EITA_Draft_PWS.pdf

EITA RFQ # 836795

ATTACHMENT 1: PWS

January 29, 2018

Enterprise IT Architecture

EITA – ITA/ESB

RFQ # tbd

ATTACHMENT 1:

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS)

Department of Education Office of Federal Student Aid

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 4

2 Background 4

3 Scope 5

3.1 EITA Service Areas 6

3.2 EITA Resources and Work Products 6

3.3 EITA Environments 7

4 Applicable Directives 8

4.1 Information Resource Program Elements (IRPE) 8

4.1.1 Lifecycle Management Methodology (LMM) 9

4.1.2 Source Code 9

4.1.3 Security and Security Training 9

4.1.4 Boards 9

4.1.5 Audits and Reviews 9

4.1.6 Service Provider Collaboration 10

4.1.7 Next Generation Data Center (NGDC) Collaboration 10

4.1.8 License Management 10

4.2 FSA Technology Standards and Products 10

4.2.1 Solution Development 10

4.2.2 Standards alignment 11

5 Performance Requirements 11

5.1 Common Services 11

5.1.1 Management Services 12

5.1.2 IT Compliance 12

5.1.3 Architecture Management 12

5.1.4 Change Management 13

5.1.5 Architectural Evergreening, Application and Product Additions, and Technical Proofs of Concept 14

5.1.6 Release and Deployment Management 15

5.1.7 Disaster Recovery Support 16

5.1.8 Capacity Planning / Utilization Management Support 16

5.1.9 EITA Incident Management & Problem Resolution 16

5.1.10 Enterprise Performance Test (EPT) Infrastructure Support 17

5.1.11 Peak Period Support 18

5.1.12 Analysis Support 18

5.1.13 Data Center Strategy Support 18

5.1.14 Transition In 18

5.1.15 Transition Out 18

5.2 Integrated Technical Architecture (ITA) 19

5.2.1 ITA Operations, Maintenance, and Enhancements 20

5.2.2 ITA Tools and Capabilities Development 23

5.2.3 ITA FSA Application Support 24

5.2.4 ITA Technology Proofs of Concept (TPOCs) 24

5.3 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) 25

5.3.1 ESB Operations, Maintenance, and Enhancement 26

5.3.2 ESB FSA Application Support 29

5.3.3 ESB Technology Proofs of Concept 30

5.3.4 ESB Production Support 30

6 Deliverables 30

7 Key Personnel 32

7.1 Program Manager 33

7.2 Project Manager 34

7.3 ITA Senior Technical Lead 34

7.4 ESB Senior Technical Lead 35

8 Appendix A: Acronyms 36

9 Appendix B: Supported Software 38

9.1 ITA-Related Software 38

9.2 ESB-Related Software 38

Table of Figures

Figure 3-1, "EITA Environments" Figure 5-1, “ITA Architecture” Figure 5-2, "ESB Architecture"

EITA RFQ # tbd

1 Introduction Federal Student Aid (FSA) uses a complex set of applications, collectively called FSA Applications, to support its mission of managing over $150 billion each year in grants, loans, and work-study funds. These applications rely on the Enterprise Information Technology Architecture (EITA) to provide the “middleware” and a set of supporting services for critical functions and resources. FSA requires contractor support for EITA including operations, maintenance, architecture, design, implementation, test, and deployment.

This Performance Work Statement (PWS) describes FSA’s requirements for the operations and maintenance of its Enterprise Information Technology Architecture (EITA) systems, services, and resources.

The underlying infrastructure for EITA resides at FSA’s Next Generation Data Center (NGDC), which is operated and maintained by the NGDC contactor. FSA may also maintain several applications in a public or government cloud. FSA will rely on the EITA contractor to support, operate, and maintain EITA systems and services working in conjunction with the NGDC contactor as well as other relevant FSA Applications and other contractors, and or cloud provider(s), as appropriate.

2 Background EITA is a key initiative within FSA’s Technology Office. EITA was designed to:

• Reduce complexity and licensing costs by implementing a shared environment utilized by over 40 Information Systems within FSA and the Department of Education

• Provide a high availability solution

• Provide a highly scalable architecture

• Adopt and promote industry best practices throughout the enterprise

• Provide up-to-date technology via a regular evergreening cycle

EITA provides several enterprise shared functions to client FSA Applications.

EITA’s Integrated Technical Architecture (ITA) provides common, shared products and services for the development and deployment of FSA Applications with 24x7 technical support for production systems in the Enterprise IT Architecture, including:

• Standard Middleware COTS Products: All FSA Applications can make use of standard products such as web server, Java application server, load balancer, search engine, and content management tools.

• Standard Shared Environments: Common shared environments allow application teams to share computing resources.

• Standard Reusable Common Services: Reusable services and portlets are provided to application teams to shorten development time and reduce complexity.

• Middleware Architecture Subject Matter Expertise (SME): Middleware architecture expert that performs as technical liaison between EITA, FSA, and FSA application teams; provides consulting and advice; and leads staff in fulfilling EITA improvement and delivery objectives for FSA in areas such as technical strategy, evergreening guidance, services, environments, and processes.

• Middleware Products Subject Matter Expertise (SME): Product experts are full-time on staff to support the troubleshooting of the most complex technical issues. These SMEs will be certified in one or more of the ITA and ESB suite of COTS products, e.g., WebSphere Application Server, Drupal, or WebSphere MQ, etc.

• Build Environments: ITA builds environments to meet application requirements.

• Architecture Reviews: ITA also provides technical architecture and design reviews.

• Product Evergreening: Plans and provides up-to-date technology via a regular evergreening cycle (N-1) - Update EITA’s Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) enables disparate FSA Applications running on multiple platforms to communicate and share data with one another in a platform independent manner. It provides an enterprise backbone for building FSA’s Target State Vision (TSV) IT platform.

NOTE: The Access and Identity Management System (AIMS) is NOT part of this solicitation, although previously AIMS was part of EITA. AIMS provides a set of common security services and functions which implement authentication, access management, self-service account management (including password reset), logging and reporting, Two Factor Authentication (TFA) and exception handling. AIMS is being merged with other authentication and security related activities and those services are NOT part of this solicitation.

3 Scope The scope of this contract is to procure the full range of technical and project management services to support the continuing, comprehensive, and effective operation of an integrated set of middleware functions and supporting resources available to FSA Applications1 and Stakeholders to use and integrate with. These FSA middleware functions and services will collectively constitute the Enterprise Information Technology Architecture and will be organized into Service Areas. The Contractor shall provide the full range of technical and project management services support for the following EITA service areas.

1 In addition, other Department of Education applications are increasingly relying on EITA to service FSA’s and the Department’s internal and external users. Throughout this PWS, the term FSA Applications refers to both FSA Applications as well as other relevant applications developed and used by the Department of Education that utilize FSA’s EITA services. Similarly, the terms FSA Application Owners and FSA Application Teams extend to the Department’s applications that are integrated with

EITA.

3.1 EITA Service Areas

EITA’s services are comprised of the following Service Areas:

• Common Services comprise a set of general services that apply across the different EITA core service areas. Together, they provide a shared framework for program and technical management and support and are often provided by a collaborative effort between the various EITA service areas. Examples of Common Services are Architecture Management, IT Compliance, and Release and Deployment Management.

• Integrated Technical Architecture (ITA) provides a common, shared platform of COTS products and services and customized Reusable Common Services (RCS) that can be used by FSA Applications, current and future.

• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) extends an integrated, enterprise-wide application messaging capability to all FSA Applications and provides virtualization of legacy interfaces for building incremental business functions.

3.2 EITA Resources and Work Products

The EITA Contractor shall support the following EITA middleware resources and work products required to provide the EITA services described above:

• Commercial-of-the-Shelf (COTS) software and systems deployed and/or customized by EITA to provide the core enterprise IT services required by FSA Applications and EITA Stakeholders. Examples include: inter-process communication; common web, Java enterprise, and data manipulation functions; and common reusable services like Internet search.

• Source code, libraries, and configuration files developed and maintained by EITA.

Examples include source code developed in collaboration with the FSA Application Owners, Application Programming Interfaces, WebSphere configuration files, Java command line files (which contain information related to memory allocation), etc.

• Reports required by FSA. These might include usage, auditing, or responses to data calls.

• Consulting and advice to support EITA integration with FSA and Departmental Applications. This might range from consulting on architecture and design, to informal training on how to integrate applications with EITA-provided software, to support and trouble-shooting EITA-integrated FSA Applications in pre-production or production environments.

• Systems certified and accredited (C and A) by EITA. FSA Application Owners and others can rely on the security controls of these systems. C & A assessments are not performed by the EITA Contractor, but the contractor does cooperate with assessments. In addition, the EITA contractor helps evaluate security scans and vulnerability findings, supporting the EITA ISSO, and works with other teams to correctly assign vulnerabilities to either datacenter, EITA, or Application Teams.

• Operations and maintenance services and their underlying processes and expertise to support the development, enhancement, testing, deployment, troubleshooting, day-to-day operations, technology evergreening, change and configuration management process support, and FSA staff support as needed to operate EITA’s shared enterprise IT architecture.

• Conduct Technical Proofs of Concepts in support of FSA’s product investigative and improvement initiatives.

• Provide skills and competencies needed to support future EA infrastructure related to cloud and implementation of a container Platform

3.3 EITA Environments

The contractor shall support EITA software and integrated FSA Applications operating in the following environments:

• Development

• Test

• Enterprise Performance Test (EPT)

• Staging

• Production

The EITA Contractor shall provide full support, including implementation and deployment to the Development, Test, and EPT environments. There are multiple development and test environments for some applications, notably Student Loans and FAFSA. On the other hand, the EITA Contractor shall provide technical strategy, guidance, configuration and informational support, but no installation, in the Staging and Production environments.

The EITA contractor may be asked to perform installation and direct support of ESB in the Production environment. All environments are located at the Next Generation Data Center (NGDC (or hosting data center)). There shall be a Current State Report (CSR), as submitted by the EITA existing contractor, which contains network diagrams of all supported Production and Non-Production environments as well as a mapping of the EITA COTS products to the servers on which they reside and the FSA Applications that use them.

Figure 3-1, "EITA Environments", provides additional information about each environment.

4 Applicable Directives The Contractor shall comply with the laws, regulations, directives, processes and procedures in the performance of the requirements of this PWS listed below, and This information will be supplemented by TOSL (Technology Office Standards Library) and TSPG (Technology Standards and Products Guide) standards and guidance.

Directive Number Title Date or Version No.

FSA Process FSA Lifecycle Management Model (LMM) Tbd

FSA Process FSA Enterprise Configuration Management Tbd

FSA Process Enterprise Operational Change Management Plan

Tbd

FSA Process Enterprise Test Management Standards Tbd

FISMA Federal Information Security Management Act Tbd

4.1 Information Resource Program Elements (IRPE)

The EITA Contractor shall deliver services as part of this engagement in conformance with FSA’s Lifecycle Management Methodology (LMM), as described in the succeeding paragraphs.

4.1.1 Lifecycle Management Methodology (LMM)

The EITA contractor shall comply with the FSA’s Project Governance Model (aka Lifecycle Management Methodology, LMM), which defines the control level activities and a minimum set of documentation requirements to successfully oversee the development and implementation of the EITA solution.

1. The contractor shall comply with documentation requirements and Stage Gate reviews as defined in the EITA LMM Tailoring Plan.

2. The contractor shall comply with standards for test management within the Lifecycle Management Methodology.

3. The contractor shall conduct and support intersystem testing between its area of responsibility and other entities that do business with Federal Student Aid. The contractor shall provide test data, and test cases/scenarios in support of intersystem testing.

4. The contractor shall document defects found during testing in accordance with FSA's Enterprise Test Management Standards.

5. This contract is subject to Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) and the contractor shall support Federal Student Aid IV&V activities.

Refer to the Lifecycle Management Methodology section of the Federal Student Aid Technology Office Reference Library for additional information.

https://fsa.share.ed.gov/lmm/SitePages/LMM%20Welcome.aspx

4.1.2 Source Code

The EITA Contractor shall provide any source code developed in support of Reusable Common Service or any EITA activity to the Government.

4.1.3 Security and Security Training

1. The EITA Contractor shall comply with Department security policy requirements

2. The EITA Contractor shall ensure all its employees and subcontractors working on this contract comply with all Government security training requirements.

4.1.4 Boards

The EITA contractor shall support all review board activity conducted by FSA and DoED that involves the approval or concurrence or participation of EITA.

4.1.5 Audits and Reviews

1. The EITA contractor shall provide information and assistance to support periodic project and system-specific auditing activities that Federal Student Aid conducts such as IV&V, QA, and LMM compliance and audits.

https://fsa.share.ed.gov/lmm/SitePages/LMM%20Welcome.aspx https://fsa.share.ed.gov/lmm/SitePages/LMM%20Welcome.aspx

2. The EITA contractor shall provide information and assistance to support annual

Program Assessment (PA) activities.

3. The contractor shall maintain traceability of configuration items, including baselines and builds, to support all the functions of the Lifecycle Management Methodology

4.1.6 Service Provider Collaboration

The EITA contractor shall collaborate with FSA’s Test Manager, the other contractors and other project team members as needed to facilitate the success of EITA activities.

4.1.7 Next Generation Data Center (NGDC) Collaboration

The EITA contractor is required to coordinate all changes to approaches and processes used to implement changes to Federal Student Aid IT operations and services hosted at the Next Generation Data Center.

The contractor shall follow the Federal Student Aid Enterprise Change Management processes to ensure all changes are coordinated, reviewed, and approved through Federal Student Aid organizational areas. As part of this process, the contractor shall provide input into and collaborate with the Federal Student Aid Next Generation Data Center Service Management process, where applicable.

Additionally, the contractor shall participate, when required, in system or production readiness reviews prior to releasing any production changes and in the testing of any change(s) that touch a system that they support or that is within their area of responsibility or both. The contractor shall perform changes or maintenance of existing systems, release or implementation of new systems, and decommissioning or termination of systems during the Next Generation Data Center Weekly Maintenance Window, where applicable. All EITA documentation shall be kept current. The contractor shall perform changes, maintenance, and version control of all EITA technical architecture, systems and network design, and process documentation, where applicable.

4.1.8 License Management

The contractor shall comply with the Federal Student Aid Software License Management process.

4.2 FSA Technology Standards and Products

4.2.1 Solution Development

The EITA contractor will recommend and develop architectural solutions that meet guidelines established in the FSA Architectural Models and Architecture Overview pertaining to Enterprise IT Architecture.

4.2.2 Standards alignment

The EITA contractor shall install products and any custom application products in a manner that aligns with the FSA Technology Standards and Products Guide (TSPG) and assures existing FSA standards are leveraged. The FSA Technology Standards and Products Guide documents FSA’s enterprise technology standards and products that should be used to build all FSA solutions. For any new products or applications developed that propose a new standard that does not exist or is redundant with another existing standard, the EITA contractor must seek FSA approval. Refer to the FSA Technology Standards and Products Guide for additional information:

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/fsawg/static/gw/docs/ciolibrary/Techno logy_Standards_and_Products_Guide.pdf

5 Performance Requirements The Contractor shall provide all qualified personnel, materials, automated systems, software, equipment, and services to support the EITA Service Areas outlined below and each of the service requirements listed.

The Contractor shall provide support to EITA during the following Service Hours:

• Standard support is available during normal work hours of FSA Federal Employees.

• Non-production2 standard support is provided 7am-7pm EST.

• Non-production incident response is provided 7am-7pm EST.

• EPT support is provided 7am-7pm EST.

• EPT incident response is for the duration of the EPT.

• Production support and incident response is provided 24x365.

• Production deployment support is provided during normal Production environment maintenance windows and incidents.

• End-User Help Desk support is provided 8am - 5pm EST, M-F, and support for outages and/or high severity alerts is provided 24x7x365.

The EITA Service Catalog specifies the hours that each EITA service is made available to FSA Applications and other EITA clients.

5.1 Common Services

EITA Common Services comprise a set of general services that apply across the different EITA core service areas. Together, they provide a shared framework for program and technical management and support and are often provided by a collaborative effort between the various EITA service areas.

2 Nonproduction refers to EITA’s Development and Test environments.

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/fsawg/static/gw/docs/ciolibrary/Technology_Standards_and_Products_Guide.pdf https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/fsawg/static/gw/docs/ciolibrary/Technology_Standards_and_Products_Guide.pdf

5.1.1 Management Services

The Contractor shall support FSA in managing this contract by providing standard project management services and communicating standard artifacts to EITA’s stakeholders.

Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Develop and communicate technical, management, and staffing requirements for acquisitions.

2. Support the selection processes of acquisitions.

3. Develop, communicate, and maintain project plans and schedules.

4. Support Weekly Status and Monthly Evergreening Status meetings / conference calls logistics to include scheduling, capturing meeting minutes and action items, publishing of agendas and meeting minutes, etc.

5. Anticipate, manage, and mitigate risks using a monthly risk management report than identifies 80% of all issues that might materialize at least two weeks in advance.

6. Manage project closeout and transition activities.

5.1.2 IT Compliance

The Contractor shall ensure compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) by authoring FISMA artifacts and responding to FISMA-related data calls. Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Provide technical strategy, guidance, and consultative advice, to the NGDC (or hosting data center) and FSA regarding facility security, network security, and operating system security.

2. Support NGDC (or hosting data center) management of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates and schedule for renewals.

3. Support security testing and evaluation of EITA’s applications.

4. Support remediation of security-related issues in EITA’s applications.

5. Support handling security incidents related to EITA’s applications.

6. Support the EITA ISSO evaluating security scan and vulnerability findings to correctly assign vulnerabilities to either Data Center, EITA, or Application Teams.

Note: Facility Security is not an EITA responsibility. Management of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates and schedule for renewals is entirely a NGDC (or hosting data center) responsibility.

5.1.3 Architecture Management

The Contractor shall ensure FSA’s enterprise IT architecture is up-to-date and is properly sized and tuned to run effectively and efficiently, by supporting FSA’s technical architecture planning, selection and evaluation of potential EITA technologies, and designing and optimizing the platform that underlies the various production and pre-production environments. Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Support the introduction of new technologies and capabilities to EITA, e.g.

virtualization of various environments.

2. Provide Subject Matter Expertise (SME) and assist in making architectural decisions.

3. Support developing sizing requirements for the physical and virtual environments.

4. Provide design specifications relating to EITA software for the physical and virtual machines that will house the various needed production and pre-production environments.

5. Tune pre-production environments, document the final specifications, and communicate them to the NGDC (or hosting data center), which then tunes the production environments accordingly.

6. Utilize the Wily tool (a mid-tier monitoring tool) for operations metrics and trends.

7. Support the NGDC (or hosting data center)’s monitoring of the production environment and resolution of system anomalies identified.

5.1.4 Change Management

The Contractor shall ensure that all FSA Enterprise Configuration and Change Management transactions that involve EITA are supported, processed, and managed efficiently.

Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Develop EITA-level requirements.

2. Identify and track status of dependencies in FSA Applications and the EITA infrastructure.

3. Develop supporting schedules.

4. Coordinate with all FSA Application Owners and stakeholders to communicate schedule, constraints, and technical information.

5. Support FSA Application Owners in analyzing technical impact and developing plans.

6. Support FSA’s Configuration Control Boards (CCBs), including, but not limited to, the

Organizational Review Board (ORB), Technical Review Board (TRB), Enterprise Change Control Board (ECCB), and NGDC (or hosting data center) Change Control Board (CCB), processes including change review and approval, and change preparation, explanation and planning for EITA-initiated changes.

7. Develop a configuration management plan, for all systems in development and production, in accordance with the standards defined within the Lifecycle Management Methodology.

8. Ensure EITA documentation is kept current and performs changes, maintenance, and version control of all EITA technical architecture, systems and network design, and process documentation, and LMM documentation, where applicable.

5.1.5 Architectural Evergreening, Application and Product Additions, and Technical Proofs of Concept

5.1.5.1 Architectural Evergreening Activities

The Contractor shall ensure that EITA is up to date by planning for COTS product upgrades to at least Version N-1 for all software. Contractor shall use Version N where applicable and when Version N is the latest market release of the vendor software and shall support application teams in their efforts to keep their applications compatible with new COTS software versions. Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Develop and maintain the long-term evergreening schedule in collaboration with FSA’s Technology Office and recommend a COTS evergreening plan and timeline.

2. Provide technical strategy, guidance, consultative advice, and/or informational support to the NGDC (or hosting data center).

3. Process EITA Change Requests and submit corresponding NGDC (or hosting data center) Change Requests to plan and execute evergreening changes.

4. Perform Technology Proofs of Concept in support of evergreening activities.

5.1.5.2 New Application and COTS Product Introduction

The Contractor shall support new application deployments for applications not currently live in the Next Generation Data Center, and shall support the addition of new products to the ITA-ESB suite of products, as defined in the following paragraphs.

1. The Contractor shall support small to medium sized new application deployments, for applications not currently supported by EITA. A small to medium sized product or application deployment is defined as one requiring less than or equal to 250 hours of contractor support activity, including documentation.

2. The contractor shall support up to four new “small to medium” products and or applications, across the three service areas (ITA, ESB), each requiring potentially up to 250 hours of contractor support, each year.

3. The contractor shall have the capability to support larger (> 250 hours) product or applications being added to EITA, although these activities may require separate task orders and are not built into base support.

5.1.5.2.1 Application and Product Differentiation

A small product addition might be the addition of a COTS tool to track Earned Value Management, requires no custom configuration and is used by only two FSA employees in the Development and Production Environments. A large application addition would be the future support of a new suite of applications such as Integrated Partner management, supporting hundreds of users in multiple distributed environments.

5.1.5.3 Technical Proofs of Concept (TPOC)

1. The Contractor shall conduct Technical Proofs of Concept, across all of the EITA service areas: ITA and ESB. (see the following paragraphs for definitions)

2. The contractor shall conduct multiple TPOCs to validate technologies as necessary to support ITA and ESB needs for FSA, not to exceed 3000 person-hours per contract year.

3. The contractor shall have the capability to conduct additional TPOCs in excess of the 3000 hour allowance, although these activities may require separate task orders and are not built into base support.

5.1.5.3.1 TPOC Elaboration

This paragraph is provided to help give examples of TPOCs. Please note these examples are for illustration only.

1. Conduct a high-level investigation and document the potential use of a new mobile product, and test if for a small application. If this does not include the use of actual ITA applications and does not include activity working with other FSA teams, this might be a 200-400 hour type TPOC

2. The ITA/ESB team might be asked to simulate the migration of several middleware products and associated application from midrange servers to mainframe servers.

This type of effort would involve coordination among multiple (NGDC, EITA, application) teams, product vendors (perhaps IBM and Google and others), might involve securing the use of mainframe equipment, and would certainly take more than 400 hours.

5.1.6 Release and Deployment Management

The Contractor shall enable the deployment of EITA middleware software to preproduction and production environments by assisting the NGDC (or hosting data center) with the deployment to Staging and Production environments and performing the deployment to Development, Test, and EPT environments. This is applicable to both standalone EITA software deployment as well as EITA integration with other FSA Applications. Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Tailor the Install and Configuration Guide to the target deployment environment.

Install and Configuration Guides are quite similar across the pre-production and production environments except for server names.

2. Support software release and deployment to the Staging and Production environments at the NGDC (or hosting data center).

3. Manage software release and deployment to the Development, Test, and EPT environments.

4. Support FSA Applications and NGDC (or hosting data center) teams in all application “promote-to-production” activities including: formal change management review and approval, operational readiness validations, deployment and integration validations, and “application golive” actions.

5. Provide support during deployment of new / updated configuration items (hardware, patches, etc.) and perform system integration testing after each update is applied, including checks of product logs, system services and general server and application connectivity.

5.1.7 Disaster Recovery Support

The Contractor shall ensure the NGDC (or hosting data center) has the proper EITA-related disaster recovery documentation and support to recover from technical and operational failures. Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Develop scripts.

2. After a disaster, deploy scripts, as appropriate, in support of recovery efforts.

3. Assist the FSA Information System Security Officers (ISSOs) with the preparation of the Disaster Recovery Scope document.

5.1.8 Capacity Planning / Utilization Management Support

The Contractor shall ensure that FSA has the necessary EITA-related capacity utilization information to support its capacity planning efforts by providing utilization monitoring and management as well as capacity planning support across EITA. Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Support periodic and on-demand capacity planning efforts.

2. Help identify and tweak parameters and metrics for utilization and performance monitoring.

3. Provide inputs to NGDC (or hosting data center) on what and how to monitor parameters related to utilization.

4. Review utilization statistics and provide input into the capacity planning process.

5.1.9 EITA Incident Management & Problem Resolution

The Contractor shall ensure EITA's timely, efficient response to all incidents and timely resolution of all problems by providing common, shared incident management and problem resolution services on behalf of all EITA Service Areas. Specifically, the Contractor shall provide common tier 2 support to the NGDC (or hosting data center) in tackling and managing middleware-related incidents and engage the relevant EITA Service Area SMEs in managing incidents related to that service area.

Certain incidents that arise require further research and root cause analysis and are thus added to a master Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Report that is compiled by the NGDC (or hosting data center). In relation to the RCA process, the Contractor shall provide FSA and the NGDC (or hosting data center) support and input into root cause analysis in areas relevant to middleware (ITA and ESB). Note: Incident management support is not required to be on-site.

5.1.9.1 EITA Incident Management

The Contractor shall provide tier 2 support to FSA Application Owners and the NGDC (or hosting data center) for trouble-shooting, incident resolution, and remediation support in relation to any EITA service area. The Contractor shall support the overall FSA Incident Management process, including but not limited to, the following activities:

1. Support the NGDC (or hosting data center) in managing incidents.

2. Receive and process incident requests from FSA Application Owners as EITA

Incident Tickets. FSA Application Owners close the EITA Incident Tickets once they are resolved.

3. Forward production incidents to the NGDC (or hosting data center), creating a NGDC (or hosting data center) Incident Ticket.

4. Route EITA incident tickets to the appropriate EITA service area Incident Management and Problem Resolution function.

5. Escalate COTS-related incidents, except for those COTS for which support is managed by FSA, e.g. Microsoft, to the relevant COTS vendors.

6. Support remediation efforts.

5.1.9.2 EITA Problem Resolution

The Contractor shall support the overall FSA Problem Resolution process, which includes but is not limited to, the analysis of the root causes of certain key incidents that are compiled by the NGDC (or hosting data center) in the Root Cause Analysis Report and the following representative activities:

1. Provide feedback on the NGDC (or hosting data center)’s Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Report.

2. Provide support for trend analysis and clustering of incidents.

3. Provide support for trend analysis of collected performance metrics.

4. Support remediation efforts.

5.1.10 Enterprise Performance Test (EPT) Infrastructure Support The Contractor shall ensure the efficient, comprehensive, and quality execution of the Enterprise Performance Testing of EITA by supporting the configuration of the EPT environment, providing consultative advice, and supporting the EPT vendor that has the primary responsibility for performing Enterprise Performance Testing. Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Develop and manage the configuration of the EPT environments using the corresponding Install and Configuration Guides.

2. Provide support and incident response to the EPT activity. Support activities are documented in the Production Readiness Review.

3. Support trouble-shooting and configuration tweaking.

5.1.11 Peak Period Support

The Contractor shall provide coverage and support for additional meetings, planning, monitoring and incident support during FSA key application “peak periods” for Student Loans and FAFSA.

5.1.12 Analysis Support

The contractor shall provide additional analysis of severe incidents or events as needed by FSA, including the running and documenting of meetings and providing technical analyses and write-ups as directed.

5.1.13 Data Center Strategy Support

1. The contractor shall be capable of providing technical support if FSA chooses to initiate the effort to implement a multiple data center strategy, a cloud strategy (e.g., AWS, Azure, or other private and/or government cloud –hosting solution) and/or comply with OMB memorandum dated December 8, 2011 "Security Authorization of Information Systems in Cloud Computing" and FedRAMP as a part of Federal Cloud Computing Initiative (FCCI).

2. In this event the contractor shall perform the same consulting and management functions described herein in the new environments.

5.1.14 Transition to Systems (ATO)

ESB and ITA are currently considered sub-components of the NGDC system. In the event FSA chooses to recategorize ITA and/or ESB as systems, the contractor shall support FSA’s efforts including the activities involved in acquiring Authorities to Operate (ATO).

5.1.14 Transition In

The contractor shall work with both FSA and the previous EITA incumbent during a 60-120 day transition period at the inception of the new contract.

5.1.15 Transition Out

After award and either partial of full execution of this new EITA contract, the contractor shall be prepared to support transition of all or part of EITA activities to a new EITA contractor(s) as required, and work with FSA to develop any specific plans or task orders.

5.2 Integrated Technical Architecture (ITA)

ITA provides the following key technologies to FSA Applications and stakeholders supported by the listed underlying COTS products.

• Web Server provides a custom-tailored implementation that features tight integration with other EITA web COTS products. Underlying products are o IBM HTTP Server (IHS) o Apache Web Server

• Java Application Server that manages the deployment and run-time environment for Java-based applications (J2EE) and acts like the middleware between the web servers and the databases. o IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS)

• Content Management and Delivery, including content contribution, collaboration, and management across the enterprise, is used to streamline business processes and integrated currently-used productivity tools. Underlying products are:

o OpenText Interwoven TeamSite / OpenDeploy o Drupal

• Enterprise Search provides advanced Internet search capabilities, using the o Google Search Appliance

• Data Modeling and metadata management using o ER Studio

• Business Intelligence and Reporting encompasses reporting, analysis, and information delivery capabilities, as well as ad hoc and online analytical processes (OLAP) capabilities. Underlying products are in the process of being updated. In the past the following products were part of ITA, but currently supported products are being updated.:

o MicroStrategy o IBM WebFocus o SAS statistic package

• Data Extraction and Manipulation through a suite of products that profiles and standardizes data and provides ETL (Extract/Transform/Load) functionality. The underlying platform is the o IBM InfoSphere Information Server

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionality including integrated call center and web services to effectively manage call center/helpdesk operations via role-based dashboard features, based on o Siebel

• General Tools and Embedded Software o Oracle Database is used as the standard database for ITA products. Oracle is not officially part of ITA, but given that FSA applications use Oracle and ITA products may interface with it, contractor familiarity with Oracle is required.

o Wily Introscope provides end-to-end monitoring of application transactions.

o DB2 is used on mainframes to which ITA interfaces o o Some applications handle high activity through

Akamai.

Figure 5-1 depicts a high-level view of ITA and its components.

Figure 5-1, "ITA Architecture"

5.2.1 ITA Operations, Maintenance, and Enhancements

The Contractor shall ensure that ITA’s software and services are up-to-date, operate efficiently and effectively, and are responsive to the needs of its client FSA Applications.

The contractor shall accomplish this by operating and maintaining the ITA software, connections to databases, and APIs; providing ITA incident management and problem resolution; as well as performing enhancements to existing ITA implementations, including ITA-specific applications and tools and integration with other FSA Applications.

5.2.1.1 ITA Operations and Maintenance

The Contractor shall support the operations of all ITA software tools, capabilities, connections to databases, and APIs, as well as ITA-integrated FSA Application software.

Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Operate and maintain ITA

a. Develop and manage the configuration of all ITA COTS products listed above.

b. Develop and manage the configuration of existing or upgraded ITA Tools and

Capabilities such as Reusable Common Services (RCS) and the new mobile platform.

c. Document the EITA configuration in the “Install and Configuration Guide”.

d. Support the implementation of ITA software products and tools in the various environments by using the common Release and Deployment Management service and providing it the EITA Install and Configuration Guide.

e. Support databases specifically packaged with the underlying ITA products.

f. Support the NGDC (or hosting data center) to perform continuous monitoring.

2. Manage evergreening of all ITA software

a. Perform regular evergreening of ITA products and tools as needed, using the common Release and Deployment Management service.

b. Coordinate evergreening activities across all EITA service areas by developing and managing an integrated evergreening schedule.

3. Ensure EITA is secure

a. Provide subject matter expertise to help analyze results of periodic security scans; remediate issues found during security scans as pertinent to ITA; and track and report status of remediation activities.

b. Conduct password change activity in non-production environments.

4. Trouble-shoot ITA and FSA Application issues.

5. Provide operating system management secondary support as relevant to ITA products and tools by performing the following:

a. Participate in, provide, and document system requirements (CPU, memory, disk space, kernel parameters, etc.) as they relate to ITA products.

b. Support the identification and recommendation of future upgrades for hardware or Operating System (OS).

c. Provide technical strategy, guidance, consultative advice, and informational support relevant to ITA products and tools.

d. Provide expertise to the NGDC (or hosting data center) on kernel parameter definitions to support the ITA products.

e. Provide research and problem-solving expertise on all operating system matters.

6. Support database management as it pertains to ITA products and tools by performing the following tasks:

a. Support product system DB & non-application DBAs and WebSphere Application Data Source Management.

b. Perform DB/OS password changes, application database management guidance, DB2 client management, and mainframe connectivity/management guidance;

etc.

c. Manage application data sources in WebSphere, including the configuration of ITA products in the Development and Test environments.

d. Provide support for any database included as part of an ITA product.

7. Provide reports to external stakeholders, including OIG and OMB.

5.2.1.2 ITA Software Maintenance and Enhancement

The Contractor shall support, maintain, and enhance existing ITA implementations, including ITA-specific software tools, capabilities, product databases, APIs, and integration with other FSA Applications. Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Maintain and enhance ITA’s shared services, e.g. the Reusable Common Services (RCS), and be familiar with the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

2. Integrate with other EITA products as necessary.

3. Maintain and enhance ITA software and APIs customized for specific FSA

Applications.

4. Provide support for any scripts used to ensure or enhance the functionality of ITA products.

5. Maintain and enhance OpenText TeamSite and/or Drupal and/or content-

Management tool workflows, including developed workflows or workflow components.

6. Conduct Technology Proofs of Concept (TPOCs) of standalone technologies being considered for integration into ITA. Please see paragraph 5.1.5 and subparagraphs.

7. Maintain and enhance documentation for interfacing with ITA, including the ITA Services document, ITA Governance Plan that includes ITA integration specifications, Enterprise Architecture Model for the ITA, guidelines and best practices.

5.2.1.3 ITA Incident Management and Problem Resolution

The Contractor shall provide tier 2 support to FSA Application Owners and the NGDC (or hosting data center) for trouble-shooting, incident resolution, root cause analysis, and remediation support. The Contractor shall support the overall FSA Incident Management and Problem Resolution processes, which include but are not limited to the following activities:

1. Support the NGDC (or hosting data center) in managing incidents including:

a. Joining NGDC (or hosting data center) incident calls

b. Searching logs for alerts sent

c. Performing real-time technical analysis

d. Supporting monitoring reports by accessing the NGDC (or hosting data center) monitoring system.

2. Provide immediate support and triage of ITA incidents/problems whether or not they originate through a NGDC (or hosting data center) Incident Ticket. If the incident originates from a source other than the NGDC (or hosting data center), then communicate with the NGDC (or hosting data center) through EITA Incident Management to log the problem by issuing a NGDC (or hosting data center) Incident Ticket.

3. Escalate COTS-related incidents to the relevant COTS vendors.

4. Provide guidance and support in resolving code and interface related issues.

5. Perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for ITA-related incidents and support RCA for issues related to ITA-integrated FSA Applications.

6. Develop alternatives, perform an alternatives analysis, and collaborate on arriving at a solution or a set of remediations.

7. Support remediation efforts as related to ITA incidents.

8. Provide technical analysis write-ups and/or incident descriptions and histories as needed.

5.2.2 ITA Tools and Capabilities Development

The Contractor shall ensure that ITA’s technology platform and suite of tools is up-to-date and reflects FSA’s technical vision and plans and the needs of its FSA Applications. The Contractor shall accomplish this by supporting all ITA tools development and major/revolutionary enhancements to the software, underlying databases, and APIs, which deliver ITA services. Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Provide consultative services to support the development of new ITA Tools and Capabilities, such as:

a. The mobile strategy for EITA based on FSA’s business needs and industry best practices.

b. A mobile solution that may include an internal app store, notification server, and portal.

2. Support introduction of new technologies, including mobile tools, and its integration into the ITA solution.

3. Upgrade ITA to include new ITA-specific applications, features, and/or services providing the architecture, software development, testing, and configuration management, as needed, particularly in support of the new mobile platform.

4. Support regression, user acceptance, and smoke testing.

5. Perform security testing and evaluation of tools under consideration.

6. Communicate planned and actual changes and schedules to relevant stakeholders.

7. Develop documentation and training presentations that describe how to migrate applications from the current version of ITA to the upgraded version of ITA, e.g. FSA Application mobile enablement.

8. Support the newly upgraded ITA using the standard ITA Operations and Maintenance functions including implementation and deployment to nonproduction and production environments.

5.2.3 ITA FSA Application Support

The Contractor shall ensure that FSA Application Owners have the necessary information and resources required to access and integrate with ITA software and services.

Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Provide consultative services and customized APIs to support integration of ITA Tools and Capabilities, including the new mobile platform, with other FSA Applications including, architecture, software development and testing support, configuration support, and development of customized APIs used by specific FSA Applications.

2. Support development of J2EE applications.

3. Develop configuration files for application run-time context, build, and deployment.

4. Configure JVM appropriately.

5. Develop and enhance OpenText TeamSite and/or Drupal workflows, including developed workflows or workflow components that enable FSA Application teams to control their own pushes to Staging and Production environments.

6. Support FSA Application teams’ deployment of content by OpenText TeamSite and Drupal.

7. Deploy static content changes to FSA Applications in the Production environment using Drupal and/or OpenText OpenDeploy.

8. Configure and support the interface to Google Search Appliance.

9. Instruct and advise NGDC (or hosting data center) to implement production application changes for ITA.

10. Resolve issues encountered during application development and testing.

5.2.4 ITA Technology Proofs of Concept (TPOCs)

The Contractor shall ensure that FSA has all the information and resources needed to evaluate new technologies and their impact on ITA by supporting the investigation and demonstration of new and enhanced products and services. Specifically, the Contractor shall

1. Conduct TPOCs, which may include prototypes, remotely and/or at the NGDC (or hosting data center) as needed to validate products and their use and compatibility with existing infrastructure and standards, such as in relation to the new mobile platform.

2. In the Production environment, provide technical strategy, guidance, consultative advice, and/or informational support to the NGDC (or hosting data center) as needed.

Please see paragraph 5.1.5.3 and subparagraphs for further clarification.

5.3 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

ESB is based on a broad set of COTS and custom components either selected or constructed to provide assured data transport services among applications regardless of the size, content or format of the information transmitted. ESB provides and manages web services interactions with other FSA Applications, including both public and private web services.

Figure 5-2, "ESB Architecture", depicts a high-level view of ESB.

Figure 5-2, "ESB Architecture"

ESB delivers the following features and functions to FSA Applications and to other stakeholders:

Students Financial PartnersSchools Vendors FSA Gov’t Agencies Others

Public/Private Data Networks

AIMSEnterprise Service Bus

AIMS

Enterprise Service Bus

AIMS

Applications

SAIG

FAFSA

eMPN

Ez-Audit eCB

PM

SAIG

FAFSA

eMPN

Ez-Audit eCB

PM

PM IPM

FAFSA

FMS

ECS

COD

PM

PAS

Messages/Files Web Services

Web ServicesMessages/Files

• File-based integration between applications using the ESB managed file transfer…