RFP Q and A_Consolidated_2-4-21.xlsx

Sheet1

“Unless otherwise stated in the Schedule of Supplies/Services, the Performance Work Statement or Product Description, the software license provided to the Government is a perpetual, nonexclusive license to use the software.”

Section (3)e Software Maintenance and Technical Support of the RFP states:

“If the Government allows the maintenance and support to lapse and subsequently wishes to reinstate it, any reinstatement fee charged shall not exceed the amounts that would have been charged if the Government had not allowed the subscription to lapse.”

“The Contractor shall provide all licensing and professional services required to implement a VI cloud disaster recovery repository hosted within the VAEC AWS GovCloud or Azure Government environments. The Contractor shall not be responsible for providing or acquiring cloud-based compute or storage capacity for this contract. VA will furnish VAEC capacity as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE).”

“The current VI application stack is hosted on Hewlett Packard (HP) servers running Windows Server 2012 R2. Those hosts run the Hyper-V virtualization hypervisor with resident Windows-based virtual machine guests that, in turn, run the individual VI applications. An HP 3PAR storage system stores the virtual machine disks and associated VM files, as well as the Tier 1 medical images. The retention time for those images range from 90 calendar days to 5 calendar years depending upon the facility. The VistA Imaging application stack writes image data to Tier 1 via SMB. SMB presentation for Tier 1 is managed by Windows Server 2012 R2 virtual machines.”

1. Is it accurate to state that the application will not run on newer Windows Versions, and has not been validated on a Windows 2016 or newer OS release?

2. Does the current version of VistaA have any kind of API integration?

3. What is client-side minimal / standard ISP bandwidth and QoS?

4. What are the maximum tolerable milliseconds of latency? 1) VA has not tested VistA Imaging on newer versions of Windows Server. However, VA has no reason to believe VistA Imaging would not be functional on newer versions.

2) No.

3) VistA Imaging end users are predominantly located at the same facility as the VistA Imaging application stack they are accessing. As such, "ISP bandwidth and QoS" generally does not apply to traffic between the application stack and the end user.

4) VistA Imaging storage performance is defined in PWS section 5.3.1.5. VA does not specify a traditional storage latency requirement, but rather a composite image recall performance threshold.

5 Page 88, Section 5.3.2 IaaMS VI SOLUTION INITIAL DEPLOYMENT From the RFP, we understand that "Under the IaaMS solution, the Contractor shall replace the VI architecture with approximately 14 PB of on-premises storage and 14 PB of IaaMS VI cloud disaster recovery repository."

1. Please verify that the system can split the targets for storage, i.e., locate tier-1 storage on-prem and tier-2 storage in cloud.

2. What is the predicted ratio of storage content between tier-1, tier-2 and long-term storage?

3. Please provide the development roadmap for this application.

2) See response to #1 above.

3) VistA Imaging is in sustainment, meaning no large-scale development efforts are being taken to add new functionality to the application. As such, there is no defined roadmap, no due date for a future version, and no plans exist for the addition of new functionality.

6 Page 89, Section 5.3.2 IaaMS VI SOLUTION INITIAL DEPLOYMENT The RFP states: “The Contractor shall deliver, implement, configure, and test the IaaMS VI solution successfully at the Cleveland, Ohio VA lab site within 45 days of award IAE PWS Section 5.4.”

1. Are existing server and storage workloads hosted on-prem or in a co-location? or both?

- If a co-location, is it within a near-cloud co-location, e.g., an AWS Direct Connect Exchange Point?

2. Do the application workstations run on a cloud VDI solution (e.g., AWS workspaces)? Are there any known issues that would preclude VDI?

3. Does the current solution support multiple DICOM gateways? For example, are multi-part uploads supported?

1) Existing server and storage workloads are hosted on-premises.

2) VistA Imaging is accessed predominantly via CPRS using an executable installed locally on each client workstation. Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is outside of the scope of this contract.

3) A given facility may have multiple DICOM gateways, but multi-part uploads are not supported.

7 Page 96, Section 5.5.2 Shipping The RFP states: “The Contractor shall provide Facility Shipping Documentation to include copy of the purchase order and a bill of material/packing list to logistics staff at each facility prior to shipment and shall send a copy to the VA COR and PM.”

1. How is the required documentation to be provided?

2. Will the contact information be provided for each facility in advance? 1) VA will accept shipping documentation via electronic mail.

2) Yes, contact information will be provided for each facility in advance of shipment.

8 Page 96, Section 5.5.3 INSTALLATION The RFP states: “Contractor shall provide installation services to include: 1. Retrieval of hardware from a designated warehouse at each installation location, which includes both VA and co-location facilities.”

6. If the Contractor and/or VA determine an on-site response is required, the Contractor shall coordinate and provide OEM technical subject matter expert to arrive onsite no more than four (4) hours after notification.

7. If the Contractor and/or VA determine parts are required to remedy the outage, parts shall arrive onsite no more than four (4) hours after notification.”

“The solution shall include highly available network switches as defined in Attachment B - IaaMS Solution Infrastructure Requirements including all necessary licensing, cabling, modules, adapters as needed to complete a fully formed and usable solution.”

Section 5.13 OPTIONAL TASK SIX (6) – CONVERGED COMPUTE FOUNDATION (2b) states:

“The Converged Compute Foundation shall be an OEM-validated design. In addition to the requirements provided in Attachment B, switches used to facilitate connectivity for any devices provided as part of this option shall meet the following additional requirements:”

These sections clearly call out the requirement for network switches to be provided. However, there is no reference for providing network switches for accomplishing Section 5.3 IaaMS VI SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS, Future State – Initial Deployment:

“IaaMS VI solution that shall consolidate the medical images and associated files from the existing HP 3PAR tier 1 solution and the medical images and associated files from the existing NetApp StorageGRID/E-Series tier 2 solution onto a single replacement IaaMS solution.”

Based on the information provided above:

1. Our understanding is that network switches must be included to meet the pricing requirements of Attachment D - IaaMS Price Evaluation Spreadsheet, Line 5, FFP Base Task - 5.3 - VistA Imaging Capacity (0003, 1003, 2003, 3003, 4003, 5003, 6003) (NTE). Please confirm our understanding.

2. If network switches are not required, will the Government provide connectivity via its existing network stack?

- If so, please provide network rack diagrams for each site so the appropriate solution can be architected. 1) Switches must be included to meet the pricing requirements of Attachment D, Line 5.

2) No the Government will not provide connectivity via its existing network stack since network switches shall be included as part of the IaaMS solution.

13 Page 183, Section E.8 BASIS FOR AWARD The RFP states that the Technical evaluation factor is based on our understanding of the VA’s problems and the feasibility of our approach.

1. For clarification, please verify that Volume I - Technical requires a response only to the following PWS sections: 5.2, 5.3.1, 5.3.2.1, 5.3.3 and 5.6.

2. Please verify that Volume I – Technical does not require a response to sections 5.0, 5.1, 5.4, 5.4.1, 5.5, 5.5.1, 5.5.2, 5.5.4, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 5.11, 5.12, 5.13, 5.14, 5.15, and 5.16.

Please clarify:

Please clarify if FAR 52.222-41 applies, if so, please update the solicitation. The Government has determined that 52.222-41 is applicable to this procurement and has been checked off in RFP Section C.3. FAR Clause 52.222-49 is applicable and has been added to Section C. The Service Contract Act Compliance Requirement has been added to the RFP in Section A.

22 Page 155, RFP Section C.3, 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders – Commercial Items shows FAR 52.222-55, Minimum Wages Under Executive Order 13658 and FAR 52.222-62, Paid Sick Leave Under Executive Order 13706 as applicable. However, in accordance with FAR 22.1906 and FAR 22.2110, both clauses are applicable in solicitations and contracts that include the clause at FAR 52.222-6, Construction Wage Rate Requirements or FAR 52.222-41, Service Contract Labor Standards. Neither FAR 52.222-6 nor FAR 52.222-41 is marked as applicable to this solicitation. Please confirm the applicability of FAR 52.222-55 and FAR 52.222-62. The Government has determined that 52.222-41 is applicable to this procurement and has been checked off in RFP Section C.3, therefore both FAR 52.222-55 and 52.222-62 are also applicable.

23 Page 17-18, CLIN X0015 “Before any work begins, the Contractor shall produce time estimates of the number of hours that will be needed for the work to be performed and shall obtain VA approval for the expenditure of hours.”

Within 30 days of what? RFP section C.5 has been updated as follows:

“The Contracting Officer may exercise the option by written notice to the Contractor within 30 days of expiration of period of performance.”

28 Page 157, RFP Section C.6, 52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of the Contract (MAR 2000) Reference: states, “The Government may extend the term of this contract by written notice to the Contractor at any time prior to expiration of the contract; provided that the Government gives the Contractor a preliminary written notice of its intent to extend prior to contract expiration.”

a. In order to ensure that proposed prices are reasonable, and that the offeror is expected to be able to perform for the proposed price, does the Government intend to evaluate offers for price reasonableness?

b. In order to determine that the offerors’ proposed fully loaded blended hourly labor rates are realistic for the offeror’s proposed technical solution, and will ensure the offeror’s ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel throughout the period of performance, it is respectfully suggested that the Government evaluate the offerors’ proposed labor rates for realism. Offerors will no longer be required to provide estimated quantities of cloud resources as part of the Price Volume and the Government will no longer be adding the estimated cost of the cloud resources to the Offerors’ total evaluated price. The IaaMS Price Evaluation Spreadsheet (Attachment D) has been updated accordingly. Offerors will now be required to provide its estimated cloud resources required to support its proposed IaaMS disaster recovery solution as an attachment to the Technical Volume submission. RFP Sections E.8 and E.9 have been updated accordingly.

The Government is not performing a price realism analysis but will ensure that the final price is fair and reasonable in accordance with FAR 15.404.

30 Page 186, RFP Section E.8 Basis for Award, paragraph 5a Reference: states, “The proposal will be evaluated to determine whether the Offeror has met the overall Small Business Participation Requirement for this procurement which is 20% of the total proposed contract price, which does not include the cloud resources price calculated for evaluation purposes only.” It is unclear what portion of the work is to be excluded from the amount upon which the Small Business percentages are based. Small Business Participation requirement of 20 percent is based on the total proposed price (The Total proposed price is the sum of the total Firm Fix Price and the total proposed Labor Hour price), NOT the total evaluated price. No portion of the proposed work is to be excluded from the 20 percent calculation. RFP Section E.8(2) has been updated to add definition of Total Proposed Price.

Note: Government will no longer be adding the estimated cost of the cloud resources to the Offerors’ total evaluated price.

a. Should a row be added to this section for offerors to include dollars and percentage for Small Business?

b. In the drop-down list under Small Business Subcontracting Plan Tables, SDVOSB, VOSB, SDB, WOSB, HUBZone and LB are included. Should not Small Business also be included in the drop-down list?

Will the Government please amend the RFP to remove the above reference from the past performance requirement? Specifically, the requested outline/information: “…an outline of how the effort required by the solicitation will be assigned for performance within the Offeror’s corporate entity and among the proposed subcontractors”; would be better suited for response within the Technical Volume I in response to Question 5 - Management Methodology, which states as follows:

Will the VA issue a separate, fair and open, competition for the ECSO/GFE provided cloud services supporting the back-up and recovery requirements outlined in RFP 36C10B21R0001?

Will the VA consider re-issuing/updating RFP 36C10B21R0001, specifically Attachment D, to request VA contractor pricing for equivalent Microsoft Azure services to support the compute and storage requirements? The Government requires a DR solution that operates in BOTH AWS and Azure. The Government will determine which cloud resources to provide as it sees fit.

Offerors will no longer be required to provide estimated quantities of cloud resources as part of the Price Volume and the Government will no longer be adding the estimated cost of the cloud resources to the Offerors’ total evaluated price. The IaaMS Price Evaluation Spreadsheet (Attachment D) has been updated accordingly. Offerors will now be required to provide its estimated cloud resources required to support its proposed IaaMS disaster recovery solution as an attachment to the Technical Volume submission. RFP Sections E.8 and E.9 have been updated accordingly.

A separate competition for cloud services is not required as either Azure OR AWS (to be determined by the Government) will be provided as GFE after award.

39 Page 96, Section 5.5.2.d “Note: A limited number of facilities may not be able to support an additional contractor-supplied server cabinet. At these facilities, VA will provide server cabinet space for the Contractor’s use. This server cabinet space may be non-contiguous, and the Contractor shall provide transceivers, cabling, and other ancillary hardware required to facilitate non-contiguous placement.”

• Will the VA provide the number of sites that cannot support contractor-supplied server cabinets? Without this information it is impossible to determine the amount of additional cabling, transponders, etc. necessary to complete the installation at these sites and the associated cost.

• Will the VA provide the number of sites that do not have sufficient space in existing network channel racks? Without this information it is impossible to determine the number of additional network channel racks necessary to complete the installation at these sites and the associated cost.

• Will the VA provide the number of sites that do not have sufficient structured cabling infrastructure and associated details? Without this information it is impossible to determine the number of site and amount of HD that will be required to complete the installation at these sites and the associated cost.

5.0 STRUCTURED HORIZONTAL CABLING BETWEEN NETWORK RACKS AND SERVER CABINETS “1. If no existing structured horizontal cabling exists at the site or the cabling is not suitable for connection of the IaaMS equipment, the Contractor shall install structured horizontal cabling supporting the IaaMS equipment.”

• Will the VA provide the number of sites that do not have sufficient horizontal cabling infrastructure and associated details? Without this information it is impossible to determine the number of site and amount of horizontal cabling that will be required to complete the installation at these sites and the associated cost.

6.0 STRUCTURED BACKBONE CABLING BETWEEN MDAS AND HDAS “1. If no existing structured backbone cabling exists at the site or the cabling is not suitable for connection of the network switching equipment in the network racks, the Contractor shall install structured backbone cabling supporting the IaaMS equipment.”

• Will the VA provide the number of sites that do not have sufficient structured backbone cabling infrastructure and associated details? Without this information it is impossible to determine the amount of structured backbone cabling that will be required to complete the installation at these sites and the associated cost.

7.0 CABLE TRAYS 1. If no existing cable tray exists at the site or the tray is not suitable for the structured cabling elements, the Contractor shall install cable tray and fiber pathway supporting the IaaMS equipment.

• Will the VA provide the number of sites that do not have sufficient cable tray infrastructure and associated details? Without this information it is impossible to determine the amount of cable tray that will be required to complete the installation at these sites and the associated cost.

VA does not have a pre-existing schedule for prioritizing the 156 facility installations. VA will provide the list of critical sites and provide to the Contractor at the kickoff meeting. The Contractor may schedule all remaining sites at their convenience.

PWS states in multiple locations that VAEC is GFE (1.0, 3.0, 6.6), additionally VA requires 2nd, DR, copy to be on VAEC (5.3). Attachment D (tab ‘Est Cloud Resources – Storage) lists 14 different classes of VAEC cloud storage. Which is the preferred 2nd copy, DR, storage type VA requires? Q&A #135 states ‘no cost to the contractor for the use of VAEC resources’. What is the purpose of the 14 VAEC storage resources?

VA does not have a preferred 2nd copy, DR storage type, as long as the storage method meets the performance requirements specified within the PWS.

Offerors will no longer be required to provide estimated quantities of cloud resources as part of the Price Volume and the Government will no longer be adding the estimated cost of the cloud resources to the Offerors’ total evaluated price. The IaaMS Price Evaluation Spreadsheet (Attachment D) has been updated accordingly. Offerors will now be required to provide its estimated cloud resources required to support its proposed IaaMS disaster recovery solution as an attachment to the Technical Volume submission. RFP Sections E.8 and E.9 have been updated accordingly.

55 PWS 6.6, VAEC OT, cloud management tools PWS 6.6, VAEC OT, cloud management tools. Can you elaborate the tools available and their functions and capabilities? The tools available are a mix of CSP and third party tools.

The VAEC operational tools are part of the overall VAEC architecture, and consist of the following types:

1. Self-Service Cloud Service Catalog

2. Provisioning Orchestration Deployment

3. Access and Security Management

4. Resource and Accounting Management

5. Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)

6. Application Programming Interface (API) Gateway