RFI 36C10B27Q0089 F5 Load Balancer.pdf

Request for Information 36C10B27Q0089

I. Introduction

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. Do not submit a Proposal. This notice is not to be construed as a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted as a result of this request. The Government does not reimburse respondents for any costs associated with submission of the information being requested or reimburse expenses incurred for responses to this RFI. The information provided may be used by the VA in developing its acquisition strategy and Performance Work Statement (PWS). Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. This is a request for information and does not obligate the Government in any way, nor does it commit the Government to any specific course of action.

II. Background and Scope

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Management (OM), Financial Services Center (FSC) has a requirement for the replacement of its current F5 load balancers and software to manage and re-distribute (balance) the flow of network traffic through FSC’s network data centers located at 1615 Woodward Street, Austin TX, and 5000 Wissahickon Ave, Philadelphia PA. Additionally, the FSC requires migration services and load balancer hardware and software maintenance services to ensure the load balancer solution operates as designed. FSC’s current existing environment has one standalone and two HA pair BIG-IP i5820-DF platforms located in the Austin Enterprise Data Center (AEDC) and the Philadelphia Enterprise Data Center (PEDC).

These devices are currently running TMOS v17.5.1.x, utilizing BIG-IP LTM, APM, and FIPS for application delivery and user authentication.

The FSC requires a software that can process data quickly, support higher information exchanges and process greater amounts of AI applications. FSC requires the load balancing software to distribute incoming network traffic across multiple servers to prevent any single server from becoming overloaded and ensure that applications remain accessible to users by providing redundancy and managing failovers. FSC requires greater than the average processing speed based on the volume of data exchange that it is currently designing its infrastructure to handle.

FSC requires current configurations to be migrated to a new standalone and tenant pair of BIG-IP r5920-DFs in a 1:1 manner, anticipated to be on a similar or matching tenant TMOS version. Along with migration services, the FSC requires hardware and software maintenance services throughout the contract period of performance.

The contractor shall provide all equipment, tools, materials, supervision, other items, and non-personal service necessary to provide load balancer hardware replacement as well as migration services, and hardware/software maintenance and support services.

All configuration/migration services must be completed and the solution must be operational no later than October 1, 2027.

III. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Please provide the following information by 12:00PM EST on November 17, 2026, via email to Contract Specialist (CS) catherine.joyce1@va.gov and Contracting Officer (CO) John Fields, at john.fields3@va.gov. Please note “F5 Load Balancer Replacement and Maintenance Support” in the subject line of your response. Mark your response as “Proprietary Information” if the information is considered business sensitive. The email file size shall not exceed 5 MB. VA reserves the right to respond to any, all, or no respondents. All VA current requirements identified herein are subject to change at any time. If you have any questions concerning this announcement, please contact the CS and CO. VA appreciates your time and anticipated response.

Information Needed to Identify Offeror Capabilities. Please provide responses to the questions below and any additional comments or information to clearly identify the capabilities. Partial responses are not acceptable. The Government is seeking as much information as possible and a complete response to this RFI during this market research activity.

THERE IS A PAGE LIMIT OF 25 PAGES.

NO MARKETING MATERIALS ARE ALLOWED AS PART OF THIS RFI.

COMPANY/VENDOR INFORMATION

1. Include the following identification information:

a. Company/Vendor Name:

b. CAGE/UEI Number under which the company is registered in SAM/VetBiz.gov:

c. Company Address:

d. Point of contact name:

e. Telephone number:

f. Email address(s)

g. List any federal contracts in which you are a prime contract holder that can be utilized for this requirement, for example: GSA, NASA SEWP, etc.

RFI QUESTIONS

1. Are you a small or large business under NAICS 541519. If you believe there is a more appropriate NAICS code, please provide that to the Government with your rationale. If a small business, what type of small business are you? Are you able to comply with FAR 52.219-6 and 52.219-14 in completion of this effort?

2. Are you a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)? If so, are you capable of performing at least 51 percent of the cost of personnel for contract performance/cost of manufacturing, excluding the cost of materials for this requirement?

Are you able to comply with VAAR 852.219-10/11 in completion of this effort?

3. Provide a list of your available license packages/suites.

4. Provide an estimated ramp up (implementation) time that’s tailored to meet the solution requirements.

5. Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) to include the following:

a) General cost for implementation and configuration work

b) General cost for interface/integration work

c) General cost for the yearly enterprise license subscription

d) General cost for the yearly operation and maintenance subscription