C01 Redacted JA for Synopsis.pdf

ESM NetApp Modernization Project CONTROL NUMBER VA-25-00071961

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, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price (FFP) Delivery Order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name NetApp, Inc (NetApp) hardware, ancillary supplies, software licenses, maintenance support and professional services for installation and configuration.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The VA, Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), Information Technology Operations and Services (ITOPS), Infrastructure Operations (IO), Storage Management Service Line (SMSL) has the requirement to upgrade in phases the existing 8+ year old 7.6TB Solid State Drives (SSD) in our current NetApp cluster to faster and denser 15.3TB Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVME) drives in support of SMSL multi-phase NetApp drive replacement modernization effort at the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) before the SSD drives reach end-of-life (EOL). SMSL requires (1) All Flash FAS (AFF) A1K High-Availability (HA) controllers’ pair and (72) NVME drive packs along with its associated ancillary components and software licenses, as well as maintenance and support and professional services for installation and configuration. This procurement will also help SMSL reduce its datacenter space and power and cooling demands in AITC by giving VA the additional resources that will allow VA to migrate data and relocate hardware in different racks where we are currently exceeding the now mandated 4KW power and cooling limitations set by the local datacenter facilities team. The Contractor shall be responsible for coordinating delivery of the requested NetApp hardware and ancillary supplies to AITC. All hardware and ancillary supplies shall be delivered to the requested site within 60 days from award. The Contractor shall demonstrate to the appropriate Government point of contacts (POCs) successful installation for Government acceptance. Installation and configuration shall be completed within 30 days after delivery. Software licenses to be delivered electronically within 30 days after delivery and installation of hardware. The associated maintenance support for the hardware shall be provided by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), NetApp and the Period of Performance shall be 12 months. The total estimated value of the proposed action is

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 implemented by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled “Only one awardee can provide 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: Brand name NetApp hardware, ancillary supplies, software licenses, maintenance support and professional services for installation and configuration are required to ensure that the existing NetApp based storage infrastructure in place at all the Information Technology Centers (ITC) including AITC, Philadelphia Information Technology Center (PITC), Hines Information Technology Center (HITC) and Capital Region Readiness Center (CRRC) locations remains interoperable and supported. VA requires sustainment of the existing NetApp AFF storage cluster disk capacity already in place through the procurement of 1 AFF A1K HA controllers’ pair and 72 NVME drive packs along with its associated hardware, ancillary supplies, licenses, maintenance support and professional services for installation and configuration. No other brand of hardware is compatible with the existing NetApp AFF storage controllers, drive packs, shelves and Input/Output (I/O) Modules currently in place at IO.

Use of another brand would necessitate a complete replacement of the existing NetApp storage infrastructure in place at all four datacenter locations. This replacement would require VA to not only purchase entirely new storage controllers and associated storage disk capacity for all four datacenters, it would also require staffing to run cables in preparation of the migration effort necessary to pivot to any alternative solution.

Additionally, VA staff would need vendor training on how to use an alternative solution.

To replace the current storage controllers it is estimated to take approximately 12 months and estimated to cost $30M for the hardware, software, and maintenance alone. These duplicative estimated costs, which are based on previous acquisition history and market research, would not be recovered through competition. No source, other than brand name NetApp, and their resellers, has access to the proprietary hardware that runs the current NetApp infrastructure in order to fully interoperate. Due to the high level of interdependency between devices and systems that comprise the IO storage solution, the Government requires a solution that will fully interoperate with the current brand name NetApp system. Any other brand name would not meet VA’s functional requirements.

Failure to procure the required brand name NetApp supported AFF A1K storage controllers, drive packs, shelves, I/O modules, ancillary supplies, software licenses, maintenance support and professional services for installation and configuration would produce disastrous effects on VA’s ability to support interconnectivity for all IO hosted systems and storage needs. This would negatively impact each of the over 200 Veteran facing applications that are supported from the AITC, PITC, HITC and CRRC locations and would compromise VA’s ability to provide care and support to its Veterans. These applications include mission-critical systems like the Insurance Payment System, Veterans Benefit Administration Corporate Databases, Financial Management Systems, Veterans Canteen Services Point of Sale System, and Veterans Criris Line.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in market research section of this document. This effort didn’t yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. It was determined however that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for the brand name NetApp hardware, ancillary supplies, licenses, maintenance support and professional services for installation and configuration. 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 Contracting 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 market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research between March 2025 – April 2025, through reviews of internet websites, vendor demonstrations and product line showcase, and trade publications to determine if another brand NVME drives would be compatible with VA’s existing environment.

Specifically, the technical experts reviewed similar offerings from Pure Storage, Dell EMC, and IBM. Although other brand name products can provide similar capabilities, no other product can meet VA’s requirements as outlined in section 5 of this justification, as they are not compatible and interoperable with the existing brand name NetApp infrastructure currently in place. Alternate brand name NVME drives do not have access to NetApp’s proprietary source code needed to seamlessly interoperate and communicate with the existing NetApp infrastructure. Therefore, at present there is no other brand available in the marketplace that can meet VA’s requirement. In addition, VA storage Subject Matter Experts regularly review industry trade publications and conduct internet research to ascertain if any other brand name hardware is available. Based on all these market research efforts, the Government’s technical experts have determined that only brand name NetApp NVME drives, storage controllers, ancillary supplies, software licenses, maintenance support, and professional services for installation and configuration can meet all VA’s needs.

9. Facts: None

10. Technical/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.

Date

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 based on the expectation of price competition in addition to the fact that prices on the NASA SEWP V GWAC have already been determined to be fair and reasonable. Additional price analysis will be performed by comparing the proposed prices to the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

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