DCCO Industry Day Presentation - Question and Answers .pdf

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) March 10, 2020 Data Center and Cloud Optimization (DCCO) Industry Day Question and Answer Session

Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) Responses:

1. The Government has been very informative to industry with the Jan 9th release of planned activities through the release of the draft solicitation in May. Will the Government please provide additional information on the planned procurement schedule such as the estimated release of the live solicitation, estimated submission timeframes, and an estimate of the planned award date?

Response: The notional procurement schedule was provided earlier in the Industry Day presentation. DHS intends to publish the slides from the Industry Day. In addition, a more detailed timeline will be provided with the draft solicitation released in early May 2020.

2. Will the Government please identify whether a specific contract vehicle has been selected or, if not, what vehicles are being considered for the procurement?

Response: The Government expects to award an indefinite-delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract under this procurement.

3. Will the Government confirm that this contract is mandatory for DHS and all components?

Response: At this time, the Government anticipates that this contract vehicle will be mandatory for use if a Component is in or plans to use DC1. The DCCO contract will not be mandatory for all Components who have cloud, colocation, or related professional services.

4. How many awards does DHS intend to make for this acquisition?

Response: DHS intends to issue a single award.

5. Is there going to be a set aside?

Response: The DCCO requirement will be solicited as a full and open competition.

6. What type of contract does DHS expect to specify?

Response: At this point, the government anticipates awarding an IDIQ contract that will allow for fixed price, labor hour, and time & material type orders.

7. Will DHS consider awarding different contract types to different objectives?

Response: Ordering Contracting Officers will have the flexibility to award the type of order most appropriate for Component requirements.

8. Will DHS consider multiple awards to meet specific objectives / service requirements if demonstrated to be beneficial to the government?

Response: DHS intends to issue a single award.

9. Will the Government please provide an estimate of the planned Small Business goals, overall and by category, for this solicitation?

Response: Small business subcontracting goals will be outlined in the draft solicitation issued in May 2020.

10. Will the Government please comment on the plans for the pricing structure, for example "Unit of Service" FFP CLINS for service consumption and a T&M rate card for project work as it may require over the life of the contract?

Response: A draft price schedule will be included in the May 2020 draft solicitation.

Industry feedback on the price schedule is encouraged.

11. DC1 Contract Transition Approach: Is the government considering putting out a concurrent opportunity for DC2 per the RFI or has that opportunity been put on hold? If a DC2 effort is going to be released concurrently (or soon) please provide additional information on how that effort relates to this and the projected scope.

Response: A notice of intent to procure continued DC2 support non-competitively was issued publicly on beta.sam.gov on February 12, 2020. As stated in the notice, the contemplated contract supports the Department’s strategy to migrate or retire every system and application within the current Data Center 2, which will result in declining systems supported under the contract in each successive period of performance.

12. Would the Government consider publishing an acceptable price range for the anticipated acquisition in order to prevent "low ball" bidders?

Response: The solicitation for the contract will contain a minimum and maximum ordering limit expressed in dollars.

13. For a program of this size, scope, and complexity, will the Government please consider at least a 60 day response time for proposal submission?

Response: A draft copy of the solicitation will be issued in May 2020 and industry is invited to submitted feedback on the document. The proposal due date will be sometime in August 2020.

14. Will the Government please identify in the April release any 3rd party support contractors that are engaged to support the solicitation process?

Response: The DCCO solicitation will identify any 3rd party contractors that are engaged to support DHS during the solicitation process.

15. DCCO Contract and Acquisition Strategy: Will DHS establish a reading room and the necessary controls to allow DCCO bidders the opportunity to review detailed DC-1 system requirements and documents that would inform industry more thoroughly into the workloads that will be part of the DCCO scope? If not, how does DHS plan to inform industry of this information?

Response: At this time, DHS does intend to establish a Reading Room to allow prospective offerors an opportunity to review relevant DCCO documents. Information concerning the Reading Room will be contained in the draft solicitation released in May 2020.

Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) Responses:

1. DCCO Contract and Acquisition Strategy: The NASA facility support services described in the section titled Background of the Executive Summary have a separate NASA contract that the costs get flowed to DHS. What is the plan going forward in terms of how DHS will recover these NASA costs? Will DCCO customers bear these costs or will HQ absorb these costs? What will be the DCCO contractor's involvement in the recovery of these costs?

Response: NASA costs are not included in the scope of this contract. DHS Components are responsible for these costs, which are currently calculated by footprint.

2. DCCO Managed Services: Will any of the services being contemplated under DCCO be performed as a Managed Service, e.g. where the DCCO contractor would invest its capital to cover the labor, equipment and software to perform the capability, and recover its investment over time?

Response: There will be portions of this acquisition that include managed services.

DHS intends to purchase these managed services, where appropriate. However, DHS' Components may have mission specific application and infrastructure support services that will not be purchased as a managed service.

3. DCCO Contract and Acquisition Strategy: If the TIC and PEP are not within the DCCO scope, how will the DCCO contractor interact with these functions?

Response: Most Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) and Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) functionality will be purchased through other contracts. However, there may be support functions in DCCO that are required to interoperate and interact with TIC and

PEP.

4. DCCO Contract and Acquisition Strategy: Will the DCCO contract include the network transport between DC1, "other associated locations", Colocation Service Providers, and Commercial Cloud Service Providers?

Response: The intent is to leave network transport under Networx or its replacement contract.

5. In the event of a hybrid cloud, do you plan on migrating to multiple CSP's or a single

CSP?

Response: Yes, we are already using multiple cloud service providers and will continue to do so for various reasons.

6. Does the DHS DC at Stennis service only DHS wide requirements or does it also provide IT services supporting DHS agencies – such as Coast Guard, CBP, TSA, etc. – specific requirements?

Response: DC1 is used by DHS Headquarters and DHS Components.

7. DCCO Contract and Acquisition Strategy: Will the management and optimization of the DHS Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) and Policy Enforcement Points (PEP) be included in the scope of DCCO?

Response: Most Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) and Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) functionality will be purchased through other contracts. However, there may be support functions in DCCO that are required to interoperate and interact with TIC and

PEP.

8. DCCO Contract and Acquisition Strategy: Will DCCO bidders be able to propose which Commercial Cloud Service Providers are included in their solution or will DHS inform industry which Cloud Service Providers they will utilize?

Response: The DCCO bidder will be able to propose which cloud service providers are in their solution, but keep in mind that DHS intends to use multiple cloud service providers. DHS needs to maintain a diversity of solutions that are vendor-agnostic.

9. DCCO Contract and Acquisition Strategy: Will DCCO bidders be able to propose which Colocation Service Providers are included in their proposed solution or will DHS inform industry which Colocation Service Providers they will utilize?

Response: The DCCO bidder will be able to propose which co-location service providers are in their solution, but note that DHS has already contracted with some co-location providers. This will not be a significant portion of the DCCO contract and is used only to meet specific objectives.

10. DC1 Contract Transition Approach: Are DHS federal staff the only personnel running data center (DC1) operations for DHS or is there also a current contractor supporting this work? If there is contractor supporting this effort please provide the name of the contractor.

Response: DC1 Is currently supported under a contract with CSRA LLC (a wholly owned subsidiary of (GDIT) General Dynamics Information Technology, formerly Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)).

11. DC1 Contract Transition Approach: Please clarify if DHS is asking offerors to take over operation/maintenance of DHS' hardware/software within the data center (DC1).

Typically a company that specializes in cloud engineering, migration, and optimization will not also have qualifications to run and fully staff a data center. Likewise, it's rare that companies that run data centers also specialize in cloud migration/optimization.

Response: Yes, DHS is asking offerors to take over operation/maintenance of DHS' hardware/software within DC1.

12. DCCO Contract and Acquisition Strategy: Is DHS currently contracted with any Co- Location Service Provider that the DCCO contractor will be expected to interface with?

Response: DHS does have contracts with colocation providers. Connectivity to these colocation sites will be provided through DHS enterprise networks. The description of any requirements for interaction with these providers would be provided at the Task Order level.

13. For a program of this size, scope, and complexity, will the Government please comment on their plans for post-award transition timeframes?

Response: We will be looking for your feedback on transition time frames once we publish the details on what needs to be transitioned.

Question received in the Q&A webinar pod:

1. What is meant by Co-location? Could this be other Government or commercial data center?

Response: By colocation, DHS means leased space in a private data center for the purposes of storing computing and data center infrastructure.