NNG15SD26B-173.pdf

Control Number: TAC-19-55200

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement Acquisition and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 1701 Directors Blvd Austin, TX 78744

2. Description of Action: This proposed action is for the award of a firm-fixed-price delivery order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for NetApp managed services.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to provide four NetApp storage filer heads, eight NetApp disk shelves, two NetApp racks for mounting the filer heads, and the cabling necessary to expand the storage capacity of the FSC Austin and Waco facilities, utilizing existing equipment and adding new shelves and racks as necessary for the additional filer heads. The filer heads control how the storage is allocated and managed, the disk shelves are shelves of storage drives to store data on. While the racks are what the disk shelves and the filer heads are mounted. The goal of this procurement is to meet the growing storage needs of the VA-FSC and increase Disaster Recovery storage in Waco to support disaster recovery. The period of performance for the contract shall be twelve months from the date of award, with three additional 12 month option periods for continued managed services for maintenance of the hardware and software solution. Because this is a managed service where failing or outdated equipment is maintained and replaced by the vendor, there is no expectation of the equipment becoming obsolete within the next four years.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 16.505(a)(4), the following brand name requirement is being justified and approved as an exception to fair opportunity under the statutory authority of Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by FAR Subpart 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled “Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized”.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in paragraph 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is available for this procurement. NetApp’s suite of Storage Attached Network (SAN) product hardware, software licenses, and maintenance support is the only solution that is compatible with the existing storage system and with current business needs. NetApp Storage solutions are already installed and is in use within the VA FSC Austin and Waco locations. The FSC intends to continue to use the existing 32 disk selves in both Austin and Waco, expanding as required to meet storage requirements as well as replacing the filer heads and storage controllers. If a different Brand Name were chosen, VA would lose the ability to continue to use the existing NetApp disk shelves, as they are not compatabile

SAN Upgrade Manage Service Control Number: TAC-19-55200 with other manufaturer’s hardware and software due to proprietary NetApp codeing. Other manufcturer’s hardware and software solutions can not interact and manage the exsisting NetApp equipment properly and would cause issues that would break the SAN. NetApp maintains the proprietary source code for the software that runs the hardware and that source code is not available to any other OEM. The loss of this storage array would cause the VA to incure duplicated costs to replace currently functional equipment estimated at $2,780,000.00, based on the cost of the current hardware and installation. NetApp is the only SAN provider that can expand the current SAN and allow for the continued use of the existing disk shelves and the use of VA owned management software. In addition, no other source can provide the managed services without access to the NetApp proprietary code. Access to this code is needed to ensure all the services provided are properly configured. Failure to upgrade the SAN would cause mission stoppage within the FSC as limits are reached, resulting in the inability to process payments for contractors and veterans health care claims under the Choice Care in the Community program.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government's requirements. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Cisco services. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders.

Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301, 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: VA technical experts conducted market research during April 2019 by reviewing similar hardware and storage management software to ascertain if other brands could meet VA’s functional and technical requirements, which consisted of a review of similar services by Pure Storage, Hewlett Packard and Dell EMC. While other SAN hardware and software solutions from alternative manufacturers exist, they do not meet VA’s requirements because only NetApp or an authorized reseller has access to the proprietary software for managing exsisting hardware and software and the expansion requirement to interconnect with the SAN systems currently in place. Therefore, at present, there is no other hardware or software available in the market place that can meet this requirement. Also, VA SAN Subject Matter Experts regularly review industry trade publications and conduct internet research to ascertain if any other brand name hardware or software is available. Based on all of these market research efforts, the Government’s technical experts have determined that only the aforementioned NetApp brand name hardware and software can meet all of the VA’s needs.

SAN Upgrade Manage Service Control Number: TAC-19-55200

The Contract Specialist (CS) conducted market research in May 2019 by using the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup tool to determine what vendors are capable of meeting the requirement. Based on this market research, the CS found multiple service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB) resellers under SEWP V capable of meeting the full requirement.

9. Other Facts: None.