seeking the contractor to provide Azure technical expertise, including Azure Windows, Structured Query Language (SQL), Identity Information Services (IIS) qualifications along with managing the Azure environment to keep the application operational and optimal in performance.

The BIA team is well versed in the current on-premise operating environment and the EUMS application, but not yet Azure. Initially BIA requires full Azure support with a goal to learn the Azure environment and take over some of the environment technical support in out years. The Contractor shall partner with BIA technical staff to support all security, assessment and authorization requirements. BIA will perform the administrative duties of the application but seeks ongoing application support pertaining to the operating environment including operating system, databases, backup, and network performance.

Additionally, BIA will obtain all Azure licenses from the Dell Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) per DOI priority policies. This does not include any labor, just Azure CSP services.

No

Amendment 6 GEOP Item E

What are the required number of Licenses and the specific product/version for ESRI AcrGIS (AGO) to be priced?

DOI and most other agencies order ESRI licenses off another contract and will provide them to this contract team. One program within USACE orders their 2 desktop, 2 portal, 3 server licenses within this task order.

All agencies are requesting technical support; deployment and ongoing expertise in managing and working with ESRI ArcGIS licenses.

No

Amendment 6 USDA Item D

Can the Government provide average monthly spend by Cloud Service Provider (CSP) to allow bidders to better understand true cost and determine discount structure it will provide to the government? CSPs are unable to determine monthly consumption costs based on the information provided on attachment 07a.

Upon further review, the government has decided the USDA DISC June 2023 extracts do not provide enough detail to derive a cost estimate by service. Also if the government expands the description to include all the meter and submeters, this increase creates a significant impact and exceeds the intent of providing a summarized cost estimate.

Therefore, in lieu of a detailed estimate, contractors shall provide a narrative of their costs compared to the cloud service providers published pricing. For example, if proposing a percent off agreements or services from the published pricing. The government will accept industry best practice by each cloud service provider by submitting their total annual spends.

To assist, all proposals can use the baseline estimates for price evaluation purposes:

Azure Est Monthly Avg $1,600,000 Azure Est Yearly Cost $18,600,000 AWS Est Monthly Avg $600,000 AWS Est Yearly Cost $7,200,000 GCP Est Monthly Avg $220,000 GCP Est Yearly Cost $2,600,000 OCI Est Monthly Avg $80,000 OCI Est Yearly Cost $1,000,000

No

Amendment 6 1

Please confirm that offerors can submit a revised Section J Attachment 8 IDIQ Pricing Template Amendment 0002.

A revised J Attachment 8 IDIQ Pricing Template from Amendment 00002 shall be submitted for all Day-One-Use Cases that is to be tailored for each individual case.

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Question # Document Section or Paragraph # Page Number Question Answer RFP

Change

Amendment 6 1

Please confirm that offerors can submit revised Day-One Use-Case Technical and Price Quote narratives (Volume V through Volume VII).

Yes the offerors can resubmit revised Day-One-Use-Case Technical proposals and Price Quote narritives outlining all changes.

No

Amendment 6 1

Does the Government require offerors to utilize the Microsoft Track Changes feature to show changes made?

All changes shall be identified and Microsoft Track Changes is an acceptable method to outline changes made. No

34 FCHS2_Section_J_Attachment_07a_Usage_Su mmary_of_June_2023_Cloud_Services_Amd

USDA DISC Azure Tab Row 54 Storage

Can the government please confirm if the storage volume listed on row 53 is listed in MB, GB or TB?

See Response #30 No

35 FCHS2_Section_J_Attachment_07a_Usage_Su mmary_of_June_2023_Cloud_Services_Amd

USDA DISC AWS Tab N/A

Can the government provide the total storage size for S3 Storage, as it is does not appear to be listed in the information provided, and confirm if the number provided is in MB, GB or TB?

See Response #30 No

36 FCHS2_Section_J_Attachment_07a_Usage_Su mmary_of_June_2023_Cloud_Services_Amd

USDA DISC All Tabs N/A

Based on the volumes provided in section J, can the government disclose what portion of the volumes are in Production, Test and/or Dev environments?

See Response #30. For a base, use 75% production and 25% Dev/Test No

140D0423R0002 Amendment (Amd) 0006 Item D. For the USDA Day One Task Order.

Would the government accept an industry best practice by providing their total annual spends by each CSP is, and accept from the vendor what they would provide in discounts to the government as an alternative to the detailed pricing sheet. The concern is that the information that is needed from the government for this task order is rather significant. The value that vendors create for the government is simply any support services and discounts that they provide on CSP resale.

See Response #30

No

140D0423R0002 Amendment (Amd) 0006 Item D requesting the vendor to provide revised pricing for the USDA Day-One Use- Case.

Will the government update attachment FCHS2 Section J Attachment 8 to provide vendors with more detail to allow for pricing that can be specific enough to create quotes that present more detailed data for evaluation of vendor value. At a minimum, the additional details below would allow for a more accurate quote.

a.For Azure Tab, the addition of a Service Sub type column and Metric column is requested to put context on the Usage Amount.

b.For the AWS Tab, a Metric column is requested to put context on the Usage Amount. E.g. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud Box usage is typically an hourly usage metric for total hours consumed in a month, verses number of instances per month. If the Usage Amount is the number of instances should the vendor consider that multiplied by 740 for 100% utilization each month.

c.For the Azure, AWS, and Google Tabs for Compute items, an OS needs to be defined, this is requested for numerous rows. Alternatively, may the vendor default to Linux only?

d.Database items - the Database instance type is needed (Oracle, SQL, MYSQL, Postgres, etc.)

e.For backups, retention policies and redundancy options are needed to avoid up to 100% variance in quoted prices see example below.

See Response #30

No

140D0423R0002 Amendment (Amd) 0006 Item E for the GeoPlatform Day-One Use-Case.

Will the government provide the type and quantity of ESRI licenses to be quoted?" DOI and most other agencies order ESRI licenses off another contract and will provide them to this contract team. One program within USACE orders their 2 desktop, 2 portal, 3 server licenses within this task order.

All agencies are requesting technical support; deployment and ongoing expertise in managing and working with ESRI ArcGIS licenses.

No

E-1.1. Virtual Private Machines estimated at:

850 total VMs within 3000 subnets

Please provide clarity on what is meant by "Virtual Private Machines" - How does this differ from the requirement for 400 EC2 instances in E-1.2

See Response #10

No

E-1.1 Virtual Private Machines estimated at:

850 total VMs within 3000 subnets

Is the cost for 850 virtual private machines inclusive of the 400 EC2 instances in E- 1.2? Or are these costs supposed to reflect 1250 virtual machines

See Response #10

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Question # Document Section or Paragraph # Page Number Question Answer RFP

Change

E-1.2 EC2 Instances totaling 400 running Linux and Windows

Can you please provide clarity on the number of linux vs number of windows instances

The government does not have the exact breakout between Linux and Windows. For a base cost, separate in equal halves

No

E-1.5 170 RDS Instances of Oracle, PostGres, SQL Server totaling 60TB storage

Can you please provide clarity on the number of Oracle vs PostGres vs SQL servers The government does not have the exact breakout between Oracle, Postgres, Sequel Servers. For a base cost use, 10 Oracle, 20 Postgress, 140 Sequel for a total of 170 Relational Database Services (RDS)

No

E-1.6 Provide bundled estimate for the following quantity of services

Can you please clarify what is meant by "configuration channel" 40 configuration channels is referring to the number in independent agency/program system configurations. This reduces the ability to automate or deploy, or manage consistently. There are 40 different configurations

No

Section J Attachment 07a tab 2

Can you please provide the usage type / unit and Qty corresponding to each of these descriptions on the Azure tab on the Excel sheet (Section J Attachment 07a)? This info is needed to provide the annual pricing requested in the amendment.

See Response #30 No

Will the government please clarify if there will be an extension to the proposal due date as a result of the questions/answers associated with Amendment 0006?

Amendment 00006 and Amendment 0007 with revised price volumes shall be returned in separate workbooks/spreadsheets signed by 2:00 PM ES March 1, 2024.