80NSSC19Q0211_Attachment_D-_JOFOC.pdf

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

NASA Shared Services Center

Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000

BRAND NAME JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (JOFOC)

Pursuant to the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) and in accordance with FAR 13.501, the justification shall incorporate sufficient facts and rationale to support the use of the statutory authority cited.

(1) Agency and Contracting Activity

National Aeronautics and Space

Administration NASA Shared Services

Center (NSSC)

Bldg. 1111, Jerry Hlass Rd.

Stennis Space Center, MS

39529

(2) Nature and/or Description of the Action Being Approved

For this Brand Name Justification, the NASA Shared Services Center will limit competition to vendors who can provide the following product(s) and/ or service(s): Professional Red Hat

Consulting Services, (GPS-OS-PJM, Consulting: OpenShift and Mobile, Project Manager) &

(GPS-OS-SC, Consulting: Open Shift and Mobile, Senior Consultant). The resultant contract will cover a period of one (1) year, consisting of a single twelve (12) month base period.

(3) A Description of the Supplies or Services (Including the Estimated Value)

This brand name requirement represents a follow-on requirement to 80NSSC18P2734, in which the contractor DLT Solutions provided professional support to NASA’s Langley Research Center

(LaRC) in its use of Red Hat’s technology and services, including Openshift Container Adoption, Ceph Storage, OpenStack, CloudForms and Red Hot Open Innovation Labs. This follow-on requirement will provide assistance to the Customer with the infrastructure workstreams for the

Development/Test and Demilitarized Zone OpenShift clusters, helping build Continuous

Integration/ Continuous Development (CI/CD) workflows within OpenShift, providing informal mentoring to Customer on adoption for app development, and helping to plan next-phase container infrastructure and deployment. This purchase is in support of implementing a stable and scalable architecture for Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) private cloud computing infrastructure utilizing Red Hat OpenStack, Ceph Storage, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization

(RHEV), CloudForms and OpenShift technologies. As a result of LaRC’s need to stay with Red

Hat, this opportunity represents a brand name action. The estimated cost of the resultant contract is

$528,790.80.

(4) Identification of the Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition

Authority for the JOFOC is provided by 41 U.S.C. 1901 as implemented by FAR Subpart 13.5.

The authority found in FAR 13.5(a) authorizes the use of simplified procedures for the acquisition of supplies and services in amounts greater than the simplified acquisition threshold but not exceeding $7 million, including options, if the contracting officer reasonably expects, based on the nature of the supplies or services sought, and on market research, that offers will include only commercial items. Contracting officers may use any simplified acquisition procedure in this part, subject to any specific dollar amount limitation applicable to the particular procedure. The

Contracting Officer for this action does expect that this procurement will only include commercial items. This JOFOC complies with the special documentation requirements of FAR 13.501(a)(1)(ii).

(5) A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

The ASDC Cloud Computing Environment utilizes Red Hat Cloud technologies (GPS-OS-PJM, Consulting: OpenShift and Mobile, Project Manager) & (GPS-OS-SC, Consulting: Open Shift and

Mobile, Senior Consultant) that require vendor expertise for customized configurations to ASDC requirements. These technologies are vendor proprietary and require Red Hat engineers to provide insight necessary for implementing the optimal configurations in the ASDC Cloud Environment and fine tuning the system components to deliver maximum benefits to ASDC customers.

NASA LaRC requires services provided exclusively by Red Hat in order to accomplish critical mission-related capabilities. Specifically, NASA LaRC requires Red Hat Open Innovation Labs to accelerate the development of a mission support application, and Red Hat is the only provider of Red Hat Open Innovation Labs. Also, consultant services procured from any vendor other than Red Hat, would negatively impact mission support by creating compatibility issues and substantial duplication costs.

Due to Red Hat Consulting’s extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of NASA LaRC’s on-premise cloud environment, Red Hat is required to provide subject-matter expertise on the

Red Hat products used within the NASA LaRC environment and provide mentoring/training to

NASA personnel on the technical aspects and best practices of evolving its on-premise cloud.

Red Hat Consulting is uniquely positioned to provide consulting services on Red Hat products and technologies. Spanning the entire Red Hat product portfolio, all Red Hat consultants and architects are trained on the latest versions of Red Hat products and technologies, which help customers accelerate product adoption and incorporate the latest features within the products.

Furthermore, Red Hat confirms that Red Hat consultants are the sole and exclusive agents allowed to work on Red Hat Open Innovation Labs, precluding the possibility of other service providers performing the services. Three (3) authorized resellers were provided by Red Hat for

Red Hat Consulting Services via email 01 JAN 2019 and 04 JAN 2019 (see attached). In order to most expeditiously and effectively resolve the architectural challenges of managing such a significant environment within LaRC, Red Hat is required in order to avoid an undue burden of investing resources to reacquire the domain-specific knowledge Red Hat already has.

In addition to providing onsite technical expertise Red Hat is the only organization able to provide direct lines of communication to other organizations within Red Hat (e.g., engineering, support, sales) to assist in resolving issues, gathering necessary information, and expediting

LaRC-specific resolutions. This will further enable NASA to increase savings by receiving priority for patches and resolutions. Red Hat consultants also have direct communications with the Red Hat Business Unit teams which helps customers get unique features incorporated into future releases of the products. Red Hat consultants also have direct access into Red Hat

Support, and have the ability to escalate customer issues and advocate for prioritized resolutions for bugs that are adversely affecting customer lines of business. Finally, every Red Hat consultant is an active member in the Red Hat Consulting community, where real-world experience is available as reach-back support to assist customers overcome challenges.

(6) A Description of Efforts Made to Ensure That Offers are Solicited From as Many

Potential Sources as is Practicable

In accordance with FAR 13.501(a)(1)(iv), the Request for Quote and the Brand Name

Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition will be posted to FBO with the solicitation for Red Hat authorized resellers only.

(7) Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost to the Government Will

Be Fair and Reasonable

This procurement is for a commercial service, and it is anticipated the price will be determined fair and reasonable based on a comparison of the established market prices, competitive quotes resulting from this solicitation, historical contract pricing, and current labor rates found for similar service CLINs found on other government contracts. There are no anticipated issues that would circumvent a fair and reasonableness price determination. The Contracting Officer will determine price reasonableness during the proposal evaluation process prior to contract award.

(8) Description of Market Research

The LaRC ITAM team has conducted a review of SEWP, GSA Advantage and a targeted internet search using the specific titles of Red Hat Consulting Services on 12/20/2018. The required professional services were not available through SEWP or GSA. In market research discussions with Red Hat, they confirmed that their only commercial engagement is through contracting through their network of authorized service resellers. Red Hat engineers will work with the ASDC staff to provide a mix of technical expertise, guidance and mentoring through a structured consulting engagement as a follow-on to the services provided under 80NSSC18P2734 for the development of the architecture design blueprint for the ASDC private (one-premise) Cloud

Computing Environment. This action will be competed among Red Hat authorized resellers via

FBO.

(9) Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other than Full and Open Competition N/A

(10) A Listing of the Sources, If Any That Expressed, In Writing, an Interest in the Acquisition

The three (3) authorized resellers provided by Red Hat Consulting Services via email 01 JAN 2019 and 04 JAN 2019 included the following:

1. Shawn Luciano Paz

Account Manager

Phone 703-773-9226

FAX 866-708-6842

Shawn.lucianopaz@dlt.com mailto:Shawn.lucianopaz@dlt.com

2. Danny Rudeen

Sterling Computers

Federal Account Manager

Phone 605-242-1222

Sterlingcomputers.com

3. Shelby Nicholas

Account Executive

Fierce Software

Phone 571-336-7581

Mobile 703-477-6044 www.fiercesw.com snicholas@fiercesw.com

(11) A Statement Of The Actions, If Any, The Agency May Take To Remove Or Overcome Any

Barriers To Competition Before Any Subsequent Acquisition For The Supplies Or Services

Required.

The Agency will continue to examine the market in the future for alternative solutions before executing any subsequent contract action for the requirement herein. Due to the nature of the expressed requirement, there are no known actions which the Agency may take to give consideration to other manufacturers for the requirements described herein.

Technical/Requirements Personnel Certification. I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance which are included in this justification and its supporting acquisition planning documents, except as noted herein are complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Kenny Nichols, Assistant Langley IT Acquisition Manager

Contracting Officer Certification. I certify that the data supporting the recommended use of other than full and open competition is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. To the extent that the JOFOC value not exceeding $700k, the Contracting Officer’s signature below also represents approval of this JOFOC.

Justin S. Fraser, NSSC Lead Contracting Officer http://www.fiercesw.com/ mailto:snicholas@fiercesw.com