2020-04-30-v2-Brand_Name_MTF_FY20-CIP_DDN-7990_ITPR-271347_Redacted.pdf

MEMORANDUM TO FILE FOR BRAND NAME COMMERCIAL ITEMS FOR

AUTHORIZED RESALE

1. Contracting Activity

Department of the Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock

Division (NSWCCD), Code 02.

2. Description of the Action Being Approved

Solicitation and award of a purchase order specifying Brand Name requirements in accordance with the procedures in FAR Subpart 13.5 in accordance with 41 U.S.C. 1901 for a DataDirect

Networks (DDN) brand name product for two new mass storage systems with requirements of scalable performance with billions of small files.

3. Description of Supplies/Services

The Subject requirements provide for the acquisition of a mass storage system for NSWCCD Ship

Engineering and Analysis Technology Center (SEATech). The acquisition comprises two (2)

EXAScaler 7990X Appliances, required infrastructure, and licensing. The systems will each have

RAID6 8+2 with ~2.66PB usable space. It includes system installation, standard manufacturer warranty, and shipping & handling. Estimated cost is

Required delivery date is 30 September 2020.

This purchase is through the FY20 CIP Program. Funding was received 14 May 2020.

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition

10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), “The property or services needed by the agency are available from only one responsible source or only from a limited number of responsible sources and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the agency.” We note here that while only one source is capable of providing (manufacturing) this hardware, that source has authorized resellers who may also compete for the contract.

5. Identification of Limited Justification Rationale

The requirements include, but are not limited to, two Large Enterprise-class mass storage systems that have a linear increase in performance versus increase in capacity. Each system must have a very high-density footprint (for capacity). They must support full capacity in a single file system.

They each must be able to support a parallel file system that can grow to at least 100 Petabytes.

They must support a minimum of two million files in a single directory and a minimum of two billion inodes in one file system, and allow single files of at least 10TiB. They must have N+1

Architecture (redundancy). The systems must utilize a method for significantly speeding rebuilds for failed drives over baseline rebuild time (e.g., de-clustered RAID). They must be capable of managing storage quotas on a per-user basis. They must have SSDs for cache and must allow for a custom ratio of SSD vs. HDD (only DDN can meet this requirement). They must allow for a custom AD Security Group to be configured at the CIFS Share level. The systems must contain battery-backed, mirrored cache to protect the integrity of uncommitted write operations in the event of the loss of data center power. The systems must be 100% redundant, including, among others, data transport, batteries, and power. The storage systems must be capable of updates without an outage requirement. For security reasons, the storage systems must have audit functionality such that the subject of any action in accessing the file system is logged in a secure location.

All mass storage vendors use a minimum 512KB chunk (or much larger) for storing data. This means that no matter how small the file, it will always take up a least 512KB (even if the file is only 12KB, for example). This is very wasteful of space, especially when your data profile contains many small files. DDN employs a method where it can use as little as 1/32 of a block, called a sub-block, which can fill one block with multiple small files. Since the data profile for this procurement does, in fact, include a high number of small files, this is an extreme advantage in not wasting storage capacity, which is crucial

The systems must include all infrastructure to be able to at least double the initial storage capacity with only the procurement of HDDs and SSDs.

In addition, most of the data that must be transferred to these systems will come from an existing

DDN system. DDN has proprietary software for transferring data between DDN systems. This is a critical advantage for this amount of data, resulting in a labor savings of up to to

6. Determination of Best Value

Based on the Carderock requirements for this procurement and the technical features of the DDN product noted under Section five “Identification of Limited Justification Rationale,” it is determined that the DDN product is best suited to this Carderock need.

7. Market Research

Due to the DDN product outreaching the other suitable candidates in technical suitability for this particular application, and due to the fact that only DDN can provide some of the required capability, only DDN was considered. Hence, we consider DDN the only option for our existing requirements.

As reported by the manufacturer of the mass storage system, DDN, the authorized resellers include, but are not limited to, the following Small Businesses:

FCN, Inc.

Meadowgate Technologies

Counter Trade Products

8. Other Facts Supporting the Limited Source Justification Near-Future Considerations

Increasing the capacity of the DDN system would require only a hard drive purchase since the infrastructure to expand is already in place in the quoted configuration. Filling the drive slots would cost approximately per system, plus installation if needed. This would add another

~2.66PB of usable storage, doubling the usable capacity.

9. Actions to Remove Barriers to Competition

The Government will continue to require maximum use of commercial hardware for storage to facilitate future competition. Barring other unforeseen instances or integration requirements, future requirements will be competed to the maximum extent practicable.

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. IAW

10 USC 2304(f)(2)(B), a justification and approval is not required, and the brand name listed above is the only one that can meet the agency’s minimum requirements.

Digitally signed by

SIEBEKINGKNOX.MICHELLE.R.102

5111016 Date: 2020.06.15 14:28:26 -04'00'

Michelle Siebeking-Knox 757-410-0512 15 June 2020

Signature Contracting Officer Phone No. Date