P03 - VA-24-00079208 Brand Name NetApp V1_Redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-24-00079208

JA Template - FAR Part 16.5 _AUG_05_2019

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price Delivery Order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name NetApp, Inc (NetApp) hardware and maintenance support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), Information Technology Operations and Services (ITOPS), Infrastructure Operations (IO), Enterprise Storage Service Line (ESSL) has a requirement to extend its Object Storage capabilities that supports Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) protocol to its customers with mission-critical and essential applications. VA requires a pair of brand name NetApp All-Flash FAS (AFF) A900 High-Availability (HA) storage controllers to be integrated into the existing NetApp storage cluster at the Philadelphia Information Technology Center (PITC) to support business continuity and disaster recovery. In addition, ESSL requires replacement for existing NetApp drives before they reach End-of-Life (EOL). Bundling these two initiatives will enable the VA to leverage the cost savings associated with purchasing both the storage controllers and drives. Specifically, VA requires drive packs, shelves, and Input/Output (IO) Modules. The Contractor shall be responsible for coordinating delivery of the requested hardware to the Philadelphia Information Technology Center (PITC) and Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) locations. All hardware shall be delivered to the requested sites within 60 days from date of award. Installation and configuration shall be completed within 30 days after delivery. The associated maintenance support for the hardware shall be provided by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), NetApp and the Period of Performance for maintenance shall be 12 months from acceptance date. The total estimated price of this proposed action is

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 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 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled “Only one awardee can provide 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: NetApp brand name hardware is the only brand compatible with the existing NetApp AFF A900 storage controllers, drive packs, shelves, IO Modules in place at Infrastructure Operations. No other storage and

NetApp Hardware and Maintenance support Control Number VA-24-00079208 associated components are compatible with the existing NetApp storage environment due to the proprietary nature of the hardware and components.

Use of another brand would necessitate a complete replacement of the existing NetApp storage infrastructure in place at all four VA datacenter locations. This replacement would require VA to not only purchase entirely new storage controllers and associated storage disk capacity for these datacenters and the staffing to run cables in preparation of the migration effort necessary to pivot to any alternative solution. VA staff would also require vendor training on how to use an alternative solution. To replace the current storage controllers, it is estimated to take approximately 12 months and cost $32M for the hardware, software, and maintenance alone. These duplicative estimated costs, which are based on previous acquisition history and market research, would not be recovered through competition. No source, other than brand name NetApp, and their resellers, has access to the proprietary hardware that runs the current NetApp infrastructure in order to fully interoperate with existing equipment. Due to the high level of interdependency between devices and systems that comprise the IO storage solution, the Government requires a solution that will fully interoperate with the current brand name NetApp system.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in market research section of this document. This effort didn’t yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. It was determined however that competition is viable among authorized resellers for the brand name NetApp hardware and maintenance support. 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 Contracting 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 marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research between March 2024 through May 2024. This research included reviews of internet websites, vendor demonstrations and product line showcase, and trade publications to determine if other similar storage controllers, drive packs, shelves, and IO modules would be compatible with IO’s existing environment. Specifically, the technical experts reviewed similar storage controllers from alternative vendors including those from Pure Storage and Dell. Although other products can provide similar capabilities, no other product can meet VA’s requirements because the other brand hardware are not compatible and interoperable with the existing infrastructure in place. The alternate brands of storage controllers do not have access to NetApp’s proprietary source code needed in order to seamlessly interoperate and communicate with the existing NetApp infrastructure. Therefore, at present there is no other hardware (and associated OEM maintenance support) available in the marketplace that can meet this VA’s requirement.

NetApp can be provided by multiple resellers; therefore, limited competition is anticipated. Based on the market research only NetApp hardware and associated maintenance support can meet all of VA’s requirements.

9. Facts: None

In my role as procuring activ ased on the foregoing justification, I hereby approv c (NetApp) hardware and maintenance support on an s pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, su d provided that the property and services herein describ ized for acquisition.