A02-JA VMware FINAL Signed - Redact Request_Redactedv2.pdf

CUI/Source Selection Information-See FAR 2.101 and 3.104

Control No: 24-052

Department of Army Justification and Approval for Other than

Full and Open Competition

1. Contracting Activity: Army Contracting Command – Rock Island (ACC-RI) Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, IL 61299-8000.

2. Description of Action: Computer Hardware Enterprise Software and Support (CHESS) in conjunction with Headquarters, Department of Army (HQDA) Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) requests a firm-fixed-price (FFP), single award Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with Carahsoft Technology, Corp.

(Carahsoft) to obtain VMware by Broadcom (hereafter referred to as VMware) virtualization subscription licenses and software support. The contract will establish an Army Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) with Carahsoft for VMware virtualization licenses.

and contract award is projected for . Operations and Maintenance funds will be utilized.

3. Description of Supplies: The contract will establish an Army ELA contract for Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) VMware software licenses and technical software in support of Information Technology (IT) Network operations. This requirement is to purchase VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Enterprise and VCF Edge Bundle Stock Keeping Unit software packages, related licenses, and associated support.

VMware virtualization software enables the hardware resources of a single computer to be divided into multiple “virtual” machines. Modern central processing units, especially within the context of servers, typically have a much larger array of resources (e.g., memory, storage, processing capacity, etc.) than can be adequately used by a single application. Virtualization then allows those resources to be used more efficiently.

These segmentations occur in a purely logical/digital sense versus a physical one.

This requirement includes VMware software products, which are required to operate data centers, tactical computing environments, and to support the Army’s networks. The VMware products listed include subscription licenses and software support (also referred to as software maintenance support, service and support, which VMware refers to as “SNS”). SNS provides users with access to 24x7 technical support (telephone/web-based chat/email), software version updates and upgrades, security vulnerability fixes, software patching and software license inventory management solutions for end-user enterprise virtualized servers, end-user devices, storage, and distinct network equipment. Additionally, the software automates operations management of the virtualized environments to ensure optimal capacity and real-time performance specifications are available. VMware licensing for Federal customers is only offered through the new VCF bundle (enterprise and edge), which is a suite of products that provide support to Software Defined Data Centers (SDDC). The components of the VCF bundle include:

vSphere Enterprise Plus - server virtualization vSAN Enterprise - storage virtualization software

NSX Enterprise Plus - network virtualization Aria Suite Enterprise- network management SDDC Manager- automated database management

The scope will cover the VMware requirements for the Army and its Commands.

Additionally, the scope covers the VMware requirements that are purchased by contractors required for performance under an Army contract to fulfill Army missions.

The Independent Government Estimate (IGE) was developed by HQDA OCIO. The licenses will be available through the Product Lead CHESS License Tracking System.

Only ACC-RI will have ordering authority.

The IGE below details the estimated quantities for the base ordering period and each subsequent ordering period. The guaranteed minimum quantity of licenses, with a value of , will be satisfied in the with the initial order.

The maximum contract value is based on the IGE developed by HQDA OCIO with all ordering periods, estimated quantities, Navy’s recent pricing, and presumed discount based on volume.

The IGE amounts per year are listed below. It is anticipated outyear requirements will be reduced as Commands move to Cloud oriented solutions and upgrade on premise servers allowing for other non-VMware solutions; however, the timing and amount of decrease is unknown.

4. Authority Cited: 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. As described at FAR 6.302 1(a)(2)(ii)(B), supplies may be deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of a follow-on contract for the continued development or production of a major system or highly specialized equipment, including major components thereof, when it is likely that award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirement.

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

Over the last , the Army has utilized VMware software to fulfill its virtualization requirements. For over the last , call/delivery orders have been placed against a General Services Administration (GSA) Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) to fulfill Army requirements. Under the authority of a brand name justification, GSA competed the VMware requirements among GSA authorized resellers of VMware. Prior to

, there were multiple VMware resellers authorized and available to support these requirements. Through survey responses across Army Commands, it is estimated that more than of the Army’s users utilize VMware’s virtualization software and is thus, the de facto standard within the Enterprise. VMware virtualization software, when installed on a physical server, simulates the functionality of a physical machine, allowing multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical server. VMware virtualization software also allows the IT environment to automatically adjust processing capability on an as-needed basis, to dramatically improve speed and performance without the additional costs of physical hardware.

VMware software is integrated into the systems used across the Army and is also integrated onto the physical servers or other hardware to provide the virtualization. There is no other vendor or single software solution that completely meets the Army’s virtualization requirements. The Army is actively seeking alternative solutions to VMware that will allow for future competition.

Specifically, the Army is pursuing a pending pilot with and an active pilot with to provide a single virtualization software solution. Even if these initial pilots prove favorable to meet the Army’s requirements, realistically it would take a minimum of to start to transition portions of the Army requirements. Subsequent to a successful pilot, the biggest obstacle facing the Army to transition to another virtualization software solution is the physical hardware, specifically servers. Many of the Army’s servers supported by VMware software are past their end of life. These servers will not support potential solutions from , or other vendors.

To move to another solution, individual Commands would need to purchase new servers. For all servers, a move to another solution would require manual conversion; a process that is uncertain as the manual conversion steps have not yet been defined.

Until the manual conversion processes are clearly defined through successful pilots, Migration from one software solution to another includes, but is not limited to, rearchitecting the data centers, networks, and programs; retraining the workforce and/or possibly hiring new team members; phasing out old software and phasing in new;

possibly purchasing new hardware buys to run the new software; training end-users;

and revising spend plans and spend over the Future Years Defense Program. Migrating to an alternative will require multiple technologies and approaches. In

OCIO performed research within consulting firm Gartner Inc’s website, a leading source of trusted information technology research for the Government and industry (www.gartner.com), to determine how long a migration of this scale would take. Gartner estimates it would take for a large-scale migration. Gartner’s definition of a large-scale migration encompasses virtual machines and/or hosts.

Army significantly exceeds these quantities with over hosts.

Given the widespread use of VMware across the Army (over Commands, including the global network) and complexity of missions (including tactical and intel), OCIO estimates that is the minimum time required for migration to another software solution. The entire Army enterprise will face the same transition challenges listed above. In addition, according to technical experts, both virtualization software would need to run concurrently as a fail-safe until migration was complete. Depending on the size and geographic footprint of the individual organizations, this could take

VMware was acquired by

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: ACC-RI shall publish the notices required by FAR 5.201, Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions. As this is a sole source action, effective competition is not applicable. There are no subcontracting opportunities available for this procurement.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: As the Army continues migration of its workloads and applications to the commercial cloud, or secure cloud services as facilitated by Army approved sources (like Enterprise Cloud Management Agency), requirements for physical server virtualization software are expected to be reduced over time.

Multiple Army Commands have confirmed interest and intent in migrating from their current VMware virtualization solution to other COTS virtualization solutions.

Commands, such as are currently conducting pilots to determine alternate viable VMware replacement solutions. As VMware replacement solutions become available, the Government will have the ability to increase competition. HQDA OCIO will continue to research and work with commands to determine if competition and migration to an alternate vendor prior to the end of the current period of performance is feasible.

The Government anticipates future competition among multiple virtualization providers that are proven to meet the Government’s requirements through ongoing pilot projects, if successful. Competition for Command activities would be contingent on hardware capabilities that can support multiple types of virtualization software versus, as in many cases, servers that can only support VMware. For example, Commands with centers could have one virtualization provider supporting the main data center and supporting the Continuity of Operations (COOP) data center to add redundancies in case one is compromised. Hardware dependent, both primary and COOP data centers can be competed.

Market research will be ongoing throughout the pilot projects. These pilot projects will prove out Industry Partners’ capabilities and processes required to successfully transition to new virtualization providers. The Army will also continue to host meetings with interested vendors. Additionally, the Army will post current and emerging virtualization requirements to the Government Point of Entry (e.g., SAM.gov) seeking capability statements.

Ultimately, the ability for the Army to compete future virtualization requirements is contingent on successful pilot projects and the availability of hardware capable of supporting other software solutions.

8. Market Research: To fulfill Army requirements, the Army OCIO conducted market research from to identify authorized distributors and federal contract vehicles that could potentially meet the Army’s requirements utilizing other than VMware virtualization subscription licenses and software support. OCIO researched the commercial market/internet, reviewed catalogs, contractor literature, and reviewed publications from Gartner Research and International Data Corporation, both external information technology research firms, to identify companies other than Broadcom that are capable of providing virtualization software and support.

A Request for Information (RFI) was published on via SAM.gov with a suspense of business days to gather information on virtualization solutions, not limited to authorized distributors of VMware software. The RFI sought corporate expertise and qualifications with providing commercially available virtualization software solutions. companies responded to the RFI (Table 1). A recap of the top

Additionally, in accordance with Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 205.205-71, Only one responsible source, DFARS 206.302-1(d) Only responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, and DFARS Procedures, Guidance and Information 206.302-1(d), ACC-RI posted a sources sought notice to SAM.gov on 10 July 2024 for to seek potential additional sources capable of providing VMware. The results of the posting were as follows.

All companies provided a capability statement except ; however, none met the Army’s requirement.

The market research supports that there are other commercial solutions for Operating System-based virtualization, Hardware-assist for virtualized workloads and Open-source virtualization projects. However, none of these solutions are “turnkey” options to replace the use of VMware. The other commercial solutions are routinely used by large enterprises alongside VMware to augment capabilities in both their physical data centers and for their workloads in the commercial cloud. Additionally, the other commercial solutions will require significant resources and time to migrate and do not offer superior technical capabilities.

The GSA no longer has an active BPA for the Army to award a call order for VMware since the prior GSA contract holders are no longer authorized distributors. Thus, the Army has determined it would not be in its best interest to pursue this requirement through GSA since it would require the same acquisition lead time to establish a new sole source BPA, plus additional lead-time to place an order.

9. Interested Sources: To date, no other sources have expressed a written interest in this requirement.

10. Other Facts:

Procurement History:

Contract Vehicle/ Contract Type

Contract Number/ Order Number

Award Date Competitively Awarded (Y/N), Authority if restricted/ J&A Control No.

Awardee/C ontractor

Expires Dollar Value TDP (Y/ N)

GSA

Delivery order / Brand Name

47QTCA24A0

001 /

W519TC-24-

F-0075

19 January

Yes, through

GSA

Dell Federal Inc

22 January

$92,761,163.65 N

GSA

Delivery order / Brand Name

47QTCA22A0

003 / W52P1J-22- F-0096

28 January

Yes, through

GSA

Dell Federal Inc

19 January

$183,218,775.96 N

GSA

Delivery order / Brand Name

47QTCA19A0

001 / W52P1J-19- F-0199

30 January

Yes, through

GSA

Dell Marketing L.P.

27 January

$263,399,878.75 N

CHESS

DoD Enterprise Software Initiative

(ESI)

Delivery order through

GSA /

Brand name

W91QUZ-09-

A-0003 /

BA06

10 July 2015 Yes, through

GSA

Carahsoft Technology Corp.

December

$185,231,713.82 N

CHESS

DoD ESI Delivery order through

GSA /

Brand name

W91QUZ-09-

A-0003 /

KH45

September

Yes, through

GSA

Carahsoft Technology Corp.

29 March

$78,149,726.74 N