DISCOVER II - Request for Information.pdf

Request for Information (RFI)

70T03024RFI7672001

Dynamic Integrated Secure Connectivity for Operational Value and End-Point Resiliency II (DISCOVER II)

Objective:

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Contracting and Procurement (C&P) office is seeking interested contractors and industry partners capable of supporting the TSA Acquisition

Program Management’s (APM) requirements for Dynamic Integrated Secure Connectivity for Operational Value and End-Point Resiliency II (DISCOVER II) services in support of the Security Technology Integrated Program (STIP) applications and clients.

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only and is solely for the purpose of obtaining information and understanding industry’s technical capabilities available in the marketplace. This does not constitute a request for proposal or an intent by TSA to contract for these services. Any information provided or obtained by this RFI will not be evaluated nor considered as an offer.

Respondents are further advised that TSA will not pay nor reimburse any administrative or proposal costs. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future solicitation. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Government, and will not be returned.

Based in part on the feedback received in response to this RFI, TSA may issue a solicitation.

Contractors responding to this RFI should submit the minimum information necessary for the Government to make a determination that the Government’s objectives are feasible and realistic given current industry capabilities.

Background:

STIP maintains about 15,000 Transportation Security Equipment (TSE) across 450 federalized airports. TSE includes machines such as the Bottle Liquid Scanner (BLS), Credentialing Authentication Technology (CAT), Enhanced Metal Detectors (EMD), Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT), Automated Technology (AT), Explosive Trace Detectors (ETD), Computed

Tomography (CT), Automated Screening Lanes (ASL), Checkpoint Property Screening System (CPSS), and Explosive Detection System (EDS). Currently, there are over eleven (11) different types and forty-nine (49) models of TSE running on multiple Operating Systems (OS) and firmware permutations with different access levels, locations, connectivity, and interfaces. This equipment supports the physical process of screening passengers and accessible property and is considered Operational Technology (OT). The STIP platform is one of TSA’s mission critical systems.

The mission of STIP is to provide a high quality, secure, and efficient connectivity platform that enables the TSA to protect the traveling public. The STIP platform consists of a central set of applications located in one datacenter. The platform provides reporting, user management, property management, and connectivity to TSA’s federalized airports. The connected devices send near real-time data to the centralized servers.

Connectivity – The STIP platform currently connects over 2,000 TSE; the goal is to connect 14,000. Future plans are to reduce the time to enable connectivity to the STIP platform by using Object Management Group (OMG) publish-subscribe (pub-sub) architecture. The existing process to connect legacy equipment to the network takes approximately (12) months.

Property Management – The STIP platform will maintain and track the location of all 14,000 TSE across the federalized airports and 3 TSA warehouses.

User Management – The STIP platform maintains and tracks user IDs and passwords of over 15,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSO).

Reporting – The STIP platform provides over 180 reports across the federalized airports.

The platform also uploads data manually and automated. The uploads result in a database growth of over 1 terabyte (TB) of data every 3 months; the existing database is over 10 terabytes in size. The existing database contains online data back to 2005.

Operations and Maintenance (O&M) – The STIP platform currently uses the waterfall method for releases. The current release cycle is 1 release per month. The STIP Program

Management Office (PMO) would like to move to an Agile method of software development and delivery. The platform is responsible for patch management of the over 2,000 connected devices.

STIP Challenges:

TSA as an agency is currently using the waterfall methodology which has many steps and various approvals at the end of each phase. Within the next few years, TSA will be transitioning to the Agile methodology which will require changes to current process and procedures.

The STIP Program has the following future initiatives:

1. The creation of a development environment within the new datacenter.

2. The implementation of a set of functionalities that separate vetting data from the rest of the STIP platform.

3. The implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the platform.

4. The migration of the STIP platform from on-premise to a cloud implementation.

5. The migration of the STIP platform to a datacenter in San Jose.

6. The continued support for connectivity.

Scope:

The Contractor may be responsible for providing corrective maintenance support / Tier III, modernization and development, modernization and enhancement, and O&M for the STIP applications and clients. The scope may also include the availability, latency, performance, efficiency, change management, monitoring, emergency response and capacity planning/demand forecasting of the STIP platform, its existing and future applications, services, and clients.

Requested Information

Corporate Information:

Company Information to include Name, Phone Number, UEI, Cage Code, POC, and website.

Federal Contracts to include Federal Supply Schedule(s), GWAC(s), DHS contracts, etc.

Identify available North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) codes or Special

Item Number (SIN).

Small Business Size Status to include socio-economic status and any SBA-certified status.

Technical Capabilities:

Describe your company’s experience in the following areas.

1. Migrating applications to AWS, Azure, Google (or equivalent).

2. Managing large (multi-Terabyte databases) to include O&M and archival strategy in regards to FOIA request responses.

3. Developing pub-sub tiered architecture applications using Object Management Group

(OMG) Data Distribution Services (DDS) for a federal agency.

4. Ramp-up/ramp-down O&M support including unscheduled releases.

5. Providing dashboards that contain near real-time data including creation, distribution, and maintenance.

6. Handling Change Management and the release process within a government agency.

7. Developing fully automated DevSecOps pipelines, automated testing, and Zero Trust implementations.

8. Addressing supply chain risk issues.

9. Artificial intelligence in a government setting.

Contract Evaluation and Administration:

The Government is seeking industry input in the following areas regarding potential solicitation requirements, evaluation methodologies, and contract administration.

1. What is the industry standard for these types of services?

2. What is the preferred contract type(s); Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) or Labor Hour (LH), or combination?

3. What labor categories are closely associated with these services?

4. What are two evaluation factors that would be most appropriate to determine best value?

5. What evaluation techniques would industry like to see be used (oral presentations, advisory down-select, confidence ratings, comparative evaluations, other)?

6. The Government anticipates a multi-phase advisory down-select. What factors / evaluation techniques does industry feel are best suited in Phase 1 and Phase 2?

7. How long does industry anticipate a transition-in phase would be needed?

8. What are some suggested Key Personnel categories?

Submission Requirements:

All responses should be submitted via e-mail to thomas.zamfino1@tsa.dhs.gov no later than

10:00 AM (ET) on June 17, 2024. Only attach MS Word/Excel compatible files or Adobe Acrobat PDF files in electronic correspondence. There is no specific format for the paper responses but they shall be limited to no greater than 10 pages in total to highlight and address the questions and capabilities above.

/ s / Tommy Zamfino

Contracting Officer Transportation Security Administration mailto:thomas.zamfino1@tsa.dhs.gov