C55_MISC_-_Redacted_BNJ_1.pdf

United States Department of the Interior

INTERIOR BUSINESS CENTER

Washington, DC 20240

BRAND NAME JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

AUTHORITY: FAR 16.505(a)(4)(i)

PR/SOL/CONTRACT # 140D0425Q0047

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Brand Name Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity.”

This document is a Brand Name Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity for the Department of the Interior (DOI), Interior Business Center (IBC), Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

This is a Brand Name Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity in support of a follow-on requirement Resource Conservation Recovery Act Information System (RCRAInfo). This requirement will be solicited against the established Federal Cloud Hosting Services 2 (FCHS2) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), EPA has a requirement for a new application software, hardware and cloud platform that has to be customized to meet needs of the (RCRAInfo), including the e-Manifest system, as currently supported via the Amazon Web Service (AWS) suite of products and services.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

On October 5, 2012, President Obama signed into law the Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest Establishment Act (the Act), which amended the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) to direct the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator to establish an electronic hazardous waste manifest system. The Act states the Administrator shall establish an electronic manifest (e-Manifest) system to be used by any user, as defined in the Act and by EPA. An e-Manifest system will enable all stakeholders to take advantage of cost effective and more efficient processes, including but not limited to, drafting, developing, submitting, tracking, analyzing, and managing manifests for shipments of hazardous waste.

To efficiently implement electronic manifesting, EPA decided to implement the system as a new module within the existing RCRAInfo. Because of the size of e-Manifest in terms of number of transactions and data storage, the existing RCRAInfo system infrastructure required significant upgrades. Given this need, EPA selected a cloud hosting solution. For continued success of the RCRAInfo application and the entire RCRA program, it is imperative that it not delay the commercial transactions that it facilitates. Failure to meet these goals starting on day one will inhibit adoption and reduce the overall confidence of state and industrial partners in any future releases. As such, EPA must continue to offer the best and most efficient solution for hosting the expanded RCRAInfo system.

PR/SOL/CONTRACT #140D0425Q0047

The EPA is using an AWS U.S. East cloud-hosting vendor offering Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), full and complete console access for EPA and named developer staff, and a suite of cloud-computing services, supporting multiple technologies, tools, and frameworks including third-party software and systems. In addition, AWS provides support to ensure continued operation of the existing dedicated NetBond/Direct Connection for our Trusted Internet Connection (TIC).

Project Base Year

OY1

OY2

OY3

OY4

OY5

Totals

Labor $169,159.20 $175,925.57 $182,962.59 $190,281.09 $197,892.34 $205,808.03 $1,122,028.82

Cloud Hosting $800,000.00 $832,000.00 $865,280.00 $899,891.20 $935,886.85 $973,322.32

$5,306,380.37

Licenses $60,000.00 $62,400.00 $64,896.00 $67,491.84 $70,191.51 $72,999.17 $169,159.20

Total Cost $1,029,159.20 $1,070,325.57 $1,113,138.59 $1,157,664.13 $1,203,970.70 $1,252,129.53 $6,597,568.39

52.217-8 (6 Months Extension) $626,064.77 $7,223,633.16

*The AWS brand name portion of this requirement consist of the Cloud Hosting, to include a 12-month base period and (5) 12-month option periods*

4. Identification of the exception to fair opportunity (see 16.505(a)(4)(i)) and the supporting rationale, including a demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the exception cited. If the contracting officer uses the logical follow-on exception, the rationale shall describe why the relationship between the initial order and the follow-on is logical (e.g., in terms of scope, period of performance, or value).

FAR 16.505(a)(4)(i) – The contracting officer must justify restricting consideration to an item peculiar to one manufacturer (e.g., a particular brand-name, product, or a feature of a product that is peculiar to one manufacturer).

The Brand Name Justification for acquiring Amazon Web Services is based on market research which indicates that comparable cloud hosting solutions do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet, the agency’s needs, specifically:

• AWS meets the Government’s need for a scalable cloud-hosting solution that provides full and complete console access for EPA staff

• AWS provides access to a suite of cloud-computing services, multiple technologies, tools, and frameworks which allow for the EPA staff to optimize application performance and minimize costs

• AWS cloud-hosting provides the failover support to ensure national system remains operational to ensure users can access, enter and retrieve data 24/7.

Current hosting configuration on AWS has provided excellent value to the Government and user communities. Migrating to an alternative solution would introduce an unacceptable level of risk and expense which necessitates remaining with current brand-name.

PR/SOL/CONTRACT #140D0425Q0047

5. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The contracting officer has determined that the anticipated price(s) will be fair and reasonable on the basis the base rates received in a competitive environment of the seven vendors under FCHS2 multiple award IDIQ contracts were considered fair and reasonable in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(b)(2)(i), comparison of proposed prices in response to the solicitation. The Government anticipates competition from multiple vendors for this follow-on task order and will be considered fair and reasonable based on competition.

The following seven vendors are proven providers of the AWS Hosting Services:

1. Accenture - #140D0424D0085 (Other than Small)

2. CGI Federal- #140D0424D0087 (Other than Small)

3. Cognosante - #140D0424D0088 (Other than Small)

4. IBM Corporation - #140D0424D0089 (Other than Small)

5. Zivaro - #140D0424D0092 (Other than Small)

6. Smartronix - #140D04240091 (Other than Small)

7. SAIC - #140D0424Q0090 (Other than Small)

6. Any other facts supporting the justification.

None.

7. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

The Agency, overall, has several cloud acquisitions with multiple cloud service providers procured through Government-wide and Agency-specific contracts. All contract holders under FCHS2 can provide AWS hosting services mitigating the lack of fair opportunity. Taken as a whole, these acquisitions mitigate the name brand requirement for this acquisition. There are no approved budget funds currently available to accommodate migrating to another platform. In the event the customer’s financial resources change competition will be feasible and the Government will pursue it.