CALL FOR SOLUTIONS (CFS)

Enterprise Virtualization Rapid Integration Solution (EVRIS)

Call Reference Number EVRIS-26-CFS-001 Army Open Solicitation (AOS) Number

W9128Z-25-S-A002

Call for Solution Title Enterprise Virtualization Rapid Integration Solution (EVRIS)

Issued By U.S. Army Contracting Command – Rock Island (ACC- RI) on behalf of Headquarters, Department of the Army, Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Submission Instructions To respond to this Call for Solution, please refer to Sections 6 of this Call for Solution

Solution Briefs Due Date/ Time (Suspense)

21 AUG 2026 / 12:00 PM EST

Any submissions received by the Contracting Officer/ after the suspense date/time listed above will be deemed late and not evaluated. It is the sole responsibility of the offeror to ensure that its submission is received in the inboxes listed below before the deadline specified.

Point of Contracts (POCs) for Solution Brief Submission

Leslie Dickson, Contracting Officer leslie.m.dickson2.civ@army.mil

Meghan Walsh, Contract Specialist Meghan.l.walsh.civ@army.mil

This is a competitive Commercial Solutions Opening issued as a Call for Solutions under the Army Open Solicitation. It is not a Request for Quotation and does not obligate the Government to award any agreement. The information contained in this Call for

Solutions (CFS) is provided for planning and informational purposes only. The requirements, objectives, schedules, and other information described herein are preliminary and subject to change at the Government’s sole discretion. Publication of this CFS does not constitute a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation, award a contract, or procure any products or services. Respondents should not rely on the information contained in this document as final, and should recognize that the

Government may revise, modify, or cancel any aspect of the anticipated requirement at any time.

This Call for Solution (CFS) may result in the Government awarding. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) contracts or non-FAR agreements In Accordance With (IAW) Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 212.70 – Defense Commercial Solutions Opening.

Other Transaction (OT) that may be awarded from this Call for Solution are not subject to the FAR or its supplements, as applicable. However, the Government intends to award multiple Enterprise Contracts open to all of the Army as a result of this CFS, to be scaled to all of the Department of War at a later date. The Government reserves the right to re-open this CFS and leave open on an on-going basis for on-ramping of additional offerors as desired.

mailto:leslie.m.dickson2.civ@army.mil mailto:Meghan.l.walsh.civ@army.mil

1.0 BACKGROUND

The Army operates multiple networks which include disconnected and connected domains and environments across several security classifications. The “enterprise” is a massive, globally distributed network spanning more than 750,000 endpoints across enterprise, regional, edge, and tactical environments. The security posture involves numerous logically and physically separated security domains, including air-gapped and cross-domain boundaries.

2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The Army requires innovative commercial virtualization software solutions and associated services to diversify the enterprise virtualization portfolio, increase competition, and reduce total cost of ownership across its unique global computing estate. A new, multi-vendor approach is required to break the vendor lock-in, enable modular consumption-based scaling, and seamlessly migrate existing workloads without operational disruption.

3.0 REQUIRED AND DESIRED SOLUTION ATTRIBUTES

The EVRIS requirement is organized across four distinct tiers of scale and operational complexity. Proposed solutions must treat these Tiers as individual Areas of Interest (AOIs).

Offerors must explicitly identify which Tier(s)/AOI(s) their proposed commercial solution(s) address and describe how a unified management and licensing model spans the offered tiers.

3.1 Four Tiers of Complexity (Areas of Interest)

Tier / AOI Environment Representative Scale Objective Statement (Area of Interest Details)

Tier 1 Client / Endpoint

Laptop class & below Seeking a lightweight client-side virtualization solution in support of connected and disconnected environments.

Must support offline operations with encrypted background synchronization upon network reconnection.

Tier 2 Edge Compute

256 cores Modernized, low-overhead edge compute nodes are required to support tactical command-and control (C2) environments running over severely thinned, high-latency, or Disconnected, Intermittent, and Limited (DIL) networks. The solution must operate autonomously when isolated, support rapid deployment or teardown, and tolerate ruggedized, power-constrained hardware configurations.

Tier 3 Regional Regional Data Center High-availability, elastically scaling virtualization platforms are required to consolidate large server stacks and support heavy Core Count Per Socket (CCPS), monitoring, or analytical workloads at regional network hubs. The solution must deliver seamless live virtual machine (VM), and/or containerized workflow, and storage migrations, federated management, and automated failover capabilities.

Tier 4 Enterprise Global data centers A hyperscale virtualization control plane is required to manage mission-critical, always-on workloads across global Army data centers. The solution must provide multi-domain security administration, establish secure private-cloud and enterprise-wide VDI foundations, and enforce unified lifecycle and compliance policies across the global estate.

Tier 5 VDI Enterprise The Army requires secure virtual desktops to allow access to desktops and applications in connected and disconnected environments.

VDI allows for installation of applications to meet the requirements unique to the VDI environment.

Note: DIL = Disconnected, Intermittent, and Limited bandwidth. CCPS and C2 references are illustrative of representative workloads and are not exhaustive.

The above tiers align with existing deployment of virtual infrastructure, which meet specific mission sizing requirements. While the tiers are reflective of typical sizing, this is not intended to confine a vendor to a specific sizing matrix.

The Government seeks to:

1. Qualify multiple interoperable virtualization providers.

2. Obtain scaled, right-sized licensing that eliminates shelfware.

3. Ensure proper risk mitigation of migration from the current platform.

4. Build workforce proficiency through training and adoption support.

5. Award multiple decentralized Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts.

These awards may have the potential to become Enterprise Contracts in the future depending on the Government’s requirements.

3.2 Critical Auditability, Compliance, and Platform-Level Segregation of Duties

To enforce rigorous operational compliance, ensure programmatic transparency, and combat commercial shelfware, proposed virtualization and management software must satisfy strict structural auditability and control requirements:

• License Metering Auditability: The software must deliver built-in, system-generated audit logs and automated telemetry showing entitled capacity versus actual deployed capacity. These logs must be tamper-resistant, supporting independent verification of deployment metrics to prevent un-auditable billing discrepancies or punitive compliance true-ups.

• Platform-Level Segregation of Duties (SOD): The virtualization control plane must enforce administrative Segregation of Duties. This includes native role-based access controls (RBAC) that prevent a single administrator account from concurrently modifying system security policies, provisioning workloads, and manipulating audit logs.

• Transaction & Configuration Traceability: All configuration alterations, VM migrations, policy updates, and API-driven changes must be permanently recorded within secure, auditable logs containing precise timestamps, user identities, and detailed action profiles.

3.3 Required and Desired Attributes

Required Attributes for all Tiers

• DoD Security Compliance: Support Risk Management Framework (RMF) and Authorization to Operate (ATO) processes; provide DISA STIG-hardened configurations;

ensure suitability for DoD Cloud Computing SRG Impact Levels IL5 (CUI/NSS) and IL6 (SECRET); and maintain compatibility with accredited cross domain solutions

(CDS).

• Interoperability & Open APIs: Offer open APIs and direct integration with existing orchestration, backup, storage, identity (DoD PKI/CAC, ICAM), and SIEM/monitoring systems using standards-based VM formats.

• Supply Chain Security: Provide software provenance, Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) availability, and supply-chain risk management (SCRM) practices consistent with DoD and NIST SP 800-161 guidelines.

• License Portability: Licenses must be fully transferable across tiers (e.g., relocating digital workloads from a regional hub to the tactical edge) without financial penalty or repurchase.

• Certification Pathways: Formal, recognized certification pathways with objective assessments to measure and verify staff proficiency

Required and Desired Attributes Tiers 1-4:

• Virtualization Core: Support both full virtualization and paravirtualization to consolidate applications and support on-premises and cloud environments.

• Container Support (DESIRED): Provide support to provision, operate, secure, and maintain containerized workloads.

• Mobility: Enable live VM migration, storage migration, and seamless import/export managed from a unified administration plane with minimal or zero downtime.

• Unified Management Plane: Provide a single administration plane spanning all offered tiers with a centralized dashboard to discover, track, monitor, and manage physical and virtual assets.

• Multi-Domain Operation: Demonstrate the capability to operate across globally distributed and logically partitioned network boundaries, including isolated and cross domain security enclaves.

• Security Controls: Provide advanced threat detection, incident response, Secure Boot, shielded/hardened VMs, and native micro-segmentation for application-centric security policy enforcement.

• Resilience & Tactical Autonomy: Guarantee high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and DIL-tolerant autonomous operation at the tactical edge.

• Technical Scalability: Demonstrate proven performance scaling from laptop-class to regional hubs and global data centers without requiring architectural re-platforming.

• Modular / Unbundled Licensing (DESIRED): The core hypervisor and management tools must be licensable independently of premium add-on modules. Vendors must not require the purchase of unused modules.

• Anti-Shelfware Guarantee: Propose concrete commercial mechanisms (e.g., convertible credits, ramped schedules, or true-down rights) ensuring the Army does not pay for software entitlements that have not been deployed within a defined grace period.

• Phased Migration Methodology: Deliver a phased, risk-mitigated approach consisting of discovery, assessment, wave planning, piloting, and phased cutovers with documented rollback procedures.

• Automated Tooling: Provide software tools to automate workload conversion, VM format translation, and dependency mapping directly from the incumbent platform.

• Role-Based Curricula: Specialized training paths tailored for administrators, architects, security operators, and tactical/edge operators.

• Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) Integration: The ability to run VDI workloads on local, ruggedized tactical hardware (e.g., tactical server stacks) without relying on a persistent cloud connection.

• Connection Broker Resilience: The component that authenticates users and assigns desktops; it must operate independently at the tactical edge during backhaul network outages.

• Zero-Trust Network Access (ZTNA) / Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP): Ensuring that remote or on-post connections to virtual desktops enforce strict, continuous posture-checking and device verification before granting access.

• Multi-Session Host Density: The capacity to host multiple user sessions on a single virtual machine (like Windows Enterprise Multi-Session) to dramatically reduce physical hardware costs and server overhead in schoolhouses.

• Persistent vs. Non-Persistent Desktops: Requirement for non-persistent desktops wiped after logoff for schoolhouses and high-turnover training environments and persistent desktops which are customized environments for administrative staff.

• Coexistence Capability (DESIRED): Seamless interoperability with the incumbent platform during transition, allowing both virtualization environments to run concurrently within a single security enclave to reduce operational risk.

• Flexible Training Delivery Modes (DESIRED): Provide self-paced, virtual, and instructor-led training, including on-site delivery models suitable for restricted, air-gapped, or classified domains.

• Episodic / Shared License Usage: For Army’s purpose, means the command will have physical and financial responsibility of the license for an unspecified duration of time while capability is required. Upon completion of activity, the license will be returned to the overarching inventory in the Army’s software asset management tool where it may be reassigned and used by another command.

• Short-term evaluation license (DESIRED): The Army requires the ability to procure short-term evaluation licenses on a 30-120-day basis for use during pilots, training and other activities.

Required Attributes Tier 5:

• Dynamic Bandwidth Adaptation & Protocol Optimization: Protocols (e.g., Blast, PCoIP, or RDP alternatives) that can dynamically compress video, keyboard, and mouse inputs over high-latency, low-bandwidth, and Denied, Disrupted, Temporarily Disconnected, and Latent (D2L) tactical networks.

• Hardware Graphics Acceleration (vGPU Partitioning): Virtualization of physical graphics cards, critical for heavy CAD, geospatial mapping (GIS), or simulation software used in schoolhouses.

• Offline/Local Cache VDI: The capability to run a secure local container on a client laptop to sync back with the enterprise hub once a network connection is re-established.

• Universal Print and Peripheral Redirection: Crucial for remote/on-post environments where virtual desktops must map seamlessly to diverse, disparate physical hardware (CAC readers, legacy printers, local storage scanners).

• CMMC Level 2 or 3 Alignment / NIST SP 800-171 & 172 Compliance: Adhering to the specific security frameworks required for securing Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and IL6 and higher secret environments to prevent data spills to the local host.

• Keyboard, Video, and Mouse (KVM) Isolation / Out-of-Scope Endpoints: Zero actual data (such as CUI) rests or is processed or stored on the physical end-user device, rendering the local endpoint "out-of-scope" for strict cyber audits.

• Multi-Tenant Logical Separation: Crucial for hosting multiple classification levels on shared physical hardware infrastructure without risk of cross-domain data leakage.

• Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Integrations: The ability for Army security tools (like ACAS or HBSS) to automatically scan, patch, and monitor the virtual desktops just like physical endpoints.

Desired Attributes Tier 5:

• Coexistence Capability: Seamless interoperability with the incumbent platform during transition, allowing both virtualization environments to run concurrently within a single security enclave to reduce operational risk.

• Flexible Training Delivery Modes: Provide self-paced, virtual, and instructor-led training, including on-site delivery models suitable for restricted, air-gapped, or classified domains.

• Short-term evaluation license: The Army requires the ability to procure short-term evaluation licenses on a 30-120-day basis for use during pilots, training and other activities.

4.0 AWARDING INSTRUMENT

The Call will be awarded in accordance with the Army Open Solicitation procedures detailed within Solicitation W9128Z-25-S-A002, found on SAM.gov. The Government anticipates awarding a Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) FAR Part 12, Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) contract(s) Use of a CSO in accordance with DFARS subpart 212.70 is considered to be a competitive procedure for the purposes of 10 U.S.C. chapter 221 and FAR subpart 6.102.

4.1 Multiple-Award Decentralized IDIQ Contract Vendor Pool and On-Ramp/Off-Ramp Mechanics

To preserve continuous, disciplined competition, the Government intends to qualify multiple virtualization providers to establish a competitive vendor pool. This pool may remain open to new entrants for the life of the effort under the following guidelines:

• Continuous On-Ramp (Meet-or-Beat Gate): New vendors may apply to join the pool during defined intake windows. To gain admission, an applicant's proposed solution must "meet or beat" the prevailing pool benchmarks on two fronts:

o Price: Equal or lower evaluated unit pricing for comparable capabilities and tiers.

o KPI Commitments: Equal or better performance targets than the prevailing pool median, with no target falling below the minimum acceptable thresholds established in Section 7.3.

• Benchmark Transparency: The Government will maintain a current price-and-KPI benchmark derived from active pool scorecards against which all on-ramp candidates are evaluated.

• Continuous Competition: Pool members must defend their standing. Existing members may be re-benchmarked periodically and required to align with newly established best pricing/KPIs to retain eligibility for future competitive orders. The Government reserves the right to off-ramp vendors who do not meet or exceed benchmark.

• Off-Ramp: Vendors that fail to meet minimum KPI thresholds for two consecutive quarterly review periods may be suspended from competing for new orders or removed from the vendor pool entirely.

• The Government may elect to utilize incentivize methodologies that allow for a secure and speedy transition to capabilities within a selected platform. These incentives may be used at the individual order level at the Government discretion.

5.0 CALL INSTRUCTIONS AND NOTES

5.1 Overview of Submission Phases

The response process for this Call will consist of the following phases:

Phase 1:

Solution Brief

Offerors will submit an administrative, technical, and commercial summary of their proposed solution, addressing the Government’s objectives, tiers, and requirements. Detailed submission requirements for Phase 1 are provided in Section 6.

Evaluation criteria for Phase 1 are outlined in Section 7

Phase 2:

Pitch & Technical Demonstration (Unless Bypassed)

Selected offerors will be invited to present their solution and conduct a live or virtual technical demonstration. The demonstration must evidence core capabilities such as live migration, unified multi-tier management, and security/compliance configurations. The Government reserves the right to record all pitch sessions. Phase 2 submission requirements and evaluation criteria will be provided via subsequent invitation letters.

Phase 3:

Solution Proposal

Offerors advancing to this phase will be invited to submit a detailed proposal (Request for Solution Proposal (RSP)) and will collaborate directly with Government technical and contracting personnel to scope the statement of work, milestones, deliverables, intellectual property assertions, and final contract terms prior to final evaluation and potential award.

5.2 General Notes

• Offerors are reminded that all awards are subject to the availability of funds and the Government reserves the right to make multiple awards, a single award, or no award as a result of this Call.

• Only a Contracting Officer has the authority to enter into, modify, or execute a binding instrument on behalf of the United States Government. All payment obligations are subject to Congressional appropriations.

• In order to be eligible for award, offerors must:

o Possess a Unique Entity ID (UEI) and be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) prior to award, and maintain active registration throughout the period of performance.

o Register in the prescribed government invoicing system (e.g., Wide Area WorkFlow).

o Accurately represent their small business size and status as required.

o Be determined responsible by the Contracting Officer and not be suspended, debarred, or otherwise prohibited from receiving an award.

o Disclose any actual or potential Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCIs) to the Contracting Officer prior to award.

• Offerors are responsible for monitoring SAM.gov for any amendments or updates to this Call.

• The Government welcomes proposals from both original capability providers (developers/manufacturers) and qualified partner entities, such as resellers, integrators, or distributors. Offerors proposing as an intermediary are encouraged to highlight the unique value add they bring to the effort. This may include specialized integration, tailoring, local support, or cost efficiencies that enhance the primary offering.

• Notice to Offeror(s): The Government reserves the right to cancel this open Call, either before or after the closing date. If the Government cancels this open Call, the Government has no obligation to reimburse an offeror for any costs.

• Proposal Validity: All Solution Briefs will be valid for 180 calendar days after the submission date.

• Offerors that currently hold an Enterprise Agreement (EA) or Enterprise Contract (EC) with the Army or Department of War (DoW) are required to identify and propose in accordance with those existing contracts. If Offeror is proposing lower prices for this EVRIS effort then what is in their current EA/EC, then prices in existing EA/EC shall be modified to reflect lower price offering.

• Readability and Visual Materials Page Counting: Submittals must use standard, highly readable fonts (Arial or Times New Roman, 12-point). While the standard body text must adhere to 12-point font rules, an 8-point font is permissible specifically for tables, graphics, diagrams, and organizational charts. Readability directly impacts the Government's assessment. Visual diagrams, architectural schemas, and tables are encouraged. For this purpose, landscape-oriented (11 x 8.5 inch) pages are permissible for visuals, but will be counted toward the total page limit, which is strictly enforced. Any pages submitted beyond the maximum allowed will be removed prior to evaluation.

• Government Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools: The Government may use internal AI tools to assist in the administrative review and compliance verification of proposals (e.g., verifying file counts, formatting, or administrative compliance). However, the use of AI is strictly for support; all evaluative decisions are inherently governmental functions and will be made exclusively by Government personnel. AI tools will operate within a secure, closed Government environment, will protect proprietary information, and will not transmit data to external systems.

6.0 SOLUTION SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

This section outlines the requirements for submitting a solution in response to this Call.

Submissions must be electronic, unclassified, and follow the exact instructions listed below.

6.1 Phase 1 – Solutions Brief

Solution Briefs must be submitted electronically in PDF format via email to the Contracting Officer and Specialist listed in the Cover Sheet.

6.1.1 Submission Subject Line & File Structuring

To streamline evaluation, offerors must submit their solution brief packages with files separated by the target Area of Interest (Tier) outlined in Section 3. Do not combine your entire submission into one single PDF if you choose to submit against more than one Tier.

Email Subject Line Format: The email subject line must strictly follow this exact format:

• CFS EVRIS Submission - [Company Name] - Bidding on: [List Tier(s)]

6.1.2 Required PDF File Volumes & Page Limits

Offerors must attach the following separate PDF files to their submission email. All documents must use standard Arial or Times New Roman 12-point font. The Government may be unable to evaluate the Solution Brief if a Company fails to submit the required contents.

File Naming Conventions:

File Required File Naming Convention

File 1: Administrative CompanyName_Admin.pdf

File 2: Technical Solution CompanyName_Technical_[Tier].pdf

File 3: Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) CompanyName_Pricing_ROM.pdf

File 4: ROM Narrative CompanyName_Pricing_ROM_Narrative.pdf

Contents Page Limits:

File 1: Administrative

• Title Page (Max 1 Page): Offeror Name, Call Title, Date, POC details, Address, CAGE, UEI, and target Tier(s)/AOI(s).

• Executive Summary (Max 1 Page): Summary of the technology and corporate commercial experience.

• Appendix A: Affirmation of Business Status Certification (ABSC). This is a separate, dedicated file provided as part of the solicitation package that vendors must fill out and package within File 1."

• IP & OCI Assertions (No Page Limit): Identify IP restrictions, licensing agreements, and OCI mitigation.

File 2: Technical Solution

• Explain the unique technical aspects of your solution, relevance to the targeted Tier/AOI, scalability, technical approach, RMF/STIG compliance approach, and target DoD Technology Readiness Level (TRL). The white paper must also detail your commercial offerings, specifically addressing proposed products, license models (including available types, quantities, and environments), hardware compatibility links, migration capabilities, and support. (Example: If bidding on Tiers 2 and 3, you must attach 2 separate Technical PDFs, each being a maximum of 3 pages).

File 3: ROM

Vendors must submit their Phase 1 pricing using the Government-provided ROM Template included in the solicitation attachments. Vendors should complete the provided workbook and save their submission as Attachment 1_[CompanyName]_Pricing_ROM.xlsx. For Phase 1, the ROM is strictly evaluated for compliance with these instructions to establish a baseline catalog of offerings.

The provided ROM Template contains the following required structure:

• "Details" Tab: Vendors must complete this tab by providing their organizational Point of

Contact (POC) name, phone number, email address, and CAGE code. Additionally, the offeror must explicitly select and identify which specific tiers they are proposing solutions for.

• Individual Tier Tabs: The template includes dedicated tabs for each individual tier. Within each applicable tier tab, vendors must provide a comprehensive catalog of all proposed commercial products, their corresponding SKUs, and the standard per-unit pricing offered for that specific tier.

• Important Notice Regarding Future Pricing Strategies:

For this Phase 1 ROM submission, vendors must not calculate or apply volume tiered bundling or Total Contract Spending Discounts. Phase 1 is strictly for baseline product and SKU catalog pricing.

However, vendors are advised that the Government expects to evaluate comprehensive pricing strategies later in the acquisition process. Providing structured volume tiered bundling and Total Contract Spending Discounts will be an explicit requirement during the Phase 3 submission.

File 4: ROM Narrative

• Narrative (No Page Limit): The Pricing Narrative should provide a clear and detailed explanation of the costs and pricing structure outlined in the Price Matrix, including a breakdown of all costs, assumptions, and methodologies used to establish prices.

Intellectual Property (IP) Disclosures: Identify any IP associated with the proposed solution and the restrictions on the Government's use of that IP. DFARS subpart 252.227 7017(d) may be used for formatting.

Non-Government Advisor NDAs: Submit copies of independently executed NDAs with disclosed non-Government advisors (Section 11), if applicable.

OCI Analysis: Submit the results of the OCI analysis and mitigation plan (Section 12).

6.2 Phase 2 – Pitch & Technical Demonstration

Phase 2 submission requirements, technical challenge parameters, and evaluation criteria will be outlined in the invitation to this phase, unless bypassed.

6.3 Phase 3 – Proposal

Phase 3 submission requirements, detailed Request for Solution Proposal (RSP) instructions, and evaluation criteria will be outlined in the invitation to this phase.

7.0 EVALUATION CRITERIA

7.1 Phase 1 – Solution Brief Basis of Evaluation

In accordance with competitive CSO standards, the Phase 1 evaluation factors are listed below in descending order of importance:

• Technical Merit: The Government will evaluate the Technical Merit of the Solution Brief. Technical Merit is defined as the solution's direct relevance to the CFS, its ability to address the Tier/AOI objective statements and required attributes, scalability, security baseline, and technical feasibility. The Government will assess whether the proposed approach is feasible and constitutes a compelling and innovative response to the capability gap. If the Offeror’s solution is evaluated as not having Technical Merit, the Government reserves the right to discontinue the evaluation for the remaining criteria, assigning an overall rating of ‘Not Selected for Further Consideration’.

• ROM (Rought Order of Magnitude) & Narrative: The Government will evaluate the ROM and Narrative for compliance with the Call’s instructions only. Cost and/or price realism, and Fair and Reasonable Price determinations, will not be performed on the ROM during the Phase 1 evaluation. ROMs should include the provided attached template and a pricing narrative. Pricing breakdown should reflect an itemization of both licensing and support options and costs.

• IP (Data Rights): The submitted IP and Data Rights assertions will be evaluated for compliance with the Call's instructions, ensuring the Government receives appropriate rights to operate and sustain the platform.

7.2 Phase 1- Solution Brief Selection Process

Based on the evaluation, the Solution Brief will be categorized as Selected for Further Consideration or Not Selected for Further Consideration. The selection of one (1) or more submissions into the next Phase will be based on the criteria listed above, Government need, and funding availability.

• Selected for Further Consideration: The submitted Solution Brief has been determined to be of technical merit, represents an achievable schedule, and included all required submittals IAW this Call. As such, the Government intends to invite the Company to participate in the next phase should funding be available.

• Not Selected for Further Consideration: The submitted Solution Brief does not represent either the necessary degree of technical merit, technical innovation, or relevance to agency priorities to warrant further proposal effort or consideration.

7.3 Performance Management and KPI Framework

Upon award, the qualified vendor's performance and commercial transparency will be governed by the following KPI framework, which directly impacts option exercises, order allocations, and payment milestones:

KPI Definition Target (illustrative)

How this will be measured

Price Competitiveness

Unit price vs. baseline and vs.

pool median; sustained YoY change.

≤ baseline; YoY growth capped (e.g., ≤ CPI)

Technical assessment of median core components and add-on capability needs; ability to control sprawl.

Shelfware Ratio Entitled capacity not deployed ÷ total entitled.

≤ 5% Assess core components and individual additional licensed features.

Migration Throughput

Workloads/waves migrated on-time and verified.

≥ 95% on schedule

Defined during Phase Two (2)

Availability / Service Level Agreement

(SLA)

and

Support Responsiveness

SLA

Platform uptime per tier against SLA by severity level.

and

Time to respond / resolve against SLA by severity level.

≥ 99.9% (Tier 3– 4)

Sev-1 response ≤ 15 min; resolve ≤ 4 hrs

Capability and mission downtime (availability) is resolved within established timeframe and does not exceed SLA.

Support responsiveness SLA commits to a 15-minute response time by Severity Level (SL) for an engineer to make initial contact within the timeframes after case is opened:

SL 1: within 15 minutes

SL 2: within 30 minutes

SL 3: within 4 hours

SL 4: within 24 hours or next business day.

Security Compliance

Time to remediate;

STIG/hardening conformance;

ATO sustainment.

Critical ≤ 15 days; ≥ 95%

STIG

conformance

Active Cyber Risk Management Program to continuously monitor and report vulnerabilities and intrusions. Plan must include mitigations and responsiveness;

patches; work-arounds; etc.

Adoption / proficiency

Staff trained & certified; time-to-proficiency.

≥ 90% target roles certified

Training program accessible to command requiring activities transitioning. Training should be based on work roles (System, Network Administrators, Storage Administrator, Compliance, etc).

Tiered training levels and aggressive learning courses to allow for quick adoption, with the ability to continue towards higher learning and master certification.

Vendor must have the ability to provide a migration tool for transition.

Interoperability Successful interoperability with required existing management tools.

100% of required integrations

Offeror must be able to seamlessly interface with Army tools for use with virtual backups; security scanning, compliance and logging.

EX: Veeam (virtual backups) is compatible w/ RH;

Tenable (security scanning/ compliance); Elastic Defend (security & logging).

8.0 NON-GOVERNMENT ADVISORS

In accordance with the AOS, Section I, the Government will not utilize non-Government advisors or contractor personnel to support the evaluation and technical review process. All evaluations and technical reviews will be conducted solely by Government personnel.

Consequently, no Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are required to be executed or submitted with the Phase 1 submissions.

9.0 ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST (OCI)

The Offeror shall perform an Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) analysis and submit the results of that analysis in addition to the Solution Brief submission. Specifically, the Offeror shall analyze the details of the Call and the implementation of their proposed Solution for actual or potential OCI situations associated with the performance of the Offeror, or any of the Offeror’s proposed teammates or subcontractors, under any contract or agreement the Offeror or the Offeror’s teammates or subcontractors have been or may be awarded by any federal agency or other entity.

The Offeror shall describe in detail the methodology used to identify actual or potential OCI issues. The level of detail for OCI analysis may not be the same for all vendors. FAR 9.5 may be used as guidance for OCI analysis. If no conflicts are identified, a risk mitigation plan is not required; however, a description of the analysis methodology, and an affirming statement that no conflicts are identified shall be included. This section will not count against submission page limits.

If the Offeror identifies any actual or potential OCIs with respect to the performance of the Offeror or the Offeror’s subcontractors or teammates, the contractor shall provide an OCI Mitigation Plan to be incorporated as an attachment to any resulting contract or agreement. Any proposed avoidance or mitigation techniques shall be consistent with FAR 9.5 and the most recent decisions of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

10.0 APPENDICES

10.1 Appendix A — Definitions and Acronyms

Term Definition

CFS

Call for Solutions – a formal solicitation mechanism used by defense agencies to invite industry partners, academia, and commercial vendors to submit innovative technology proposals that address specific operational challenges, capability gaps, or mission needs. (FAR Parts 12, 15, AFARS

PARTS 5112, 5112.102, 5112.207, 5112.302)

CCPS

Core Count Per Socket refers to the number of independent physical processing units (cores) contained within a single physical CPU chip that plugs into a motherboard's CPU socket

CSO

Commercial Solutions Opening — a solutions-based, competitive commercial acquisition method (DFARS 212.70) with phased evaluation and multiple awards.

AOS

Army Open Solicitation — the standing umbrella CSO managed by ACC- APG under which this Call is issued.

Umbrella CSO A standing solicitation that establishes authority, evaluation framework, and process rules but does not itself fund work.

AoI Area of Interest — a discrete, often funded scope (here, a tier) published as an amendment against which solutions are submitted and evaluated; a suspense date indicates funding.

White Paper Short, non-binding Phase 1 submission (typically ≤ 5 pages) describing a proposed commercial capability.

CSP

Commercial Solution Proposal — the full Phase 3 technical, price, terms, and IP submission that forms the basis for award.

PIEE / CMMC

Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment: Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification — registration/compliance frameworks that may apply.

Resolution

• The point at which a reported software incident, defect, or product issue is fully corrected, restored, or mitigated, allowing the affected Army Command to resume normal, unhindered mission operations. Permanent Remedy: The delivery and successful implementation of a software patch, code update, configuration change, or database fix that permanently eliminates the root cause of the issue without degrading other system capabilities.

• Approved Workaround: In the event a permanent remedy is not immediately available, the implementation of an operational workaround that fully restores degraded mission-essential functions, provided that:

o The workaround is formally accepted in writing by the designated Government representative (e.g., Contracting Officer or Contracting Officer’s Representative).

o The workaround does not introduce unacceptable security risks, violate cybersecurity policies, or place an undue operational burden on Army personnel.

o The Contractor remains contractually obligated to deliver a permanent remedy within a mutually agreed-upon timeframe.

• Verification and Acceptance: An incident is not contractually

"Resolved" until the reporting Army Command verifies that the system is operating within defined performance parameters, and the Government formally authorizes the support ticket to be closed.

Responsiveness

The measured elapsed time between the Government’s formal submission of a software incident, defect, or support request (via the designated official reporting channel) and the initial active engagement by a designated, fully qualified, and appropriately cleared Contractor Subject Matter Expert (SME) with the reporting Army Command. Automated system acknowledgments, auto-generated ticket receipts, or initial routing responses by non-technical Tier-1 dispatch personnel do not constitute a valid response.

Shelfware Purchased software entitlements that are licensed but never deployed or used.

DIL Disconnected, Intermittent, and Limited-bandwidth network conditions.

C2 Command and Control node/environment.

VDI Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.

KPI

Key Performance Indicator — a measured outcome tied to incentives and pool standing.

PRS

Performance Requirements Summary — the order-level statement of KPIs, targets, and incentives.

SBOM Software Bill of Materials.

True-up / True-down Periodic reconciliation increasing or decreasing licensed quantities to match actual deployment.

10.2 Appendix B — Army Policy & Strategy References

The proposed solution shall comply with the technical baselines, security postures, and architectural principles established in the following Department of War (DoW) and Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA) policy and reference guidelines:

• AR 25-2 Army Cybersecurity – 04 April 2019

• Army Modernization Strategy – 2021

• Army Digital Transformation Strategy – 2021

• Data Platform Guidance – 01 February 2024

• Army Unified Data Reference Architecture (UDRA) – 22 March 2024

• Army Enterprise Data Product Definition – 18 July 2024

• Risk Management Framework Modernization – 02 March 2025

• Army Data Stewardship Roles and Responsibilities – 28 April 2025

• Policy for Interim Army Approved Products List – 04 June 2025

• Army Low-Code/No-Code Development Guidance – 31 July 2025

• Army Data Modernization and Centralization to Vantage – 26 September 2025 https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN37506-AR_25-2-003-WEB-4.pdf https://www.army.mil/e2/downloads/rv7/about/2021_army_modernization_strategy.pdf https://api.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/2021/10/20/3b64248b/army-digital-transformation-strategy.pdf https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN41173-PPM_CIO-032-000-WEB-1.pdf https://api.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/2024/03/25/c3d9b3aa/udra-version-1-0-final.pdf https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN41492-PPM_CIO-036-000-WEB-1.pdf https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN43739-PPM_CIO-075-000-WEB-1.pdf https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN43678-PPM_CIO-071-000-WEB-1.pdf https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN44038-PPM_CIO-077-000-WEB-1.pdf https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN44571-PPM_CIO-076-000-WEB-1.pdf https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN45262-PPM_CIO-092-000-WEB-1.pdf