C03 JA_Redacted.pdf

Cloudera Data Platform Flow Management Control Number VA-26-00023114

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-priced task 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 Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) Flow Management annual software subscription licenses, software maintenance and technical support services.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Financial Services Center (FSC), Financial Technology Service (FTS) has an operational requirement to acquire brand-name Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) Flow Management annual software subscription licenses, including software maintenance and technical support services. With the increasing volume and complexity of data within FSC, VA requires a robust, compatible, and interoperable data platform that seamlessly integrates with its existing infrastructure.

VA requires a solution that can provide FSC with the capabilities to manage, automate, and govern enterprise data flows through a unified, enterprise-grade data-lifecycle orchestration environment spanning on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. The solution must be compatible and interoperable with FSC's existing architecture currently in production, enabling FSC to orchestrate and move data through defined flow logic across cybersecurity, operational, and enterprise applications. It must support real-time and batch processing requirements by leveraging and integrating with existing VA technologies, including application APIs, agnostic data platforms, and common file formats. It must seamlessly integrate automation and transformation capabilities, not limited to custom processing business rules, data quality analysis, and custom algorithms using custom scripting such as PowerShell or Python. It must deliver secure, scalable, and centrally governed capabilities supporting high-throughput data ingestion, real-time and batch processing, and controlled distribution of data across heterogeneous compute environments, sustaining existing production-level automated data orchestration and enhancing the efficiency of software control evidence collection.

VA requires the solution to provide an integrated toolset enabling seamless management of VA's extensive data flows, with end-to-end visibility and control from ingestion through analysis. It must include a four-core license with Business-level, U.S.-based support to ensure continuity of operations and compliance with security and data-handling standards. These capabilities are essential to sustaining uninterrupted VA financial and operational functions, protecting sensitive data, and ensuring timely delivery of services.

requirements. Comparable functionality would require multiple independent products to provide workflow orchestration, streaming, governance, Python execution, monitoring, auditing, and lineage. The loss of established root controls would heighten the risk of data-flow failures, and operational disruptions. CDF’s combination of enterprise Apache NiFi 2.x capabilities, native Python processor support, comprehensive low-code workflow development environment, extensive financial data format support, enterprise governance, real-time and batch processing, integrated security controls, and seamless integration within the Cloudera Data Platform provides capabilities that cannot be duplicated through an equivalent commercial alternative without substantial custom development and increased technical risk.

Alternative integration products typically require external services or custom applications to execute similar processing, increasing architectural complexity, maintenance burden, operational risk, and development costs. CDF provides enterprise level capabilities that are uniquely aligned with FSC operational requirements. While numerous products offer data movement or extract-transform-load functionality, no alternative solution provides the same integrated combination of low-code workflow development, enterprise data provenance, native Python extensibility, real-time streaming, security, governance, and seamless integration.

Furthermore, reengineering the solution for a non-Cloudera environment would significantly increase custom development alternatives, administration, installation, training, and maintenance costs. Creating custom developed solutions to integrate with each other to support an alternative configuration that CDF natively provides, would create unnecessary and unrecoverable Government expenditures. The estimated cost to duplicate these efforts is approximately $ $1.7 million and would require a period of 24 to 36 months to complete. This duplicative cost would not be offset through competition.

Finally, only Cloudera can provide maintenance for the CDP Flow Management software. Cloudera retains the proprietary rights and source code required to deliver fixes, patches, updates, and technical support. Other manufacturers do not have access to the proprietary source code required to perform the necessary configuration, maintenance, and support services. Access to this code is essential to ensure proper configuration and continued reliable operation of CDP Flow Management. Without Cloudera brand-name maintenance and support services, FSC would face system disruptions that would directly impair VA’s ability to deliver timely and reliable services and benefits to the Veteran.

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 could meet the Government’s requirements. It was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for brand name Cloudera. In accordance with RFO 16.507- 7(c)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with RFO 5.301, the award notice for this action will be posted on the Contract Opportunities website.

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

8. Market Research: The Government’s subject matter experts (SMEs) conducted market research in January and February 2026 by reviewing other data-flow management software, maintenance, and technical-support solutions offered by similar service providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure Databricks. The Government SMEs determined that AWS tools cannot support the complete functionality required to maintain compatibility and performance within the existing environment. Additionally, FSC’s existing datasets and cybersecurity parameters cannot migrate directly into GCP, and Databricks deployments would require FSC to obtain additional cloud storage and perform system integrations.

Although these vendors offer similar products, it was determined none can fully meet the requirement for a robust data platform that integrates seamlessly with the existing infrastructure or satisfies the required compatibility and interoperability standards.

Therefore, at present, there is no other brand or solution available in the marketplace that can fully meet the requirements outlined in Section 5 of this justification. Based on the above market research efforts, the Government’s SMEs have determined that only Cloudera and its authorized resellers can provide the necessary data management software subscription licenses, maintenance and technical support services.

The Contract Specialist (CS) conducted additional market research in March 2026 using the NASA SEWP V GWAC market research tool to identify contract holders capable of meeting the requirement for brand-name CDP Flow Management. This research identified 15 authorized resellers, consisting of one Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Small Business, two Woman-Owned or Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Businesses, three Other-than-Small Businesses, six Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs), and three Small Businesses. Based on this research, limited competition is anticipated among these 15 resellers, and VA determined that six SDVOSBs can meet all of the Government's requirements.

9. Other Facts: Not Applicable

10. Technical Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

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11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this order will be fair and reasonable based on the limited competition. Additionally, NASA SEWP GWAC prices have previously been determined fair and reasonable. Additionally, price competition is expected among authorized resellers for this action. Additional price analysis may be conducted in accordance with RFO 15.404-1.

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12. Contracting Officer Certification/Approval: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

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