Attachment 4 - QA Template-Gov Responses.pdf
PDF 327 KB Posted
- Attached to
- Bureau of Labor Statistics Virtual Data Enclave for Restricted Access Microdata Services Federal contract opportunity
- Solicitation number
- 1605TA-24-Q-00018
About this file
This document is a Q&A template related to a Request for Quote (RFQ) for a Virtual Data Enclave (VDE) for restricted access microdata services for the Department of Labor (DOL), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The key details are:
The VDE must include technical controls to verify the identity of researchers accessing the system, such as validating university/government IDs at initial account creation and requiring two-factor authentication for subsequent logins. Researchers will need access to Microsoft Excel and Word in addition to statistical software like SAS, Stata, SPSS, etc. Vendors should budget for all required software licenses. The VDE averages approximately 12,400 logged hours per month, with the most common software tools being Stata, R, and Python. Vendors may propose any cloud-based, vendor-hosted, or other solution that meets the specified security requirements. Quotes are due via email by the date and time listed in the solicitation, which has a base period of 12 months and four 12-month option periods.
View the file
Other files for this federal contract opportunity
| File | Type | Posted |
|---|---|---|
| RFQ 1605TA-24-Q-00018 BLS VDE - Amd 0001.pdf | ||
| Attachment 3 - Sub-Contractor Confidentiality and Security Commitment.docx | DOCX document | |
| RFQ 1605TA-24-Q-00018 - BLS VDE.pdf | ||
| Attachment 1 - BLS Confidentiality and Security Requirements.docx | DOCX document | |
| Attachment 6 - Additional Information Sheet.docx | DOCX document | |
| Attachment 5 - Price Quotation Worksheet.xlsx | XLSX spreadsheet | |
| Attachment 4 - QA Template.xlsx | XLSX spreadsheet | |
| Attachment 2 - Past Performance Questionnaire.pdf |
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Text version
Question Number
Solicitation Reference Question / Comment Government Response
1 General/Technical Is it the government's intent for the VDE to include system (e.g., technical) functionality that verifies the identity of a researcher, accessing the system virtually, by requesting the user's proof of affiliation at login and validating the user's university or government ID via some identity management software, third-party API, or propriatary system tool?
The vendor will only need to verify proof of affiliagtion with the user's university or government photo idea at the initial account creation stage. After that, two-factor authentification and IP address tracking will meet the CIPSEA requirements of supervision and control. The PWS has been updated to reflect this language:
The VDE shall provide technical controls to only provide access to agency approved researchers at specified locations. These controls must include the following:
i. Verifying the researcher’s identity
1. Validating user’s identity to include adequate proof of affiliation with the approved University or Government organization (University or Government photo ID) at initial account creation
2. Requiring a login ID and password to login
3. Requiring phishing resistant two-factor authentication process upon each login
2 General Does the government have existing licenses for the Statistical software (SAS, STATA, SPSS and STATTransfer) that can be leveraged in the enclave for Researcher use or should we budget for the statistical software license costs in the firm fixed price?
Licenses should be budgeted as part of the firm-fixed-price cost.
3 General Would the Researchers need access to Microsoft Office tools like Excel in the virtual enclave? Majority of VDE users utilize the microsoft Excel and Word. Given this, we will be adding Microsoft Excel and Word to the required software. The PWS has been updated to reflect this language.
4 General What is the average usage hours per month by Researchers in these workspaces? The VDE averages about 12,400 hours averaged logged per month, which is partly due to the current VDE allowing sessions of 72 hours prior to timing out. However it is also imacted by users who run long statistical computations and need sessions to last a long period of time.
5 General Can you share historical usage patterns, as to how many users would use each of the following statistical tools: SAS, STATA, SPSS and STAT/Transfer?
This are the number of reasearchers that requested each software at the beginning of their project - SAS: 68 Stata: 325 R: 163 R studio :147 Stat/Transfer: 39 SPSS: 26 Python: 76
6 General Does DOL require the secure workspaces to be exclusively a cloud based solution? No, vendors may propose any solution, cloud based, vendor hosted, or other solution that meets the security requirements in Attachment 1: BLS Confidentiality and Security Requirements of the PWS. If proposing a cloud-based solution, cloud service offerings must be FedRAMP authorized at the moderate impact level and must offer a government community cloud or other approved federal tenant. The PWS has been updated to reflect this language
Attachment 4 - Q&A Template
RFQ #1605TA-24-Q-00018 - BLS VDE
File details come from the government source that posted it. Updated .