Brand Name Justification _FINAL_Redacted.pdf

Version 2.0

BRAND-NAME JUSTIFICATION USING

SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES (SAP)

FOR AN ACTION NOT EXCEEDING THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

(AUTHORITY: FAR 13.106-1(b)(1))

1. Agency and contracting activity. Department of Commerce, NOAA Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), Satellite and Information Acquisition Division (SIAD) and National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)/Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO).

2. Description of supplies or services required to meet agency needs (including the estimated value).

OSPO is responsible for the management and operations of the Satellite Operation Control Center (SOCC) and the Environmental Satellite Product Center (ESPC). ESPC manages and directs the operation of the central ground facilities which ingest, process, and distribute environmental satellite data and derived products to domestic and foreign users.

ESPC supports multiple Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) and Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) production systems via virtualization. The SOCC manages and directs the operation of NOAA's satellites and the acquisition of remotely sensed data. The Office has operational responsibility for the SOCC located in Suitland, MD and Command and Data Acquisition (CDA) facilities located in Wallops, VA and Fairbanks, AK to command and control the satellites, to track the satellites, and to acquire their data.

MATLAB is a high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation, visualization, and programming used to analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications. Statistics Toolbox provides algorithms and tools for organizing, analyzing, and modeling data, used for predictive modeling, generate random numbers for Monte Carlo simulations, statistical plots for exploratory data analysis, and perform hypothesis tests. Neural Network Toolbox provides functions and apps for modeling complex nonlinear systems. MATLAB Compiler shares the MATLAB application as an executable or a shared library. Optimization Toolbox provides widely used algorithms for standard and large-scale optimization. Signal Processing Toolbox provides industry-standard algorithms and apps for analog and digital signal processing used to visualize signals in time and frequency domains, compute Fast Fourier Transform Algorithms for spectral analysis, design Finite Impulse Response or Infinite Impulse Response filters, and implement convolution, modulation, resampling, and other signal processing techniques.

This requirement is a brand name requirement for software maintenance of existing MATLAB software licenses already in use by the Government. MATLAB Software shall be provided for OSPO and other National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) offices, as needed. The planned contract type is a multiple-award blanket purchase agreement to up to three vendors from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2027. Estimated value is .

3. Identification of the brand name to be solicited.

The MathWorks, Inc. (MathWorks) 3 Apple Hill Drive Natick, MA 01760 Paul Nihill, pnihill@mathworks.com

508-647-2725

4. Supporting rationale. Only one brand name is reasonably available as detailed below:

Brand Name – This particular brand name is essential to the requirement and market research indicates similar products do not meet or cannot be modified to meet agency needs. This requirement is a brand name requirement for software maintenance of previously acquired MATLAB software. A “brand name or equal” description cannot be used and other companies or their similar products cannot be used as neither can provide the necessary software maintenance required in the form of technical support, security patches, and upgraded versions of the already acquired software. It is the Government’s understanding that MathWorks is the sole manufacturer of MATLAB software and its maintenance and other companies are not authorized to develop security patches or upgrades and distribute those security patches or upgrades. If the Government does not obtain the maintenance from the brand name provider or its authorized resellers,