B01- RFI RSN equipment.pdf

Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought (SS) Notice

Title: Research Science Network (RSN) Equipment

Notice Type: Request for Information (RFI)

Response Date: 1 May 2026, 11:00 AM Eastern Time

Requiring Activity Name: The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases

(USAMRIID)

Subject: This is a non-personal service(s) contract for the procurement of Cisco Brand Name networking hardware.

In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.101 -- Exchange with industry before receipt of proposals, this Sources Sought is for information and planning purposes only and at this time shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation or commitment on the part of the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. No evaluation letters and/or results will be issued to the respondents.

This Sources Sought Notice is a Market Research tool used to determine the availability and adequacy of potential sources, prior to determining the method of acquisition and issuance of a solicitation.

The NAICS code for this requirement is 334111 – Electronic Computer Manufacturing

DISCLAIMER: This Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought (SS) Notice is NOT a Request for Proposals (RFP) or a Request for Quotations (RFQ). This RFI is issued solely for market research information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation.

Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Neither unsolicited proposals nor any other kind of offers will be considered in response to this RFI. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. No contract will be awarded from this announcement. No reimbursement will be made of any costs to provide information in response to this announcement or any follow-up information requests;

responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI.

Availability of any formal solicitation will be announced under a separate announcement.

All information received in response to this RFI will be treated as confidential business information. Submitters should properly mark their responses if the information is confidential.

All information received in response to this RFI that is marked Proprietary, will be handled accordingly.

At this time, questions concerning the composition and requirements for future solicitation will not be entertained.

Background: USAMRIID works closely with other Defense Health Agency Research and Development (DHA R&D) organizations, DoD, the Interagency (including Interagency Laboratories), and private companies to accomplish its mission of protecting the Warfighter from biological threats and being prepared to investigate disease outbreaks or threats to public health.

USAMRIID needs to procure an enterprise-grade switching platform, including Cisco Catalyst C9500X-60L4D and Cisco Catalyst C9300X series, to provide high-performance Layer-3 core switching, advanced security enforcement capabilities, and improved network resiliency across operational environments. Operating on obsolete equipment introduces significant cybersecurity and operational risks, as End of Life/ End of Support (EoL/EoS) systems can no longer receive vulnerability patches, manufacturer technical support, or firmware updates, increasing exposure to security exploits and hardware reliability failures. The new infrastructure will deliver enhanced throughput capacity, improved network segmentation, and long-term lifecycle sustainability to support secure and uninterrupted mission operations.

Instructions to Responders: Responses from capable and qualified Small Business sources are encouraged to respond to this request.

Review the Minimum Essential Characteristics (MECs) listed below. Respondents should address how they best can fulfil the requirements set forth in the MECs in their capabilities statement. Capability Statements or any other proprietary information related to this RFI should adhere to the following formatting and outline instructions:

1. All submissions shall be made electronically and be in one of the following formats:

Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF and shall not exceed 10 pages (Cover page excluded from page count).

2. Cover Page

• Title

• Organization

• Responders technical and administrative points of contact (names, addresses, phone, fax number and email addresses)

• Topic area(s) addressed

• Respondents shall be registered in www.sam.gov under the NAICS code of 334111

• List all ordering vehicles held by respondents and associated contracting numbers (e.g.

OMNIBUS IV, CHESS, GSA, etc.)

3. Response shall address whether the respondent is offering similar or like supplies/services in the commercial market to the general public.

http://www.sam.gov/

4. Please note that the response shall provide sufficient technical data to determine how you fully meet the requirements as specified in MECs.

The requested information shall be submitted by the date and time specified above, via email, to Kirstin Quinn, Contract Specialist, at Kirstin.L.Quinn.civ@health.mil and Emily O’Hara, Contracting Officer, at Emily.K.Ohara.civ@health.mil . Only electronic responses will be accepted. No evaluation letters and/or results will be issued to the respondents. Currently no solicitation exists; therefore, please do not request a copy of the solicitation. NO PHONE

CALLS PLEASE.

Minimum Essential Characteristics (MECs)

The Contractor shall provide Cisco Network Equipment (switches) and supporting equipment including:

• 2x Cisco C9500X-60L4D Switches with Advantage Licenses (C9500X-60L4D-1A) o 2x Cisco Catalyst 9500 DNA Essentials 1 Year License Service (C9500X-DNA-A-

1Y) o 2x Cisco Catalyst 9500X 1500W AC Power Supply (C9K-PWR-1500WAC/3)

• 1x C9300X-24Y Switch with Essential License (C9300X-24Y-1E)

• 1x C9300X-12Y Switch with Essential License (C9300X-12Y-1E) o 2x Cisco Catalyst C9300X 715W AC 80+ platinum Config 1 Secondary Power Supply (PWR-C1-715WAC-P/3) o 2x Cisco Catalyst 9300X 8 x 10G/25G Network Module SFP+/SFP28 (C9300X-

NM-8Y)

o 2x Cisco Catalyst 9300 DNA Essentials 1 Year License Service (C9300-DNA-L- E-1Y) o 1x Cisco Catalyst C9300X 50CM Type 1 Stacking Cable (STACK-T1-50CM) o 1x Cisco Catalyst C9300X Stack Power Cable 150 CM - Upgrade (CAB-SPWR-

150CM)

o

1. Each switch shall be rack-mountable in a standard 19-inch equipment rack and shall include all required rack-mount hardware, power cords, and any manufacturer-required accessories for installation and operation.

2. The switches shall support enterprise Layer 2 and Layer 3 functionality, including but not limited to VLANs, trunking, link aggregation, spanning-tree protections, static routing, and dynamic routing suitable for enterprise environments.

3. The switches shall support IPv4 and IPv6 dual-stack operation and shall support route and neighbor table scale appropriate for enterprise deployment at the campus core/aggregation and high-speed access/distribution layers.

mailto:Kirstin.L.Quinn.civ@health.mil mailto:Emily.K.Ohara.civ@health.mil

4. Each switch shall support secure administrative access via SSH and shall support encrypted management and control-plane protection features consistent with enterprise security practices.

5. Each switch shall support AAA integration using TACACS+ and/or RADIUS and shall support role-based access control to enforce least-privilege administration.

6. Each switch shall support redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and field-replaceable fan assemblies and shall continue operating upon the failure of a single power supply when a redundant power supply is installed.

7. The network operating system shall support secure boot, image integrity validation, and cryptographic signing of software images or equivalent measures to prevent execution of unauthorized firmware.

8. The switches shall support standards-based management and telemetry, including SNMPv3, Syslog export, NTP time synchronization, and streaming or model-driven telemetry via NETCONF/RESTCONF or equivalent API-based methods.

9. The switches shall provide user authentication and session control features including password complexity requirements, automatic session timeout or logout, limited login attempts, and account lockout or inactivity controls as defined by agency policy.

10. The switches shall provide full traceability for operational and administrative events, including configuration changes, user identification, authentication activity, system alarms, hardware inventory events, and software upgrade actions, and shall support retention and export of logs to an external system.

12. The switches shall support high availability features appropriate to their roles, including nonstop forwarding and stateful switchover or equivalent capabilities that minimize traffic disruption during control-plane events.

13. Each switch shall permit export of configuration files, logs, and inventory data to a backup medium or remote repository to support continuity of operations and disaster recovery.

All software licensing, warranty, and services associated with the equipment shall be in accordance with Original Equipment Manufacturer terms and conditions.

Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought (SS) Notice