C01 HPE JA_Redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-22-00070957

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: This proposed action is for award of a firm-fixed-price delivery order to be issued under a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for a brand name Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) server with associated firmware, cables, installation, and warranty support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office (EHRM IO), has a requirement for one brand name Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) ProLiant DL580 Gen10 data analysis server with four terabytes (TB) of random-access memory, four 48GB peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) graphics accelerators, and associated firmware, cables, installation, and five-year warranty maintenance service for this unit. This effort shall support the Data Migration and Syndication infrastructure at the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) to support ongoing migration of large volumes of patient data from VA to Cerner electronic health record (EHR) and syndication of patient data back to VA from Cerner EHR and other external partners. In addition, this server will support migration activities such as prepopulating patient data for select domains and transforming data from legacy external systems such as blood bank and dental prior to deployment of the Cerner EHR.

The delivery of hardware shall be within 60 days after receipt and processing of the delivery order. Installation shall be completed within 60 days after acceptance of the hardware. The HPE ProLiant DL580 Gen10 server and associated software and components shall also include a five-year HPE Proactive Care Service (warranty support coverage) to include 24 hours a day,7 days a week (24X7) technical support and 24X7 Software Service with defective media retention (DMR).

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(a)(4), the following brand name requirement is being justified and approved as an exception to fair opportunity under the statutory authority of Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in section eight of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for the required hardware and ancillary support

HPE Data Analysis Server Control Number VA-22-00070957 services inclusive of warranty support. The Government requires this equipment to augment and strengthen performance and computing power in the pre-existing VistA eXtract of 130 VA Medical Centers (VX130) environment that supports EHRM IO Data Migration and Data Syndication activities. This augmentation is necessary to support the ever-increasing number of cutover migration activities required to prepopulate patient data for domains such as active medications, future appointments, health insurance, and orders (consults, radiology, and labs) at each site that is migrated to the Cerner EHR.

The existing VX130 environment exclusively consists of HPE servers which has been configured and managed to run on these specifications and connect to each other and are managed through code proprietary to HPE. Due to this proprietary HPE code, no other brand of server is compatible and interoperable with the current server infrastructure. Specifically, no other brand name servers will communicate and function within the current infrastructure due to technical compatibility requirements. Additionally, -based, and as such, only HPE servers integrate seamlessly with the Mellanox network card deployed in the existing environment.

Furthermore, the server will be deployed within an existing server environment that is comprised of only HPE hardware and software that is monitored by AITC System Administrators (SAs) through a lower-level software. This software functions at the firmware level in order to detect temperature changes, disk overheating, and fan speed problems and services surveillance software for the HPE servers. Introduction of a non-HPE server creates risk to the entire environment as it would not be included as a part of the centralized fault management view which is a critical requirement to ensure the operational status of the system. For instance, if the fan slowed or the unit overheated, this would not be reported on the centralized management portal and could therefore go undetected and causing serious network issues. Furthermore, since current server infrastructure consists solely of HPE servers, if a failure occurs SAs can easily swap out hardware between systems to speed recovery time in this mission critical environment. Procuring an HPE server allows the SAs to maintain the same consistent firmware on all systems.

Furthermore, use of any other brand name server would require VA to replace the existing HPE server environment, causing extensive delivery delays that would not be recovered through competition. Since the current HPE infrastructure consists of dozens of existing servers and storage devices, the replacement cost would be approximately $1.8 million dollars, and the time required to procure these replacements would result in several months of downtime for the environment. Additionally, since a stable, running environment is critical to sustain EHRM IO cutover migration efforts, additional duplicative costs would be encountered to run the environment until establishment and cutover to an alternative environment completed, creating additional and unnecessary cost and schedule delays.

Finally, only HPE or its authorized resellers have the access to the proprietary data and source code necessary to provide warranty support, inclusive of service/installation, for the hardware and software within the servers. Access to the proprietary code is required to ensure the server is properly operational and defects properly resolved. Further, access to HPE proprietary data and source code is also required to provide the required warranty installation/services on the server and ensure all the services or warranty activities are done so to ensure proper configuration.

Failure to procure the hardware and support services as described herein would hinder and augment the operational status of the VX130 environment thereby greatly disrupting the quality of providers, and ultimately mission.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section eight of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that

However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for these brand name HPE products. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301, 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contract Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed. Specifically, the Government will continue to research whether non-HPE parts can interoperate with the current environment without performance degradation or violating warranties of other HPE equipment that is currently in use in the Data Syndication and Data Migration server and storage environments, which must interoperate with the HPE equipment for which maintenance coverage is being procured under this action.

8. Market Research: initially conducted market research in February 2022 by researching internet sites for alternative server solutions.

Specifically, these experts reviewed Dell, Acer, Inc., and International Business Machines Corporation as potential requirements. However, based on this review, it was determined that these products did not meet the requirement to integrate seamlessly with environment and provide the required support services as described in Section 5 of this Justification. As such, VA determined that only brand name HPE would meet its requirement.

Additional Market Research was conducted via release of two concurrent Requests for Information (RFI). Sources Sought Notice ID 36C10B22Q0418_1, was posted to the Contracting Opportunities page under Sam.gov and NASA SEWP V GWAC, SEWP V Request ID Number 238360, on July 1, 2022. The RFIs included a draft Product Description (PD) with description of the requirement seeking reseller information. On July 7, 2022, both RFI closed and six responses were received in total. Three responses were received from the open market RFI, specifically from: AITA Technologies (AITA), a Small Business, Questivity, Inc. (Questivity), a Small Business, and TUWYN LLC (TUWYN), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), registered in Vendor Information Pages (VIP). Only one respondent, Questivity, was found to be responsive. AITA and TUYWN were found to be non-responsive. Specifically, AITA Storage Area Network (SAN) array and not a server. TUWYN specific technical response to the RFI.

Three responses were received from NASA SEWP V RFI from the following contract holders: two Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs), specifically KPaul Properties LLC (KPaul), and Minburn Technology Group, LLC (Minburn), and one response from New Tech Solutions, Inc. (New Tech Solutions), a Small Business. All three respondents were found to be responsive. As such, coupled with the Market Research detailed above, it was determined that there was an expectation of limited competition under NASA SEWP V GWAC, and the Government would pursue the brand name requirement as a SDVOSB set-aside.

In July 2022, a follow-up response was provided to all respondents to RFI 36C10B22Q0418_1 on Contracting Opportunities and via email to notify the respondents of the Governments proposed acquisition strategy. None of the vendors provided a response to the Governm

9. Other Facts: None.

10. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. Contracts awarded on NASA SEWP V GWAC have already been determined to be fair and reasonable. As there are multiple resellers on the NASA SEWP V GWAC capable of providing the HPE server and associated software and warranty support, price competition is anticipated. Additionally, price analysis shall be conducted by comparing the successful quote to the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.