Pre-Sol QandA for FCS2.xlsx

XLSX spreadsheet 30 KB Posted Dec 5, 2024

Attached to: Cloud services in support of the operational mission of the Federal Aviation Administration
Solicitation number: 692M15-25-R-00009
Issued by: Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center

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Written by GovTribe AI · Dec 5, 2024

This is a Q&A document for Cloud Hosting Services 2.0 (FCS2) solicitation 692M15-25-R-00009 from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The document provides detailed responses to industry questions about the upcoming procurement.

The FAA seeks a single-award IDIQ contract for cloud reseller services limited to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, with no direct labor component. Current monthly spending is approximately $2M for AWS and $60K for Azure, with AWS accounting for 97% of usage across approximately 500 total accounts. The contract will have a 5-year ordering period starting September 1, 2025. The procurement will use Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) evaluation criteria for an unrestricted competition under NAICS 518210. Key requirements include supporting self-service provisioning, account management, financial reporting, and incident notification. The vendor must provide access to CSP cost savings options like Reserved Instances and Savings Plans, limited to one-year terms. The Screening Information Request (SIR) is planned for release around December 2, 2024. The FAA will retain 90 days of overlap with the incumbent contract ending August 31, 2025 to facilitate transition of approximately 200 delivery orders.

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FCS2 SOW Draft v1.0 241115.pdf	PDF	Nov 18, 2024

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Sheet1

Federal Aviation Administration Notice ID 692M15-25-R-00009

Responses to Q&A for Cloud Hosting Services 2.0 (FCS2)

Question: FAA Response:

Are you allowing proposals from vendors that specialize in only one of those?	The intent of this procurement is for a Single Award to a vendor that can provide both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure cloud support.
Will you guys be open to awarding multiple contracts, one for AWS and one for Azure to support more competition and better pricing?	See answer above.
Would the FAA be open to a small business joint venture where two small businesses (one as prime and one as sub) come together that each specialize in AWS and/or Azure to propose under this requirement?	The Screening Information Request will address the Joint Venture requirements.
FAA currently purchases Okta via the SAVES contract. Since this contract is procuring AWS services, and Okta runs on AWS, will this potentially be another way for FAA's various operational environments to purchase Okta?	There is no plan to change the way the FAA procures Okta.
Can the FAA please clarify whether or not questions received in response to the most recent draft SOW issued on November 18th will be posted publicly on sam.gov if/when answers are provided?	The FAA will post any questions and /or answers that may be of general interest to all parties as it relates to the scope of the statement of work.
Account Management & Migration

a. Could you please clarify the process and timeline expectations for transferring existing AWS and Azure accounts to the new contract's Master Payer Accounts?

b. What specific tools does the FAA currently use to monitor and manage cloud resources that need to be integrated into the new contract? a. The contract is planned to be awarded 90 days prior to the expiration of the existing FCS contract. The expiration date of the existing contract is 8-31-25. The 90 days overlap between the contracts will be used to establish approximately 200 new delivery orders under the new FCS2 contract. New Master Payer Accounts (MPAs) will not be created under the new FCS2 contract. The existing MPAs under the existing FCS contract will be transferred to the new FCS contract with an effective data of 9-1-25 following the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) instructions. The transition of the MPAs is estimated to take less than 30 days.

b. The FAA currently use native cloud services by the Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) in conjunction with Microsoft Excel.

Financial Management & Reporting

a. Regarding reallocating Enterprise Services costs, could you provide guidance on the FAA's preferred methodology for distributing these centralized costs across delivery orders?

b. Will a standardized format be provided for the required monthly CSP Master Cost, Consumption, and Usage Reports? a. The FAA currently has approximately 20 Cloud Service Provider (CSP) accounts that are used to provide enterprise services for the delivery of the overall cloud capability. These enterprises services do not benefit an individual business application, but rather benefit all business applications. Today, the Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) bill the current FCS vendor for each individual CSP account at the Master Payer Account (MPA) level. The FAA requires that the cost associated with the enterprise service accounts be proportional redistributed across all other accounts when the vendor invoices/bills the FAA. The FAA prefers a proportional distribution of these costs. For example, if a delivery order represents 1.5% of the total monthly service cost, then that delivery order invoice should also include 1.5% of the enterprise service accounts cost.

b. No, the FAA will not specify the specific format. The vendor will propose a standardized template, and the FAA will approve the proposed format.

Implementation & Transition

a. Is there an expected timeline for transitioning existing cloud workloads to the new contract?

b. What is the anticipated distribution of workloads between AWS and Azure platforms? a. The contract is planned to be awarded 90 days prior to the expiration of the existing FCS contract. The expiration date of the existing contract is 8-31-25. The 90 days overlap between the contracts will be used to establish approximately 200 new delivery orders under the new FCS2 contract. New Master Payer Accounts (MPAs) will not be created under the new FCS2 contract. The existing MPAs under the existing FCS contract will be transferred to the new FCS contract with an effective data of 9-1-25 following the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) instructions. The transition of the MPAs is estimated to take less than 30 days.

b. The FAA’s current cloud environment is approximately 97% Amazon Web Services (AWS) and 3% Microsoft Azure.

	Program Management
- Regarding the Monthly Program Management Reviews (PMRs), Could you specify whether they will be conducted virtually or on-site and what specific roles should be present?	The Program Management Reviews (PMRs) can be virtual or on-site. The FAA will give the vendor preference for the location. The PMR will focus on financial performance of each individual delivery order. The vendor representative will be someone with extensive knowledge of the Cloud Service Provider (CSPs) costs and billing.
	In C.1.2 Scope of Services, the Government indicates the scope is limited to the resell of AWS and Azure Iaas and PaaS, however in C.4.1 Contract Administration, specifically C.4.1.2 Program Status Reporting and Program Management Reviews, there are program management requirements identified such as Monthly Status Reports, PMRs, and Monthly Financial Reports with performance measurements. Please confirm the scope of the contract is purely reseller services with no direct labor to be bid for the above activities	The scope of the contract is purely cloud reseller hosting services. The contract will not include any direct billed labor support services.
	Please confirm the scope of the contract is purely reseller services with no direct labor to be bid for the above activities. Will the Government allow direct labor to be bid for the customization and work required beyond what the CSP's invoicing contains?	The scope of the contract is purely cloud reseller hosting services. The contract will not include any direct billed labor support services. The FAA will not allow any direct billed labor to facilitate vendor invoicing or billing.
	With the Government requiring direct contact with the CSPs for updates and assistance under the sections of C.4.3.5 CSP Service Maintenance, and with the Contractor being limited to a Payer Account IAM Read Only access for Billing and Cost Management information in C.4.3.1 CSP Account Management, can the Government please identify what the specific performance measurement goals are as they are identified in the PMR purposes? For example, how will the Contractor be measured against the FAA's cloud service consumption and spend rates if they are acting only as a reseller? Similarly, how would the Contractor be evaluated against service quality if only acting as a reseller?	The Program Management Reviews (PMRs) will focus on financial performance of each individual delivery order. The contractor will be measured on their ability to provide the FAA unencumbered access to the CSP environments in order for the FAA and its agents to manage the overall cloud environment and each of the individual CSP accounts/subscriptions. The contractor will also be measured on their ability to submit timely invoices to the FAA.
	C.1.2 - For AWS PaaS and Microsoft PaaS, are the program languages, libraries, services, and tools which the Contractor provides just those as part of the CSPs PaaS offerings or is the requirement broader?	Primary PaaS services consummed will be those native AWS and Azure services provided directly by each Cloud Service Provider (CSP). In some limitated situations, the FAA may elect to order third party PaaS through the AWS and Azure MarketPlace. These third party services will be considered and approved on a case by casae basis.
	C.3.1 - Telecommunications Connectivity: Understanding that the FAA WAN cannot connect directly to the CSP’s (based on policy), will the existing CSP’s contractor Interface Routers located at Equinix be transferred to the new contract, or will the new contractor be required to provide, maintain, and configure a new router?	The FAA will provide telecommunications connectivity (switches and network connectivity) to the Cloud Service Providers (CSP) as GFE.
	C.4.1.1 - Post-Award Conference: Is there a list of FAA contract expectations	The SIR will specify the contract expectations.
	C.4.2 - What is the number of AWS and Azure accounts the contractor is expected to transfer?	The FAA has approximately 500 existing accounts to transfer to the new contract.
	C.4.3 - In reference to supporting self-service provisioning of FCS services, is the contractor expected to implement self-service provisioning capabiltites? If yes, will this be through a single pane of glass?	Yes, the FAA requires self-service provisioning capabilities. No, we are not requesting single pane of glass type provisioning access.
	C.4.3.1 - CSP Account Management: Since the FAA will be responsible for CSP Account management functions, what is the FAA expectations for the contractor account management as it relates to FAA monthly Cloud budget	The FAA requires that FAA staff perform all account management functions. The FAA expects the vendor monitor the cloud spend to ensure that the FAA expenses to not exceed contract obligations.
	C.4.3.1, C.4.3.2 - In these two sections it is stated the the Contract must provide the FAA capability to provision services, change services, start/stop services, terminate services, and self-provisioning of FCS services. Does these mean the FAA will perform these functions and not the Contractor?	Yes, the FAA will perform all provisoining actions. This includes provisioning, changing, starting/stopping, or terminating services. The vendor is not being required to provision, change, start/stop or terminate services.
	C.4.3.2 - Sub Section a:	What risk will the contractor assume in FAA provisioning of services, ie. Troubleshooting of provisioning between the CSP and FAA tools/methods	The vendor will assume no risk in provisioning services. The FAA will perform all problem resolution associated with provisioning services. In cases where the Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) will need to provide assistance, the FAA will open service requests directly with the CSPs.
	C.4.3.2 - Sub Section b-d: Will this requirement of ‘change’ services require the contractor to be responsible for compatibility problems of FAA tools and methods to that of CSP’s. Contractor may not have knowledge of FAA tools and methods	The vendor will assume no risk in changing, starting/stopping, or terminating services. The FAA will perform all problem resolution associated with changing, starting/stopping, or terminating services. In cases where the Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) will need to provide assistance, the FAA will open service requests directly with the CSPs.
	C.4.3.5.2 - CSP Planned and Scheduled Maintenance : CSP Planned and scheduled maintenance calendar may not be provided to the FCS contractor. What is the expectation of the contractor to CSP’s policies related to their policies	The FAA expects that the vendor will enforce maintenance notification requirements they have established with the Cloud Service Providers (CSPs).
	C.4.3.5.3.1 - Incidents Not Involving a Security Threat or Compromise: Is the FAA expectation that this paragraph relates to CSP threats and compromises related to their infrastructure and applications only	The FAA expects that incidents not involving a security threat or compromise are reported to the FAA only for incidents that have the potential to degrade service to FAA infrastructure.
	C.4.3.5.3.1 - Incidents Involving a Security Threat or Compromise: Is the FAA expectation that this paragraph relates to CSP threats and compromises related to their infrastructure and applications only	The FAA expects that incidents involving a security threat or compromise are reported to the FAA only for incidents that have the potential to degrade service to FAA infrastructure.
	C.4.3.5.3.1 - What is FAA requirement for the FCS contractor for incident response, threat and/or compromise response.	The FAA only requires the vendor to notify the FAA of incident. FAA will be responsible for all response to the incident.
	C.4.3.5.3.1 - Does the FAA require the contractor Cyber team to have 24x7 coverage for incident response, threat and/or compromise response	The FAA only requires the vendor to notify the FAA of incident. FAA will be responsible for all response to the incident.
	C.4.5 - What is the current and expected AWS and Azure cloud spend per year and by month?	Current AWS cloud spend is approximately $2,000,000.00 per month (commercial non-discounted price). Current Microsoft Azure cloud spend is approximately $60,000.00 per month (commercial non-discounted price). This spend rate is expected to continue to increase thorughout the entire period of performance of the contract.
	C.4.6 - Does the FAA require the contractor to assume cost of moving any equipment, applications, and services located at the FAA datacenters located in the Equinix data centers	No, the vendor is not expected assume the cost of moving any equipment or services in the Equinix or on-prem data centers. The vendor will not be responsible for moving any equipment or services.
	C.4.6 - Does the FAA plan the transition of the current contractors CSP boarder router to the new contractor’s router?	The FAA will be responsible for procuring, installing, and maintaining any firewalls between the FAA network and Cloud Service Provider (CSP) network.
	C.4.6 - If the contractor determines a different location for its CSP boarder router that lies between the FAA FTI WAN and the CSP, will it be the responsibility of the FAA to reroute traffic from the old router to the new	The FAA will be responsible for procuring, installing, and maintaining any firewalls between the FAA network and Cloud Service Provider (CSP) network.
	C.4.6 - Transition timeframe will be ultimately determined by the FAA program associated with its Cloud service, will the FAA provide the contractor with this transition	The FAA will coordinate with the vendor for any transition efforts. The FCS program team will determine transition timelines, not the the individual FAA program/application team. All Cloud Service Provider (CSP) account transitions will have an effective transition date of 9-1-25.
	C.4.6 - Based upon the requirement of this section of the SOW, the member accounts transfer could cause interruptions to the account service. How does the FAA plan for this transition	The FAA does not anticipate the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) account transition to cause an interuption in service. The CSP will do an administrative transfer of the master payer account /subscription from the incumbent vendor to the new vendor. The effective date will be 9-1-25.
	Will complete and detailed Government expectations be provided prior to the final SOW?	The SIR will specify all government expectations.
	What is the number of accounts across AWS/Azure Government cloud, public cloud, private cloud and regions?	The FAA has approximately 225 accounts in AWS public/commercial regions, 375 account in AWS government cloud regions, and 30 accounts in Microsoft Azure public/commercial regions.
	Are any of the accounts in AWS or Azure Government secret regions?	All existing FAA accounts are within AWS public regions, AWS government cloud regions, and Microsoft Azure public regions.
	What is the current and expected no. of end users the contractor will be expected to support?	The FAA cloud environment supports the entire FAA workforce of approximately 50,000 employees.
	What is the current and expected number of incident tickets related to account management?	The FAA has approximately 630 total Cloud Service Provider (CSP) accounts and each account experiences approximately 10 incident tickets per year related to account management. That totals approximately 6,300 incident tickets per year.
	Is the government using any cost management/FinOps tool (e.g. CloudCheckr, Apptio)?	The FAA does not currently use any Financial Operations tools outside of the native Cloud Service Provider (CSP) tools.
	Is the contractor expected to support Authority To Operate (ATO) accreditation activities?	The FAA does not expect the vendor to support security assessments.
	Is the contractor expected to support migration of infrastructure, applications, data to cloud environments?	The FAA does not expect the vendor to support any cloud migrations.
	Is the contractor expected to support movement of data between cloud environments (Government cloud, public cloud, private cloud and regions)?	The FAA does not expect the vendor to support any data migrations.
	Will the Government consider moving this work to an existing vehicle like FAA ISC to save the FAA time and money through streamlined acquisition alternatives?	No. The FAA will be releasing a SIR for an IDIQ to support this requirement.
	For the avoidance of doubt, we ask that the FAA please identify current contracts/work, if any, that may pose unintended OCI risk for incumbent contractors who intend to submit a response. Further, will award of the instant FAA Cloud Services contract create unmitigable OCI which would prevent the prime and/or its subcontractors from future cloud migration and/or application modernization work? If yes, please identify those current contracts and work streams for clarity.	The SIR will include requirements regarding Organizational Conflicts of Interest. It is the Offeror's responsibility to identify (and avoid, neutralize, and/or mitigate) any potential conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
	Is the contractor expected to provide Operations and Maintenance support for applications?	The FAA does not expect the vendor to support any application operations and maintenance activities.
	The original draft referenced a multi-cloud approach, which is no longer reflected in the revised draft. Is there an option for a multi-cloud approach?	The FAA's requirement is a multi cloud approach. The FAA requires access to two Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), AWS and Microsoft Azure. The FAA does not currently have a requirement for additional CSPs. The original 10-year FCS contract that was awarded in August 2015 was a full and open competitively bid contract that was Cloud Service Provider (CSP) agnostic. After a technical evaluation of numerous offers proposing numerous CSPs, the winner of that competion specified a AWS and Microsoft Azure based solution. The FAA has spent the past 10 years migrating workloads to AWs and Microsoft Azure and has made significant investment in AWS and Microsoft Azure. There are no automation tools that would facilitate a lift and shift migration from AWS/Azure to another CSP. The transition to a new CSP would require significant rework of business applications and take an extensive period of time to perform. This would also result in unacceptable production outages of business applications during this transition.
	If implementing a multi-cloud approach is not available, will there be a clear process for including additional cloud services in the near future?	Yes, if the FAA identifies the need for a third Cloud Service Provider (CSP), a new SIR will be released for those requirements.
	Are there specific requirements that influenced your decision not to structure this as a multi-cloud opportunity?	This is a multi cloud opportunity. The FAA requires access to AWS and Microsoft Azure.
	Why are other hyperscale CSPs - that are authorized CSPs under DOD JWCC and IC C2E cloud IDIQs - like Google and Oracle not identified in the draft?	The FAA does not currently have a requirement for Google or Oracle cloud services. The original 10-year FCS contract that was awarded in August 2015 was a full and open competitively bid contract that was Cloud Service Provider (CSP) agnostic. After a technical evaluation of numerous offers proposing numerous CSPs, the winner of that competion specified a AWS and Microsoft Azure based solution. The FAA has spent the past 10 years migrating workloads to AWs and Microsoft Azure and has made significant investment in AWS and Microsoft Azure. There are no automation tools that would facilitate a lift and shift migration from AWS/Azure to another CSP. The transition to a new CSP would require significant rework of business applications and take an extensive period of time to perform. This would also result in unacceptable production outages of business applications during this transition.
	Is there an approved J&A for the two brand name products?	Yes, the FAA has an approved Brand Name Justification.
	Will you amend the draft to include Google and Oracle IaaS/PaaS Offerings?	The FAA does not currently have a requirement for Google or Oracle cloud services. The original 10-year FCS contract that was awarded in August 2015 was a full and open competitively bid contract that was Cloud Service Provider (CSP) agnostic. After a technical evaluation of numerous offers proposing numerous CSPs, the winner of that competion specified a AWS and Microsoft Azure based solution. The FAA has spent the past 10 years migrating workloads to AWs and Microsoft Azure and has made significant investment in AWS and Microsoft Azure. There are no automation tools that would facilitate a lift and shift migration from AWS/Azure to another CSP. The transition to a new CSP would require significant rework of business applications and take an extensive period of time to perform. This would also result in unacceptable production outages of business applications during this transition.
	What are the specific requirements for core cloud computing services that only AWS and Azure can meet?	The original 10-year FCS contract that was awarded in August 2015 was a full and open competitively bid contract that was Cloud Service Provider (CSP) agnostic. After a technical evaluation of numerous offers proposing numerous CSPs, the winner of that competion specified a AWS and Microsoft Azure based solution. The FAA has spent the past 10 years migrating workloads to AWs and Microsoft Azure and has made significant investment in AWS and Microsoft Azure. There are no automation tools that would facilitate a lift and shift migration from AWS/Azure to another CSP. The transition to a new CSP would require significant rework of business applications and take an extensive period of time to perform. This would also result in unacceptable production outages of business applications during this transition.
	C.1.2 - Scope of Services - Comment: We suggest that the FAA allows for additional hyperscalers, such as Google GCP, as "optional" offerings. This will allow an established path should the FAA want to move future workloads into GCP. These can be priced as optional CLINS and not part of the evaluted pricing volume.	The FAA does not currently have a requirement for Google cloud services. If the FAA identifies the need for a third Cloud Service Provider (CSP), a new SIR will be released for those requirements. The original 10-year FCS contract that was awarded in August 2015 was a full and open competitively bid contract that was Cloud Service Provider (CSP) agnostic. After a technical evaluation of numerous offers proposing numerous CSPs, the winner of that competion specified a AWS and Microsoft Azure based solution. The FAA has spent the past 10 years migrating workloads to AWs and Microsoft Azure and has made significant investment in AWS and Microsoft Azure. There are no automation tools that would facilitate a lift and shift migration from AWS/Azure to another CSP. The transition to a new CSP would require significant rework of business applications and take an extensive period of time to perform. This would also result in unacceptable production outages of business applications during this transition.
	C.4.3.1 - The FAA will retain ownership of all data contained within CSP accounts. The FAA is solely responsible for entering and maintaining all FAA data (including back-up and restoration of data) - Comment: Under this current requirement, this only can apply to Azure environments and would not work in an AWS environment. We suggest that that the FAA and the reseller have a shared responsibility in which the FAA owns the MFA. In order to provide the level of service requested, the reseller has to own the creditials.	Since the vendor has the direct sub-contract relationship with AWS, the FAA agrees that the vendor will own the account credentials. However, the FAA will retain all data rights.
	C.4.3.3 - The Contractor must provide to the FAA unrestricted access to all offered CSP cost savings options to include Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Reservations, individual service volume discounts, etc. The Contractor must pass these cost savings along to the FAA. The Contractor must limit to procurement of Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, and Reservations to one-year terms. Three-year reservations are not applicable. - Comment: We recommend removing this language/requirement. The FAA has already established that this will be an LPTA (Lowest Price Technically Acceptable) solicitation and will be evaluated accordingly. Therefore, industry should be allowed to determine how to provide the lowest price. Additionally, if the FAA requires the utilization of all savings plans, which are typically based on an annual consumption commitment, the FAA should be responsible for any penalties incurred if these commitment levels are not met.	Savings Plans and Reserved Instances are tools that are used to lower costs and the FAA requires the ability to order Savings Plans and Reserved Instances as a means to secure lower service cost. The FAA will retain financial responsibility for all services ordered, including Savings Plans and Reserved Instances. Since the FAA will determine when to purchase Savings Plans and Reserved Instances instead of incurring on-demand rates, the FAA will be responsibilty for any risk associated with underutilized Savings Plans and Reserved Instances.
	C.4.3.5.3.2 - The Contractor must ensure that a suspected or confirmed security incident or compromise affecting the FAA’s ability: to use any CSP service, to protect FAA applications operating within the CSPs, or to protect FAA information existing within CSPs is reported by the CSPs to the FAA CO, COR, and FAA Security Operations Center (SOC) at SOC@faa.gov and by calling 1-866-580-1852 immediately upon gaining knowledge which supports the suspicion, or provides confirmation, of a security threat or compromise, with the specific communications approach and protocol agreed upon in advance by FAA and the Contractor. - Comment: This is an added feature and not part of a standard offering of a consumption/resell enagement. We suggest that the FAA includes this requirement as part of the pricing volume and have it priced independently of consumption.	The FAA requires that security incident notification be included in service delivery as a not separateyl priced item. Cloud Service Providers notify their resellers of service outages, disruptions, and incidents. The FAA requires this information to be reported to the FAA.
	"The scope of the FCS SOW is limited to capabilities supporting only ""two CSPs"" with the majority of FAA's cloud infrastructure being hosted by AWS. This approach is reinforcing the FAA's heavy reliance on these one or two (mostly one) CSPs, which creates operational risk to the National Airspace System (NAS). We understand the FAA does not intend to migrate existing applications away from AWS or Azure, however, by relying solely on these two providers—particularly when one holds 95% of all applications—creates vendor lock-in. Additionally, restricting access to only one or two CSPs limits the FAA's visibility into other FedRAMP compliant technology or innovations from CSPs such as Google, Oracle, IBM, etc. Will the government please provide explanation for why the FAA chose to restrict CSP access for FCS 2.0?

Recommendation: To maintain mission continuity and minimize future operational risk, the FAA should include ""Brand Name or Equal"" language for the evaluation of cloud services. This allows bidders to include additional FedRAMP-compliant cloud services from CSPs other than AWS and Microsoft Azure that perform the same function. This change will broaden the offering to the FAA with very minimal impact to the LPTA price evaluation. "	The original 10-year FCS contract that was awarded in August 2015 was a full and open competitively bid contract that was Cloud Service Provider (CSP) agnostic. After a technical evaluation of numerous offers proposing numerous CSPs, the winner of that competion specified a AWS and Microsoft Azure based solution. The FAA has spent the past 10 years migrating workloads to AWs and Microsoft Azure and has made significant investment in AWS and Microsoft Azure. There are no automation tools that would facilitate a lift and shift migration from AWS/Azure to another CSP. The transition to a new CSP would require significant rework of business applications and take an extensive period of time to perform. This would also result in unacceptable production outages of business applications during this transition.
	ACQUISTION STRATEGY: This procurement will be announced as a Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) Unrestricted Competition. - Comment: Will the government please provide details on its approach to evaluating pricing, including what elements will be priced, if sample task orders will be issued, will cloud services other than AWS and Azure be priced, etc.?	The SIR will provide additional details on the evaluation criteria.
	Does the government intend to revise and update the SOW based on industry feedback from the Pre-Solicitation notice released 18 November?	Yes, the FAA will consider industry feedback in updating the SOW prior to the SIR release.
	ANTICIPATED SOLICITATION RELEASE DATE: The Government anticipates releasing the Screening Information Request (SIR) on or about 02 December 2024. - Comment: A very short turn-around, coupled with the new LPTA acquisition strategy, will likely deter many potential bidders from responding to the FCS 2.0 opportunity. Will the government please consider delaying SIR release to allow bidders time to prepare and review FAA's responses to the Pre-Solicitation questions?	The FAA will consider providing industry additional time to respond to the SIR.
	In the FAA's 25 March, 2024 Sources Sought release on SAM.gov (692M15-24-RFI-00011), the FAA the FCS 2.0 "anticipated size, scope, and complexity" included the use of "Multiple Cloud Service Providers (CSPs)" with the intent to "possibly add aditional CSPs." Expanding the number of CSPs for FCS 2.0, lessens the risk of vendor lock-in by expanding the availablility of other broadly adopted FedRamp compliant CSPs to the FAA. Increasing competition across CSPs also ensures FAA receives the best possible pricing, as well as the broadest range of technical solutions. Will the FAA please provide its rationale for abandoning its prior strategy for including a multi-cloud approach?

Recommendation: Follow through with previously communicated plans to include "multiple CSPs" by adding this language into the SOW and adjusting evaluation criteria accordingly.

The FAA does not currently have a requirement for additional Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). The original 10-year FCS contract that was awarded in August 2015 was a full and open competitively bid contract that was Cloud Service Provider (CSP) agnostic. After a technical evaluation of numerous offers proposing numerous CSPs, the winner of that competion specified a AWS and Microsoft Azure based solution. The FAA has spent the past 10 years migrating workloads to AWs and Microsoft Azure and has made significant investment in AWS and Microsoft Azure. There are no automation tools that would facilitate a lift and shift migration from AWS/Azure to another CSP. The transition to a new CSP would require significant rework of business applications and take an extensive period of time to perform. This would also result in unacceptable production outages of business applications during this transition. The FAA will still consider the introduction of additional CSPs beyond AWS and Microsoft Azure. If the FAA identifies the need for a third Cloud Service Provider (CSP), a new SIR will be released for those requirements.

The SOW refers to 95% AWS / 5% Microsoft Azure on the current FCS contract. Will the FAA please provide details on how much of the FAA's current cloud offering is on a Gov Cloud rather than a Commerical cloud? OMB Memo "Modernizing the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)" highlights the need to transition away from Gov Clouds to commerical cloud offerings for a multitude of reasons, including "the investment, security maintenance, and rapid feature development that commercial cloud providers give to their core products to succeed in the Marketplace."

Recommendation: To help the FAA comply with current and future OMB mandates, while also providing greater access to future Cloud technologies and minimize operational risk, the FAA should include expand the number of CSPs and include FedRAMP compliant commercial cloud requirements for future delivery orders.	The FAA has approximately 225 accounts in AWS public/commercial regions, 375 account in AWS government cloud regions, and 30 accounts in Microsoft Azure public/commercial regions.
	The language in the solicitation for FCS 2.0, around supporting FAA's Mission Support, Mission Essetnial, and Mission Critical operationing environments, which assumes safety critical applications to tbe hosted, appears ambiguous and potentially counterproductive to the objectives of the National Airspace System (NAS). It is recommended that the FAA consider adopting a Best-Value procurement approach rather than the Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) method.	The FAA is not seeking managed service cloud offering. This contract opportuninty is focused on cloud reseller services only to obtain the best pricing for cloud services. The FAA will establish additional competivie contracts for other value added services.
	Given the mission-critical requirements required for this effort, has FAA considered that the number of responses that will be submitted in response to this requirement will be heavily reduced as many of the vendors adhering to quality standards and service will choose to "no bid" when they see an LPTA procurement posted? Will FAA consider changing the requirement to Best Value?	The FAA is seeking Lowest Price Technically Acceptable.
	C.4 - Will FAA share the cloud roadmap that outlines the activities, requirements and needs to meet the mission objectives before the final RFP is released so that contractors may adequately prepare their responses?	The FAA does not maintain a traditional waterfall roadmap schedule for planned cloud migrations and activities. The FAA manages its cloud activities using an agile methodology. Each cloud migration is planned and managed at the individual business application level by the individual business application team and are not conoslidated.
	C-4 - Has FAA considered including requirements around expertise in building a flexible cloud brokerage office that would provide enterprise cloud governance and process to acquire cloud services, and relevant professional services such as assessment and architecture to operational support?	The FAA is not seeking managed service cloud offering. This contract opportuninty is focused on cloud reseller services only to obtain the best pricing for cloud services.
	C.4.3 & C.4.4 - Has FAA considered extending CSP Account provisioning to include a framework for Landing Zones, in order to standardize cloud governance and provide a security baseline and guardrails so that FAA workloads have consistency without cloud sprawl?	Yes, the FAA does utilize a Landing Zone approach to ensure workloads are deployed in a consistent manner.
	C.4.3 & C.4.4 - As extension of the question four above, has FAA considered including requirements around expertise and proven practice around AI landing zones?	Yes, but not as part of this contract. This contract is for reseller services only.
	C.4 - Have FAA considering having the contractor to help determine which CSP is the best cloud for the appropriate workload to optimize standardization of management of cloud and on-premises operations as part of this contract?	Yes, but not as part of this contract. This contract is for reseller services only.
	Given the short timeframe, it may be in FAA's best interest to share evaluation criteria in advance of the final solicitation release to allow for feedback response and additional time for contractors to formulate best pricing. Would the FAA consider sharing their evaluation criteria and/or potentially moving the screening request to early 2025?	The FAA will consider providing industry additional time to respond to the SIR.
	C. 4 - Will FAA provide inventory for cloud resources from a compute, storage and bandwidth perspective?	The FAA will not provide a specific inventory of current hosting services but will provide a sample representative inventory as part of teh pricing sheet in the SIR.
	C.4 - Does FAA have any cost and budget constraints for Cloud Spend so that FinOps will need to alert or limit additional cloud provisioning beyond the planned threshold?	The FAA requires notification when budget and obligation thresholds are exceeded. The FAA does not require additional actions beyond notification but will consider vendor recommendations to reduce the risk of a vendor operating at financial risk.
	Would FAA consider leveraging a best value evaluation based on the contractor’s knowledge, ability,
and experience in delivering on the requirements outlined in the SOW.	The FAA is seeking Lowest Price Technically Acceptable.
	Specific to the detailed ancillary services defined in the SOW, many of these items are only available

on the CSP’s marketplace and may be published directly by the 3rd party OEM versus by the CSP itself.

Please confirm that FAA considers the AWS and Azure marketplace listings to be in scope of this

procurement?	The AWS and Microsoft Azure MarketPlaces are considered in scope.
	Would FAA consider adding requirements that the offer be CMMI Level 3 certified to assure that the

offeror has demonstrated processes for managing the complex operations inherent in multi-cloud resale in a Federal environment? The FAA does not have a requirement for a vendor to be CMMI Level 3 certified. The SIR will identify additional requirements for the vendors to demonstrate themselves capable.

File details come from the government source that posted it. Updated Apr 21, 2026.