Fair Opportunity Exception Justification - S4V Unilateral Order - Redacted.pdf

Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity or to Use Brand-Name Restriction

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

November 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 2 of 6

The HNI SML signed a memo on 20 March 2020 directing the immediate award of the CHES Services for Stack Security Sustainment & Virtualization (S4V) requirement to meet critical needs of the USAF and our ability to support the DoD COVID-19 pandemic. In close coordination with AFLCMC Legal and other functionals, the CHES PMO has developed a revised contracting strategy to meet the urgent needs of the Air Force, requiring the immediate execution of the S4V requirement. The revised and approved acquisition strategy is to issue an unilateral order in accordance with FAR 52.216-18 off of the Alliant 2 IDIQ. The unilateral order will be issued to GDIT under the FOE exception: 16.505(b)(2)(i)

(A) “The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays.” The unilateral Task Order, FA8726-20-F-0081, will be awarded for twelve (12) months using a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) and Time and Materials (T&M) contract type. The unilateral order will be issued using our Government Cost Estimate (GCE) as the order price. The GCE dollar value for this action is .

The S4V requirement includes maintenance, support, configuration and migration to on-premise security stacks. The current contract maintaining the security stacks was awarded to NES Associates, LLC (a GDIT company). The current contract to NES does not include the stack migration and sustainment of the virtual environment as included in S4V.

However, NES is familiar with the current infrastructure, has personnel actively managing the stacks and additional personnel ready in order to meet the USAF's immediate need. GDIT will not be accepting any new awards under the NES name and GDIT has stated that all NES awards will require a novation in the foreseeable future. The order will be placed with GDIT, an Alliant 2 GWAC holder.

(3) Description of the supplies/services required to meet the agency's needs:

The CHES Program Management Office (PMO) has a need to design, build, and test the transition to a successfully replicated solution in a cloud environment as well as maintain and support current USAF Stack(s). Critical to this mission requirement is the knowledge of the Air Force Network (AFNet) and its environment, as well as, the Defense Information Security Agency (DISA) and its use of both Internet and Cloud Access Points (IAP and CAP respectively).

Services required are to transition CHES Stack compute and storage (CIS) environments (virtualized hosts and application layer), currently deployed at the Scott, Wright-Patterson, and Peterson Datacenters, from these Datacenters and into Microsoft Azure. The USAF seeks services to minimize operational costs by utilizing cloud native capabilities such as Azure, cloud-based load balancing, and Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS). Required services must align to a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA); and feature agile software practices, while developing best of breed capabilities in streamlined live test and evaluation environments. Services must enact faster integration of next generation capabilities that will yield a system that is more responsive to urgent Warfighter needs. Services need to include the ability to provide maintenance, operations and support for any CHES stack.

Task 1: Technology Management Services ((Firm Fixed Price (FFP), PoP 03 Apr 20 - 02 Apr 21, Total (3400).

Sub-Task (CLS) - PoP: 06 Jul 20 through 02 Apr 21, (3400).

Summary: Services oversee and administer the overall quality assurance, staffing coordination and a point of contract for all SOO task delivery. Also, included an Option Sub-Task for Operations and Maintenance (O&M) support to USAF Stack locations. Engineering support of the Cloud Access Edge (CAE). Provides Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) as needed, depending on the Vendor option. Contractor Logistic Support to on-premise stacks has an option award date no earlier than 06 Jul 2020 (Current CLS contract expiration date).

Task 2: Cloud Configuration, Integration and Testing Services (FFP), PoP 03 Apr 20 - 02 Apr 21 Total (3400).

Summary: Configure changes to support O365 and Azure services and improve end user experience by optimizing the connectivity model. Includes Testing Services and Events. Disaster Recover Designing.

Task 3: Virtualization Cutover & Decommissioning Services (FFP), PoP 03 Apr 20 - 02 Apr 21, Total (3400).

Summary: Services provide the approved and tested solution configuration migration control with the ability to create and associate strategically staged legacy cutover and decommissioning.

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Task 4: Network Optimization Services (Time and Material (T&M)), PoP 03 Apr 20 - 02 Apr 21, Total (3400).

Summary: Provides scalable, service-oriented architecture facilitating spiral development and ease of evolution, expansion and refinement to support network optimization and required surge support.

Task 5: Product Support (FFP), PoP 03 Apr 20 - 02 Apr 21, Total (3400).

Summary: Product support provides necessary product support needed to complete the Vendor specific task defined in the SOO for any products needed and/or requested.

Alliant 2 is a multiple award Indefinite Delivery/ Indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) GWAC offering comprehensive and flexible IT solutions worldwide. Alliant 2 provides best-value Information Technology (IT) solutions to federal agencies. Alliant 2 is a Best-in-Class GWAC that is a preferred government-wide solution, offering artificial intelligence (AI), distributed ledger technology (DLT), robotic process automation (RPA), and other types of emerging technologies. It provides best-value IT solutions to federal agencies, while strengthening chances in federal contracting for small businesses.

The Alliant 2 GWAC has been available for ordering since July 1, 2018 and has a $50 Billion ceiling. The Period of Performance and Ordering Period has a five (5) year base term through June 30, 2023, plus a five (5) year option period through June 30, 2028. The S4V requirement is within the scope of the Alliant 2 GWAC.

(4) Identification of the exception to fair opportunity and the supporting rationale:

FAR 16.505(b)(1)(i) requires the Contracting Officer to provide each awardee under a multiple award contract, a fair opportunity to be considered for each order exceeding $3,000 unless a statutory exception applies. The specific exception that precludes the fair opportunity process for this acquisition is FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A) "The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays".

As discussed in section (2), due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the DoD is aggressively pushing toward enabling the majority of its members to telework (work from home). IAW Federal and State guidelines limiting human contact and remaining in a quarantined environment minimizes the risk of COVID-19 exposure and spread. Since experiencing the increased surge of users teleworking the DoD has determined current IT capabilities are insufficient to meet the needs of a remote workforce. A combination of policy, architecture and infrastructure have resulted in severe impacts to various mission sets. Additionally, recent State designations to "Shelter in Place" unless work is considered mission essential, prohibits personnel from working on-site. The initial push for workers to begin working remote resulted in users being unable to work due to resource availability and network congestion. At this time it is unknown when the movement restrictions will be uplifted and there is a potential significant impact to the mission if the USAF is unable to sustain long-term remote operations.

Within the USAF, there are three major efforts targeted at reducing the reliance on DoD and USAF infrastructure. Flow 3, FastPass and Reverse Proxy are all currently being worked. Each effort relies on virtualizing existing security stacks to eliminate authentication traffic on the Air Force Network (AFNET). The USAF only has the ability to support a remote workforce of approximately 20% (approx. 120K users) of its total force. Under current operation status, it is expected the remote workforce will be between 60-80% (360K - 480K users). In order to meet this demand, it is critical to move resources into cloud environments in order to reserve AFNET connections for resources that can't be moved.

Due to the urgent need to begin work immediately, the USAF utilized preexisting market research, technical expertise on the existing network environment and knowledge of the current contract holders that provide or have provided support to the CHES PMO. Upon reviewing all the information it was determined that it is in the best interest of the Government to directly award a unilateral order to GDIT for a 12 month period. At this time it is unknown how long the impact of COVID-19 will require a remote workforce. The effects of COVID-19 vary by location and since the O365 environment effects all AF users both CONUS and OCONUS it is unclear when the demand to remain remote will

November 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 4 of 6 lessen. The previously approved requirement was structured with a 12 month approach. The decision to award only 12 months was made in order to not restrict competition for future years. Previous market research indicated that there were other vendors that could perform this requirement however, due to the surge of remote users on the O365 environment work for the S4V effort is needed to begin immediately to meet COVID-19 guidance. All vendors that could normally perform this requirement would require a substantial transition-in period that the agency cannot support at this time. The current requirement to migrate 0365 user accounts from the existing stacks to the cloud has never been performed and the current requirement includes a Statement of Objectives (SOO) not an approved Performance Work Statement (PWS). For the S4V requirement the USAF is relying on the vendor to provide an industry best practice solution to meet our needs. Market research indicated that the majority of new vendors would need at least 30 days to provide an adequate PWS, GDIT only requires 5 business days.

The need for the S4V requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity to all fifty-five (55) vendors on the Alliant 2 IDIQ would result in unacceptable delays creating a significant impact to manpower and failure to sustain long-term remote operations.

Impact if S4V requirement does not start immediately:

- USAF Users will not have the continued ability to telework, without significant latency.

- HNII/CHES Program Office current capabilities will impact other DoD Programs with critical initiatives that are in response to COVID-19, including subsequent degraded services across the USAF/DoD.

- Impact to manpower and failure to sustain long-term remote operations for the USAF.

(5) Contracting Officer's determination that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

This action will result in a unilateral order to GDIT off of the Alliant 2 IDIQ contract vehicle. The Alliant 2 GSA GWAC contract was competed and fifty-five (55) businesses were selected for awards utilizing multiple award IDIQ contracts.

The GCE will be used as the unilateral order price. The order will include FFP and T&M CLINs. The FFP CLINS will include a fixed price for the applicable CLINs and the T&M CLINs will include a ceiling rate. The GCE was developed using the estimated skill mix and labor hours required for the previously proposed ZeroStack solution. The ZeroStack solution is similar to some of the tasks in the S4V requirement but has never been tested and may have changed based upon new technology. The estimate was developed using Alliant 2 benchmarked labor rates to estimate the total cost of the order. The benchmarked labor rates include wages, overhead, general and administrative expenses, and profit. The benchmark rates were determined fair and reasonable at the time the Alliant 2 IDIQ was awarded and apply to all of the Alliant 2 contract holders. Costs from the current CLS contract were used to develop the GCE. Labor categories for the current CLS contract were updated to be analogous with the Alliant 2 categories. Software licensing costs were compared to FY19 historical actuals for Stacks 2-4 with reduced capability.

During market research GDIT expressed interest in the S4V requirement, however, as mentioned above the Government had originally planned to compete this effort amongst SDVOSB's. Since having to revise the S4V requirement to meet the urgent need as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Contracting Officer reached out to GDIT to determine if they were able to meet this new requirement within a short suspense. GDIT has offered to submit a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) for the Government to review. Upon receipt of the ROM the Contracting Officer will work with the Cost Estimator and Program Team to compare the GCE against the ROM. The Program Team will provide insight on discrepancies in the skill mix and materials. The Contracting Officer will validate the labor rates against the benchmarked rates and use the technical team to compare the skill mix and materials against those proposed in the GCE and the ROM. The GCE, ROM and the technical input will be reviewed in order to develop a fair