Answers to Operational Support Order Questions - IT Operational Suport Services IDIQ.xlsx
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- IT Operational Support Services IDIQ
- Solicitation number
- 2026-CIO-0044
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Library of Congress
About this file
This file contains responses to questions and clarifications submitted by vendors regarding Solicitation 030ADV26R0008 for IT Operational Support Services IDIQ from the Library of Congress. The Q&A document addresses 160 questions across two initial task orders: Data Network Support (Attachment J4) and Operational Support (Attachment J7), with responses provided by the Library of Congress to clarify scope, staffing, technical requirements, and submission procedures for Phase II proposals.
For the Data Network Support task order, the Library has 10 full-time government employees supporting network operations, manages over 1,000+ legacy switching devices through Cisco Prime, maintains approximately 5,100 production network devices, and historically employed two contractor personnel. The incumbent contractor is The MIL Corporation under contract LCLOC21D0005 CIO21T0012 (05/01/2021–04/30/2026). For the Operational Support task order, the Library estimates seven FTEs plus a Project Manager are required. Historically, the contractor supported PM Level I (1), Systems Administrator Level II (3), Database Administrator (2), Systems Engineer Level I (1), and Technical Writer Level I (1). The operational infrastructure includes 717 SQL Server databases, 738 MySQL databases, 110 Oracle databases, 13 PostgreSQL databases, 2,500 RedHat Linux servers, 102 ESXi servers, approximately 10,000+ mailboxes, over 120 petabytes of production data managed by CommVault and Rubrik, and approximately 5,100 network infrastructure components. Coverage hours are 8:00 AM–5:00 PM Monday–Friday with no 24/7 staffing requirement; after-hours support is primarily government-handled but contractor staff may be needed for planned maintenance or major service disruptions. The Phase II submission deadline was extended to April 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM EDT, with Volume V (Technical Proposal for Initial Orders) increased to 40 pages to accommodate both task order responses. All proposals must respond sequentially to each paragraph in Section C starting with 3.1 or 3 respectively, and transition-in plans count toward the page limit.
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Questions
| Operational Support Order Questions and Clarifications for Solicitation 030ADV26R0008 - IT Operational Support Services IDIQ | |||||
| Question # | Page # | Section Number | Reference Text | Questions or Other Observations | Library of Congress Response |
| 1 | Page 4 | Attachment J.4 | The OCIO Networking group operates in a mixed environment of contractors and government employees. | How many existing LoC gov’t employees presently support oversight and supplemental network support for this network support requirement? (Helps us gauge the total federal staff supporting these services as well as the new vendor potential staffing required) | The Library has 10 full time employees that provide support for the data network requirement. |
| 2 | Page 3 | Attachment J.4 | N/A | The legacy infrastructure for switching that is presently being managed by Cisco Prime can you provide the total count? (Concerns of vulnerability, risks and SLA management footprint) | The Library has over 1K+ devices, layer 2 and layer 3 devices. |
| 3 | Page 3 | Attachment J.4 | N/A | Is there other legacy production infrastructure being managed by Cisco Prime or not that the vendor should be aware to include routers/wireless/other? (Concerns of vulnerability, risks and SLA management footprint) | Cisco Prime |
| 4 | Page 3 | Attachment J.4 | N/A | Is there a timeline for procurement and/or deployment for replacing all production legacy infrastructure? (Concerns of vulnerability, risks and SLA management footprint also this gives us some insight on upcoming maintenance tasks/after-hour activity) | No. |
| 5 | N/A | 030ADV26R0008+0004 | N/A | Up to how many vendors are LoC looking to award on ITOSS? (incumbent vendors were MIL Corporation, CGI Federal, Artemis Consulting and Accenture Federal Services) | The Library does not have a specific number of vendors that we are looking to award to. |
| 6 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Can the Government identify the incumbent contractor currently performing the services described in the Initial Task Order – Data Network Support (Attachment J4), including the current contract number, total contract value, and period of performance? | The incumbent contractor for the Data Network Support services is The MIL Corporation. The contract number is LCLOC21D0005 CIO21T0012. The Period of Performance is: 05/01/2021-04/30/2026. |
| 7 | N/A | N/A | N/A | In addition to the historical ticket data provided in the task order attachment, can the Government provide any additional historical workload metrics (e.g., approximate contractor staffing levels, number of supported network devices, or average monthly ticket volume) to help offerors better estimate the scope of the Data Network Support task order? | Historically, the Library has had two contractor personnel for the Data Network Support requirement. Please see the response to question #74 in the Phase 1 Q&A. |
| 8 | N/A | N/A | General | Can the Government confirm whether the scope of work described in Attachment J4 reflects the same level of support currently provided by the incumbent contractor, or if there are any planned increases, decreases, or changes in scope compared to the current contract? | Yes, the scope of work in Attachment J4 reflects approximately the same level of support currently being provided. There are no planned changes. |
| 9 | N/A | General | N/A | Can the library please provide the name of the incumbent contractor supporting the Operational Services task order today? | The incumbent contractor for the Operational Support services is The MIL Corporation. The contract number is LCLOC21D0005 CIO22T0004. |
| 10 | N/A | General | N/A | How many FTEs are currently supporting the work? | Historically, 8 FTEs have supported the work. |
| 11 | N/A | General | Q&A Set 2 #83 - "Can the Library confirm whether resumes are required to be submitted for proposed key personnel under Volume II (Technical Approach – IDIQ), or if providing names, titles, and role descriptions within the organizational structure is sufficient?" | In the second set of Q&A #83, two different options were presented, to which the Library answered "Yes, please see the answer to question #5." |
It remains unclear if the Library is affirming the first option or the second option.
Also, question #5 pertains to Volume V, not Volume II, so it is unclear if the response is for the IDIQ or Task Order.
| In order to completely eliminate any and all confusion, can the Library confirm that resumes are not required for any personnel (key or non-key) in any volume of the proposal submission? | Resumes are not required. | |||||
| 12 | N/A | General (Operational Support Task Order) | N/A | For the Operational Support Task Order, can the Library provide the period covered by the ticket volumes? | The ticket volumes are from the previous 12 months as noted in Section C.1 of the Operational Support Task Order. | |
| 13 | N/A | General (Operational Support Task Order) | N/A | For the Operational Support Task Order, can the Library provide the counts for collaboration, monitoring, endpoint, and datacenter tickets? | No, this information is not readily available. | |
| 14 | N/A | General (Operational Support Task Order) | N/A | For the Operational Support Task Order, can the Library provide the number of patch events per year for Unix, VMware, messaging, and database? | Routine Patch Events include: VMware = 8 patch events |
Databases = 4 patch events + 3 application patches Messaging = 12 OS patches + 4/6 application patches UNIX = 4 patch events (1 per quarter) 15 N/A General (Operational Support Task Order) N/A For the Operational Support Task Order, can the Library provide the count of VMs provisioned and decommissioned per month? VMs provisioned: on average 20 per month for the past 12 months VMs decommissioned: on average 17 per month for the past 12 months
| 16 | N/A | General (Operational Support Task Order) | N/A | For the Operational Support Task Order, can the Library provide the number of backup failures, restore requests, and recovery drills? | BCDR conducts yearly recovery drills, Restore requests are submitted thru ServiceNow tickets on average there is roughly 20 requests for restores a month, backup failures are not tracked and handled on a case by case basis and monitored daily for quick resolution. | |
| 17 | N/A | General (Operational Support Task Order) | N/A | For the Operational support task order, please provide the number of devices, servers, manufactures, models, etc that are support by the operational support task order (e.g,, 10 oracle v x.x databases, VM version x.x), etc. | 717 SQL Server Databases on servers below: | |
| 24 | SQL Server 2016/ Windows 2016 standard | |||||
| 2 | RDS SQL Server 2022 | |||||
| 45 | SQL Server 2019/ Windows 2019 standard | |||||
| 12 | SQL Server 2022 Windows 2022 standard | |||||
| 1 | SQL Server 2022 Windows 2025 datacenter | |||||
| 1 | SQL Server 2025 /Windows 2025 standard |
738 MySQL Databases on servers below:
| 47 | MySQL 8.0/ Rhel8 |
| 2 | RDS MySQL 8.0 |
| 41 | MySQL 8.4/ Rhel9 |
| 1 | MySQL 8.4/ Rhel8 |
| 1 | RDS MySQL 8.4 |
110 Oracle Databases on servers below:
| 10 | RDS Oracle 19c |
| 5 | Oracle 19c/ Rhel9 |
| 47 | Oracle 19c/ Rhel8 |
13 PostgreSQL Databases on servers below:
| 7 | PostgreSQL 16/ Rhel9 | |||||
| 18 | N/A | General (Both Task Orders) | N/A | In regards to the operational support task order and data network task orders please provide the quanity of network devices supported, their operating sysems, and versions. | There are approximately 5,100 production network devices. OCIO will not provide a listing of them however, the network devices are patched to the N-1 or greater current software version. | |
| 19 | All | General (Operational Support Task Order) | N/A | The addition of a brand new task order with Amendment 5 requires a signifant amount of additional effort for offerors. Would the Library please consider giving a one week extension to the due date? | Yes, please see amendment 0008. | |
| 20 | 6 | B.1. Factor 2 – Technical Approach (IDIQ) | N/A | The SOW for the Operational Support task order contains 11 pages of requirements, but only 10 additional pages were given to Volume V. Would the Library please consider increasing the page limit of Volume V to 35 pages? | Please see amendment 0008 which increases the page limit of Volume V. | |
| 21 | N/A | N/A | Attachment J7 0005 Initial Task Order Operational Support | Could the Government provide workload metrics (e.g., number of servers, applications, and ATOs per year) to support more accurate sizing for the second task order? | The question is too broad to provide an accurate response. | |
| 22 | Amendment 0005 - Questions and Answers | The Government answer to question 89 indicate that 1980 annual hours is considered and FTE for 1 position. This estimate is well above a full time employee of 1880 hours. Does this estimate include 100 hours of anticipated overtime for the year or are personnel expected to work 1980 hours per year? | 1980 annual hours is considered FTE for 1 position. The additional 100 hours is to support planned maintenance and unplanned events requiring contractor support. | |||
| 23 | Page 4 | L.2.5(a) | Amendment 0005 | The Operation Support requirements are vastly different than the Data Network Support requirements originally presented with the solicition and requirements through March 10, 2026. The turnaround time for the submission of the original requirements and the newly added requirements puts none incumbent team offerors at a significant disadvantage in providing a proper response with the current time allotted. Since the Operational Support requirements are a new response requirement and require significantly more information to provide a complete and detailed side by side response, Will the Government consider extending the due date to March 31, 2026? | Yes, please see amendment 0008. | |
| 24 | Page 6 | E.2 | Amendment 0005, Volume V. Technical Proposal - Technical Approach (Intial Orders) | Amendment 0005 has incorporated a new requirement that requires a more indept Task Order Technical Proposal - Technical Approach. Will the Government confirm if both Initial Task Order responses are to be included in one Volume and both limited to 30 pages only? | Yes, both task order responses should be submitted in Volume V. Please see the updated page limit for Volume V in amendment 0008. The page limit applies to the total pages for Volume V (both task orders together). | |
| 25 | Page 6 - 7 | E.1 and E.2 | Amendment 0005, Volume V. Technical Proposal - Technical Approach (Intial Orders) | Will the Government consider seperating the Volume V into to separate responses, one for Data Network Support and one for Operational Support? | Volume V should be submitted together in one document, but should include two separate responses. | |
| 26 | Page 7 | E.2 | Amendment 0005, Volume V. Technical Proposal - Technical Approach (Intial Orders) E.2 Technical Approach Operational Support | Will the Government confirm if offerors are to respond to each paragraph with a side by side response starting with Section C.3 through C.6? | Confirmed. | |
| 27 | Page 7 | 3.6 | Attachment J7 | Can the Government clarify whether the contractor will perform day-to-day operational administration for all messaging functions listed in Section 3.4, or whether certain security/compliance functions such as Purview, DLP, litigation hold, and eDiscovery remain government-led with contractor support provided only as assigned? | The intent is for the contractor to perform all day-to-day operation, but some security/compliance functions such as Purview, DLP, litigation hold, and eDiscovery remain government-led with contractor support only if needed. | |
| 28 | Page 10 | 3.6 | Attachment J7 | Can the Government clarify the operational boundary between Attachment J4 and Attachment J7 for network-related work, particularly for firewall changes, network management tooling, and configuration documentation, so offerors can avoid duplicating labor in the two initial orders? | The network team follows the Change Management process for all network related changes. All changes require a base ticket. The operational support tickets are typically day-to-day tasks while the data network tickets are typically projects such as switch upgrades, patch updates, or vulnerability fixes. | |
| 29 | Page 10 & 13 | 4 | Attachment J7 | Can the Government provide an estimated annual volume for documentation updates under J7, including the expected number of new SAMTGs, major revisions, and Visio/network diagram updates, beyond those explicitly identified in Section 4? | No | |
| 30 | Page 3 | 1 | Attachment J7 | Can the Government provide the approximate number of quarterly patching events, monthly messaging patch events, and emergency patch occurrences historically handled under J7-like support to help offerors estimate labor hours for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance? | Routine Patch Events include: VMware = 8 patch events |
Databases = 4 patch events + 3 application patches Messaging = 12 OS patches + 4/6 application patches UNIX/Linux = 4 patch events (1 per quarter)
| 31 | Page 9 | 3.5 | Attachment J7 | Can the Government clarify whether periodic backup restoration testing or disaster recovery exercises are expected under this order, and if so, at what frequency? | DR exercises are held quarterly. Operational Support staff could be ticketed to participate in the DR exercise. | |
| 32 | Page 5 | 3.2 | Attachment J7 | Can the Government clarify whether the contractor’s VMware support under Section 3.2 includes direct administration of cloud-hosted virtualization services, or whether AWS/Azure responsibilities are limited to workloads integrated with the on-premises VMware environment? | Operational support staff would need to support on premise and or cloud environments. | |
| 33 | Page 3 & 4 | 1, 3 | Attachment J7 | Can the Government clarify whether complex change requests in J7 are generally limited to implementation of government-approved changes, or whether the contractor is also expected to develop technical implementation plans, rollback procedures, and validation steps for all assigned changes? | The contractor will be expected to develop technical implementation plans, rollback procedures and validation steps for all assigned changes | |
| 34 | Page 1 | 3 | Attachment J7 | Can the Government clarify whether the historical ticket counts in J7 reflect only contractor-assigned work, or whether they include tickets that were opened but resolved by Government staff or reassigned outside contractor scope? | The tickets in Attachment J7 were resolved by the contractor personnel. For the period of Calendar year 2025, ITSO processed approximately 20,000 tickets which were resolved by both Library and contractor personnel (65% Operations, 25% Networking and 10% Other (Monitoring, Change, Engineering)). | |
| 35 | Pg. 6 | Attachment J.7 - 3.3 Backup & Archiving Support Services | The vendor will be expected to generate a new CommVault System Administration and Troubleshooting Guide (SAMTG) since there is not currently one developed for that team. The OCIO EMC Isilon Platform SAMTG.pdf attachment provide an example of the SAMTG. Technical staff use the commercial Commvault Online Documentation for any troubleshooting (documentation.commvault.com) or contact Commvault support for any issues that need immediate resolution. | Would the Library be willing to share the attached “OCIO EMC Isilon Platform SAMTG.pdf” with offerors, so we can better understand the expectations for the CommVault SAMTG document we are required to develop? | No, development of the Commvault SAMTG is the consolidation of current WIKIs in the platform into a technical SOP format. | |
| 36 | Pg. 7 | Amendment 5 - E.2 & E.3 | Offerors shall also submit a draft Transition-In Plan to describe how services will be transitioned from the incumbent contractor. The Transition-In Plan shall describe the onboarding of staff and assignment of duties and responsibilities that will ensure the required services are continued through the transition period. | |||
| Can the government please confirm that the transition plans for the initial orders do not count towards the 30-page limit for Volume V? | No, the transition plans count towards the page limit in Volume V. | |||||
| 37 | Page 7 | 030ADV26R0008 0005 | Section L.2.6, D.1 (Volume IV) and F.1 (Volume VI) | |||
| Offerors must include any ground rules and/or assumptions in their proposal. | May offerors include their ground rules and assumptions as a dedicated tab within the respective Excel attachment , or is a separate Word/PDF document required? | Offerors may include their ground rules and assumptions in a separate tab in Attachment J1 and J5. | ||||
| 38 | N/A | Attachment J.5 | CLIN numbers | Both the task orders pricing tabs use identical CLIN numbers. Please confirm whether these are two separate task orders with independent CLIN structures. | Yes, Attachment J4 and J7 are two separate task orders with independent CLIN structures. | |
| 39 | Page 4-5 | Attachment J.7 | f) Apply RedHat Linux patches and security fixes for 2500 UNIX and Linux Servers | Can you provide which verion/s of UNIX systems require support? (Ex. CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, Solaris, etc) | RedHat Enterprise Linux | |
| 40 | Page 4-5 | Attachment J.7 | f) Apply RedHat Linux patches and security fixes for 2500 UNIX and Linux Servers | Can you provide as estimated count of Red Hat versus other UNIX version systems? | 2500 RedHat. 0 Other. See the updates to Attachment J7 in amendment 0008 to remove "UNIX" systems. | |
| 41 | Page 5 | Attachment J.7 | VMWare Server Support Services | Is the VMWare environment running in a standalone physical model or leveraging HyperConverged Infrastructure with Cisco UCS hosts? | VMware environment leverages Cisco UCS Hosts in a standalone physical model. | |
| 42 | Page 6 | Attachment J.7 | Backup and Archiving Support Services | Could you provide an estimate of the total amount of data being managed on the production storage infrastructure? | Over 120 PB | |
| 43 | Page 6 | Attachment J.7 | Backup and Archiving Support Services | Could you provide an estimate of the total amount of data being managed on the archival plaftform? | Commvault 20PB. ScoutAM 70PB | |
| 44 | Page 7 - 8 | Attachment J.7 | Messaging Support Services | What is the version of the onpremise Exchange Server/s (Exchange Server SE, 2019, 2016, etc) | Exchange SE | |
| 45 | Page 9 | Attachment J.7 | Network Management Support Services | I wanted to confirm there aren't any Cisco FTD/FMC security appliance firewalls requiring support? I did see mentions of Palo Alto. | We have Cisco FTD/FMC as well Palo Alto in our environments and both require support. | |
| 46 | 7 | Section E.2 of RFP Amd0005 | Offerors must respond sequentially to each paragraph in Section C, starting with 3, to permit side-by-side consideration of the proposed technical approach with the requirements of the initial order. | Please confirm this should say "starting with 3.1". | No, for the Operational Support order, offerors must respond sequentially starting with Section C.3. | |
| 47 | 7 | Section E.2 of RFP Amd0005 | Offerors must respond sequentially to each paragraph in Section C, starting with 3, to permit side-by-side consideration of the proposed technical approach with the requirements of the initial order. | Please confirm whether offerors are permitted to reference other sections within the same proposal volume to avoid repeating identical narrative in multiple sections. | No, each order will be evaluated separately. The response for each order shall contain all sections to allow side-by-side consideration of the proposed technical approach with the requirements of each order. | |
| 48 | 6 | Section L.2.6-E.1 and E.2 of RFP Amd0005 | Volume V shall not exceed 30 pages in length... | The Government originally allocated 20 pages for the Volume V Technical Proposal for the Initial Order – Data Networking. Under Amendment 0005, the Government added the Initial Order – Operational Support but increased the page limit by only 10 pages, for a total of 30 pages, to address both Orders. Given the addition of another Order and level of detail required, the current page limit may constrain offerors’ ability to provide comprehensive and compliant responses. Would the Government consider increasing the Volume V page limit to 40 pages to allow offerors sufficient space to fully address the requirements for both Initial Orders? | Yes, please see amendment 0008. | |
| 49 | 3 | Section L.2.3 of RFP Amd0005 | Questions regarding Attachment J7 – Initial Task Order – Operational Support must be submitted no later than 12:00 PM ET, March 17, 2026. | Does the Government have an anticipated timeline for providing responses to vendor questions regarding the Operational Support Task Order? | The responses to the Operational Support Task Order have been provided. | |
| 50 | 4-11 | Section C.3.1-C.3.7 of Attachment J7 | None | Please identify the estimated number of contractor personnel, beyond the one designated Project Manager (key personnel), required to successfully perform the tasks outlined in each scope area 3.1 through 3.7. | The Government estimates seven FTEs plus the Project Manager. Please refer to Question #10. | |
| 51 | Solicitation Page 64 | L.2.6 (Volume V) | "Volume V. Technical Proposal – Technical Approach (Initial Orders). (Volume V shall not exceed 30 pages in length..." | Given that Volume V must now include sequential technical responses, draft Transition-In plans, and detailed labor mixes for two highly complex and distinct task orders (Attachment J4 and Attachment J7), will the Government consider increasing the Volume V page limit to 40 pages to ensure offerors can provide a sufficiently detailed and compliant response? | Yes, please see amendment 0008. | |
| 52 | J7 Page 1 | Section B | "Historically, the contractor’s staff worked on-site at one of the Library’s Capitol Hill facilities 5 days per week during the transition period and then reduced it to 2-3 days per week after that (working remotely the other 2-3 days per week)." | Section B of Attachment J7 notes a historical hybrid schedule of 2-3 days on-site per week post-transition. Does the Government expect this 2-3 day on-site cadence to apply across all labor categories assigned to J7, or are certain roles (such as Datacenter Operations) expected to maintain a higher on-site presence? | The Government is flexible with the on site requirements, however there are specific mission requirements that cannot be completed remotely. These items would require on site presence based on scheduling and approved change windows. The Government estimates that all labor categories will be on-site 2-3 days per week after the transition period. The Datacenter Operations staff may be required to be on site 3-5 days per week. | |
| 53 | J7 Page 3 | 1. Overview | "For historical context, the table below provides the ticket counts from the previous twelve months. Note: these numbers should only be used as an estimate." | In Section 1 of Attachment J7, the Government helpfully provided historical ticket counts. To assist offerors in proposing a realistic labor mix, can the Government provide the historical or anticipated Level of Effort (FTE count) currently supporting the comprehensive Operational Support requirements outlined in J7? | Please refer to Question #10. | |
| 54 | J7 Page 9 | 3.6 | "Network Management Support Services The contractor shall apply expert working knowledge of systems design, implementation, operation and maintenance of critical network management infrastructure systems and tools..." | Both Initial Task Orders contain networking scopes (J4 covers Data Network Support and J7 Section 3.6 covers Network Management Support Services). Can the Government clarify the operational boundaries between the personnel on these two task orders? For example, will J4 personnel and J7 personnel be expected to collaborate on the same network-related ServiceNow tickets? | The tickets for both task orders are submitted through ServiceNow but are separate for each task order. Contractor personnel will be expected to collaborate on the network-related tickets. Please see the response to Question #28. | |
| 55 | J7 Page 14 | 5.1 and 6.1 | "Resolution Time Outside Core Hours, M-F, 8PM-6:30AM, Weekends and Federal Holidays" AND "The Library will require the Contractor’s staff to offer a coverage time between the hours of 8:00AM and 5:00PM Mondays through Fridays" | Section 6.1 of J7 states coverage hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but the Incident Response table in Section 5.1 mandates resolution times for outside core hours, weekends, and holidays. Can the Government clarify if the contractor is expected to staff a 24/7/365 shift rotation for J7, or if an 'on-call' model is acceptable to meet the outside core hours SLAs? | The contractor is not expected to staff 24/7/365. The contractor is required to provide coverage between 8:00AM and 5:00PM M-F. There is no on-call requirement for this task order. After hours incident response is handled primarily by Government employees. However, there are occasions, planned in advance, when contract staff would be needed after hours for planned maintenance such as patching on a weekend. There may also be occasions when contract subject matter experts may be required after hours in the event of a major service disruption. The contractor's hours can be shifted during the work week to accommodate support after hours, weekends and nights. | |
| 56 | J7 Page 15 | 6.3 | "The Contractor shall provide Project Manager who has at least 10 years of experience managing a diverse IT team on projects similar in size, scope and complexity to the requirements." | Section 6.3 of Attachment J7 designates a Project Manager as Key Personnel for the task order. Can the Government confirm if this Project Manager must be a dedicated, full-time resource assigned exclusively to J7, or if this role may be fulfilled concurrently by the IDIQ-level Program Manager? | The Project Manager does not need to be a dedicated full time resource, and may be fulfilled concurrently by the IDIQ Program Manager. | |
| 57 | 8-9 | 3.5 | "…current and future database products such as Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL…" | Will the government please provide the current approximate number of instances for each of the listed database products? | See the response to Question #17. | |
| 58 | Attachment J5 | Will the government please confirm Offerors may add columns for task order discounting as allowed for in Q91? | Please see amendment 0008, Attachment J5 with an additional column for discounts. | |||
| 59 | 66 | M.1.5.3 | Feedback will be evaluated based on the relevancy of the projects to Section C of this solicitation and how well the offeror performed thereunder. | Will the government please define the term "relevancy" within the context of past performance evaluation? | Relevancy pertains to how similar the current contract requirements are to previous contracts that the offeror has performed. | |
| 60 | 63 | L.2.6.C.1 | "Questionnaires shall be returned directly to the Contracting Officer…" | The instructions state that the PPQs for Volume 3 are to be submitted to the Government directly from the Customer. Since there are no other requirements for Past Performance indicated, please clarify what the offerors should include in their submission of Volume 3. | Offerors do not need to submit anything for Volume III since the Past Performance Questionnaires will be submitted from their customers. If you would like to submit something for Volume III, you may submit the names of the customers who submitted Past Performance Questionnaires, but this is not required. | |
| 61 | 10 | M.1.5.4 | "The Library will evaluate the price proposal for completeness and reasonableness..." | Will the government please confirm price proposals will not be evaluated for realism? | No, please see questions 209 and 365 in the Phase 1 Q&A. | |
| 62 | pages J4 - 7 and J7 - 14 | Attachment J4 C.5.1 compared to Attachment J7 C.6.1 | In J4, "The contractor is responsible for conducting the work described in this task order between the Library of Congress core business hours of 6:30 am to 6:00 pm Mondays through Fridays, except Federal holidays or when the Government facility is closed due to local or national emergencies, administrative closings, or similar Government directed facility closings." |
| In J7, "The Library will require the Contractor’s staff to offer a coverage time between the hours of 8:00AM and 5:00PM Mondays through Fridays except Federal holidays or when the Government facility is closed due to local or national emergencies, administrative closings, or similar Government directed facility closings." | The hours of operation in Attachment J4 and in Attachment J7 are different. Can the Government please confirm which document has the correct set of hours of operation and task order coverage? | The hours of operation are correct in Attachment J4 and J7. Please see the response to question #55. | ||||
| 63 | pages 10 - 14 | Attachment J4 C.5.1 compared to Attachment J7 C.6.1 | In J7, "The Library will require the Contractor’s staff to offer a coverage time between the hours of 8:00AM and 5:00PM Mondays through Fridays except Federal holidays or when the Government facility is closed due to local or national emergencies, administrative closings, or similar Government directed facility closings." | Can the Government please confirm whether the contractor must provide after-hours staffed support, on-call support, or only incident response coordination outside normal coverage hours? | Please see the response to question #55. | |
| 64 | page 5 | Attachment J7 C.3.1 f) | "Apply RedHat Linux patches and security fixes for 2,500 UNIX and Linux servers during scheduled patch events." | |||
| Does the stated 2,500 UNIX/Linux servers include only production systems, or also development, test, disaster recovery, appliances, and cloud-hosted Linux instances? | 2,500 includes production, development, test, and cloud-hosted Linux instances. | |||||
| 65 | page 8 | Attachment J7 C.3.5 b) II. | "Provides high-level technical expertise and major technical responsibility for installing, monitoring, and maintaining Database Managed Applications such as OFM/LDS and ORDS." | For OFM/LDS and ORDS, does the contractor scope include only platform installation and maintenance, or also application administration and operational support? | The contractor scope includes platform installation and maintenance and application administration and operational support. | |
| 66 | page 10 | Attachment J7 C.3.6 i) and l) | "Research, test, implement, and manage Gigamon in coordination with ITSec." |
| "Research, test, and implement Load Balancer for applicable applications." | Can the Government please clarify whether the Network Management scope is primarily operational support, or whether it also includes implementation ownership for production changes involving Gigamon, load balancers, Cisco ISE, Palo Alto, NetMRI, and Catalyst Center? | The Network Management scope includes both. | ||||
| 67 | 3 | Section C - Statement of Work - 1. Overview | In Attachment J7 - 005 - Initial Task Order - Operational Support, the Library provides historical information about the tickets related to this work from the last twelve months. | Can the Library please also provide the number of staff members and their associated labor categories who have provided these services during the last 12 months (similar to how to Library provided historical staffing information for the Data Network Support Task Order)? | Historically, the contractor personnel have included the following: PM Level I (1 total), Systems Administrator Level II (3 total), Database Administrator (2 total), Systems Engineer Level I (1 total), and Technical Writer Level I (1 total). | |
| 68 | 8 | Attachment_J4_-_0005_-_Initial_Task_Order_-_Data_Network_Support | Attachment J4 lists the Key Personnel for the Data Network Support task order as a Data Network Engineer, a labor category (LCAT) that does not appear in the list of IDIQ labor categories provided in the most recent Attachment J1. | Can the Library provide clarification as to which LCAT the Data Network Engineer should be mapped to? | The Data Network Engineer can be mapped to the System Engineer LCAT. | |
| 69 | 3 | Attachment_J7_-_0005_-_Initial_Task_Order_-_Operational_Support | Attachment J7 provides the historical ticket count broken down by scope area for the task order. | Can the Library provide historic staffing numbers for the desribed task order to ensure offerors can propose a reasonable price for the initial order? | Please refer to question #67. | |
| 70 | 3 | Attachment_J7_-_0005_-_Initial_Task_Order_-_Operational_Support | Attachment J7 provides the historical ticket count broken down by scope area for the task order. | Can the Library provide clarity as to which section of the PWS the support for storage mentioned in the historical ticket counts would fall under as it is not an identified PWS section? | The majority of the storage requirements are in Section C.3.3. | |
| 71 | 3 | Attachment_J7_-_0005_-_Initial_Task_Order_-_Operational_Support | Attachment J7 provides the historical ticket count broken down by scope area for the task order. | Can the Library provide a more detailed 12-month historical workload breakout by functional area, including incidents versus service requests, average monthly volume, and distribution by priority level? | No | |
| 72 | 6 | Attachment_J7_-_0005_-_Initial_Task_Order_-_Operational_Support | PWS names CommVault, NetBackup, and Enterprise Vault as currently in use ar the Library for storage and backup | Can the Library confirm the production backup and archiving platforms currently in use and whether the contractor will be responsible only for CommVault and NetBackup or also other storage/archive platforms? | NetBackup and Enterprise Vault are no longer in use. Currently, the Library uses Commvault for on-prem backups and Rubrik provides backup for LOC M365 tenant. M365 backups are kept in Rubrik Security Cloud storage in Azure. | |
| 73 | 4 | L.2.5 | The deadline for Phase II submissions is 12:00 PM ET, March 27, 2026. | Will the Government consider splitting the Phase II submission into two parts by keeping the Vol. II–IDIQ Technical, Vol. III–PPQs, and Vol. IV–IDIQ Price volumes due on 3/27/26, and extending the due date for Vol. V–Initial Task Order Technical and Vol. VI–Initial Task Order Price, to account for the additional Operational Support requirements and expanded page count included in Amendment 05? | No, please see amendment 0008 which extends the Phase II submission date. | |
| 74 | N/A | Attachment J5 & J7 Initial Order Pricing | N/A | Will the government please privde the level of effort (FTE or Total Hours) by Tier for the Operational Support Initial Task Order? | Please see the response to question #10 and 67. | |
| 75 | 9 | Section 3.5 – Database Management Support | Database support includes Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL platforms. | Can the Government Please share the approximate number of database instances across the supported platforms and clarify whether the contractor is responsible for managing both on-premises and cloud-hosted databases. | See the response to questions #17 and 21. Yes, both on prem and in the Cloud instances are in scope. | |
| 76 | 14 | Section 5 – OCIO Service Level Agreements | Incident response times are defined for priorities P1 through P4. | Can the Government confirm whether incident response requirements apply 24x7, or only during the defined operational hours specified in Section 6.1? | Only during the defined operational hours specified in Section 6.1 | |
| 77 | 14 | Section 6.1 – Hours of Operation | Coverage hours are defined as 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM Monday through Friday. | Can the Government please confirm whether the contractor is expected to provide after-hours on-call support for critical incidents, or if support outside these hours is handled by Government personnel? | Please see the response to question #62 and 63. | |
| 78 | 3 | L.2.5 Email Submission Instructions and Format | The deadline for Phase II submissions is 12:00 PM ET, March 27, 2026. | |||
| Proposals submitted after the date and time listed may not be accepted | Considering the comphrensive nature of PWS Task areas at IDIQ level coupled with Initial order E.1 and newly released E.2 Technical Approach – Operational Support, can the government please extend the phase 2 proposal due date by one week? | Yes, please see amendment 0008. | ||||
| 79 | N/A | Attachment J5 – Initial Order Pricing Sheet. | N/A | Can the Government please clarify the total Level of Effort (LOE) required for the Initial Orders - 'E.1. Technical Approach – Data Network Support' as well as 'E.2 Technical Approach – Operational Support' respectively. | Historically, the Library has had two contractor personnel for the Data Network Support requirement. Please see the response to question #7 above and #74 in the Phase 1 Q&A. For the Operational Support requirement, please see the response to question #67 above. | |
| 80 | 2-11 | Attachment J7, Section C.1 / C.3 | All | Please clarify what portion of the historical ticket counts in Attachment J7 are expected to be performed by the contractor under this order versus primarily government-performed, shared with government staff, or otherwise outside contractor responsibility. | The historical ticket counts in Attachment J7 were performed by the contractor staff. Please see the response to question #34. | |
| 81 | 4-10 | Attachment J7, Section C.1 / C.2 / C.3 | All | Please provide the current in-scope production inventory by service tower at task-order start, including at a minimum: UNIX/Linux server counts by environment; Exchange Online / hybrid Exchange scope; database instance counts by platform; VMware clusters/hosts; backup platforms and protected workloads; and the major network-management platforms, devices, and tools to be supported. | That information will be provided around kickoff of the contract/order. | |
| 82 | 4-10 | Attachment J7, Section C.3 | All | For each J7 service tower (UNIX/Linux, VMware, Backup and Archiving, Messaging, Database Management, and Network Management), please provide the approximate percentage split of expected contractor effort among incidents, service requests, change tasks/change requests, patching, documentation/reporting, and backlog/project work. | The ticket counts identified in Attachment J7 were historically completed by contractor staff only. Please see the response to question #34. | |
| 83 | 1, 4-11 | Attachment J7, Section B / C.3 / C.7 | All | Please clarify the expected on-site staffing posture after transition. Is the Government expecting a minimum number of contractor staff on-site each day, a minimum on-site presence by function, or only that contractor staff perform on-site work when mission need requires? | The government is flexible with the on site requirements, however there are specific mission requirements that cannot be completed remotely. These items would require on site presence based on scheduling and approved change windows. The Government estimates that all labor categories will be on-site 2-3 days per week after the transition period. The Datacenter Operations staff may be required to be on site 3-5 days per week. | |
| 84 | 4-10, 14 | Attachment J7, Section C.3 / C.5 | All | Please confirm whether offerors should assume a formal after-hours/on-call rotation is required to meet the incident response requirements, and if so, please identify the service towers expected to participate and the approximate historical frequency of after-hours or weekend support by tower. | The contractor's hours can be shifted during the work week to accommodate support after hours, weekends and nights. Please see the response to question #55. | |
| 85 | 4-10, 11-13 | Attachment J7, Sections C.3.1–C.3.6 / Deliverables | All | Please provide the approximate number of emergency or expedited patch events over the last 12 months by service tower, including Linux, VMware, Backup/Archiving, Messaging, Database, and Network Management. | In 2025 there were 164 ITSEC issued CVEs. 42 of them were applicable to the Library IT environment. These emergency events were resolved by Library staff as well as contractor personnel. | |
| 86 | 10-11 | Attachment J7, Section C.7 / Section 4 | All | Please confirm whether all transition staff are expected to be fully onboarded at the start of the transition period, or whether phased onboarding during transition is acceptable so long as there is no service disruption. Please also identify what incumbent documentation, inventories, access records, and knowledge-transfer sessions by tower the Government expects to be available during transition. | Phased onboarding during transition is acceptable as long as there is no service disruption. See section C.3.7 of Attachment J7. | |
| 87 | Page 6 | 030ADV26R0008 0005 | Volume V shall not exceed 30 pages in length | Please confirm whether the 30-page limit applies collectively to both Initial Orders, rather than separately to each one. | The page limit applies collectively to both orders. Please see amendment 0008 for an updated page limit for Volume V. | |
| 88 | Page 7 | 030ADV26R0008 0005 | Volume VI. Price Proposal – Initial Orders | We have observed that LOC government staff is also responsible for performing hands-on duties typically assigned to Task Orders (TOs). In this situation, how should a vendor submit a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) proposal for a TO? Please guide. | Government staff work collaboratively with the contractor staff. The work that is identified in the order is specifically for the contractor. Offerors shall propose a firm fixed price based on the requirements outlined in the statement of work for each individual order. | |
| 89 | Page 3 | Attachment J7 - 0005 - Initial Task Order - Operational Support | 2. Scope of Work - "requirements to accomplish a backlog of infrastructure projects" | Scope of work paragraph mentions backlog of infrastructure projects, please share how many projects are expected over life of contracts. | The Library cannot determine that at this time. Contractor work is handled with ticketing and any assignments are issued using ServiceNow tickets. | |
| 90 | Page 5 | Attachment J7 - 0005 - Initial Task Order - Operational Support | 3.2 VMware Server Support Services - ESXi environments | What is the current ESXi server count for the VMware hardware. | 102 | |
| 91 | Page 6 | Attachment J7 - 0005 - Initial Task Order - Operational Support | 3.2 VMware Server Support Services - Cisco UCS | What application are hosted on Cisco UCS. | VMware and Commvault | |
| 92 | Page 5 | Attachment J7 - 0005 - Initial Task Order - Operational Support | 3.2 VMware Server Support Services | Are there any DR/HA configurations that depend on VMware/virtualization in place. If so please provide software/packages providing that capability | VMware utilizes vCenter Server 8 with HA and DRS enabled for host clusters. | |
| 93 | Page 4 | Attachment J7 - 0005 - Initial Task Order - Operational Support | 3. Description of Requirements and Services - ServiceNow | What ServiceNow modules are fully operational. Are ITAM and CMDB modules fully operational? Do you have end user computing, servers and applications registered with CMDB? Is service/application mapping in place? | ITAM and CMDB are fully operational. Yes, the Library has end user computing, servers and applications registered with CMDB. Service/application mapping is still in progress. | |
| 94 | Page 6 | Attachment J7 - 0005 - Initial Task Order - Operational Support | 3.3 Backup and Archiving Support Services | Is there a DR testing schedule? What are RPO/RTO requirements? | Ther is an annual DR Testing schedule that includes all IT systems at the Library. Contractor support of these efforts is assigned via ServiceNow ticketing. | |
| 95 | Page 7 | Attachment J7 - 0005 - Initial Task Order - Operational Support | 3.4 Messaging Support Services | What is the estimated total mailbox count? Is Microsoft Teams platform in use across all LOC? Is there any integration between Microsoft Teams and the desktop phone/VoIP environment? | 10k+ total mailboxes. MS Teams is in use across the Tenant with no phone integration | |
| 96 | Page 8 | Attachment J7 - 0005 - Initial Task Order - Operational Support | 3.5 Database Management Support Services | Is there an overall Database count and Database server count available? What HA/DR setup exists for databases. What database monitoring tools are in place? | See the response to Question #17. We have Log shipping for 1 application. Using DataGuard for 3 Major applications. | |
| 97 | Sample Hardware, Software, and Applications | Attachment J1 - 0002 - IT Operational IDIQ Labor Categories and Pricing | Rubrick | We understand that LOC uses CommVault, NetBackup as main backup tools. What is specific use of Rubrick in the environment? | The Library currently use CommVault for on-prem backup and Rubrik for M365 backup. | |
| 98 | N/A | Attch. J7 | N/A | For the new Task Order (Operational Support), how are these services currently being performed? | These services are currently being performed by contractor personnel. | |
| 99 | N/A | Attch. J7 | N/A | For the new Task Order (Operational Support), please provide the name, contract number, and value for any incumbent contractor(s). | Please see the response to question #9. | |
| 100 | N/A | Attch. J7 | N/A | For the new Task Order (Operational Support), what are the historical staffing levels? | Please see the response to question #67. | |
| 101 | N/A | Attch. J7 | N/A | For the new Task Order (Operational Support), does the government anticipate the current staffing levels to meet current and future needs? | Yes. | |
| 102 | 4 | Attach. J7, Section 3.1 | Attch. J7, UNIX/Linux Server Support Services | What are the historical staffing levels (skills and FTE count) for Task 3.1 UNIX/Linux Server Support Services in the Operational Support Initial Task? | Please see question #67 for the total staffing levels. | |
| 103 | 5 | Attach. J7, Section 3.2 | Attch. J7, VMware Server Support Services | What are the historical staffing levels (skills and FTE count) for Task 3.2 VMware Server Support Services in the Operational Support Initial Task? | Please see question #67 for the total staffing levels. | |
| 104 | 6 | Attach. J7, Section 3.3 | Attch. J7, Backup and Archiving Support Services | What are the historical staffing levels (skills and FTE count) for Task 3.3 Backup and Archiving Support Services in the Operational Support Initial Task? | Please see question #67 for the total staffing levels. | |
| 105 | 7 | Attach. J7, Section 3.4 | Attch. J7, Messaging Support Services | What are the historical staffing levels (skills and FTE count) for Task 3.4 Messaging Support Services in the Operational Support Initial Task? | Please see question #67 for the total staffing levels. | |
| 106 | 8 | Attach. J7, Section 3.5 | Attch. J7, Database Management Support Services | What are the historical staffing levels (skills and FTE count) for Task 3.5 Database Management Support Services in the Operational Support Initial Task? | Please see question #67 for the total staffing levels. | |
| 107 | 9 | Attach. J7, Section 3.6 | Attch. J7, Network Management Support Services | What are the historical staffing levels (skills and FTE count) for Task 3.6 Network Management Support Services in the Operational Support Initial Task? | Please see question #67 for the total staffing levels. | |
| 108 | N/A | Attch. J7 | N/A | How many desks are available in Library offices for staff who are supporting the Operational Support Initial Task? | The Library will provide desks as needed. | |
| 109 | 8 | Attach. J7, Section 3.5 | Attch. J7, Database Management Support Services | How many database instances will be managed by staff under Task 3.5 Database Management Support Services? | See the response to question #17. | |
| 110 | 8 | Attach. J7, Section 3.5 | Attch. J7, Database Management Support Services | Which Database technologies are currently in use and managed by staff under Task 3.5 Database Management Support Services. | Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server | |
| 111 | Pgs. 5, 7 | Solicitation | ||||
| L.B.1, L.E.1, L.E.2 | "Offerors must respond sequentially to each paragraph in Section C, starting with 3.1, to permit side-by-side consideration of the proposed technical approach with the requirements of this solicitation." |
| "Offerors must respond sequentially to each paragraph in Section C, starting with 3, to permit side-by-side consideration of the proposed technical approach with the requirements of the initial order." | Please confirm that the government wants sections such as Government Furnished Properties, Invoices, and Hours of Operations included in the responses for Volume II and Volume V. | Yes. | ||||
| 112 | General | Attatchments J4 and J7 | N/A | Are we allowed to cross reference sections between the two task orders? | No. | |
| 113 | General | Attatchment J7 | N/A | Can you provide in more detail the number of servers, databases, users, end point devices, etc. to estimate the level of effort. | See the response to Question #17. | |
| 114 | Row 83 | Answers+to+Initial+Questions+-+IT+Operational+Support+Services+IDIQ | The Library anticipates Phase 2 submissions will be due more than 3 weeks after the advisory recommendations have been distributed. | In Amendment 2 Q&A, in response to Question No. 81, the Government indicated that “The Library anticipates Phase 2 submissions will be due more than 3 weeks after the advisory recommendations have been distributed.” In Amendment 5, the due date has been extended to March 27, 2026 and a new initial task order for Operational Support has been added to the effort. In light of this new development, we respectfully request that the Government consider granting a two-week extension to allow offerors adequate time to prepare and submit a compliant and compelling Phase 2 proposal. | Yes, please see amendment 0008. | |
| 115 | 1 | Advisory Notice | N/A | Would the Government please confirm how many offerors were issued the advisory notification to proceed to Phase 2 of the subject Solicitation? | No. | |
| 116 | 2 | Attachment J4 – 0001 - Initial Order - Data Network Support, SECTION C – STATEMENT OF WORK | The Library of Congress (Library) requires contractor support to facilitate Data Network Services. | Would the Government please confirm the total contract value of the incumbent/current order for the Data Network Support? | No. | |
| 117 | 3 | Attachment J7 - 0005 - Initial Task Order - Operational Support, 2. Scope of Work | The contractor shall support the IT Service Operation (ITSO) Directorate and provide operational support listed in detail requirements to accomplish a backlog of infrastructure projects | Would the Government please confirm the historical level of effort and total contract value of the incumbent/current order for Operational Support (Unix/Win/Storage)? | Please see the response to question #67. |
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