FAR8_Single Source or Brand Name Justification Less Than SAT Final.pdf

United States Department of Agriculture

Brand Name Justification FAR 8.405 Federal Supply Schedules

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity.

The agency is the USDA Forest Service, Geospatial and Technology Applications Center (GTAC) in Salt Lake City, UT. The contracting activity is Procurement and Property Services, National Procurement Operations, Information Technology Contracting Branch (ITCB).

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved.

The Government anticipates awarding a Firm Fixed Price delivery order against GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) 33411, Information Technology Hardware, for Seagate Network Attached Storage (NAS) hard drives. The Government will utilize current appropriation Information Technology funding for this order. The anticipated delivery date is 30 days after receipt of order.

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

Six (6) each, Seagate 6 Terabyte (TB) Enterprise HDD hard drive for Network Attached Storage (NAS), P/N ST6000NM0095 or ST6000NM029A

Up to 57 each (variable quantity based upon quoted prices and government budget), Seagate 10TB Enterprise HDD hard drive for NAS, P/N ST10000NM0096

Required specifications for the 6TB and 10TB hard drives are: 12 Gb/s SAS interface, 256MB Cache, 512e geometry, and 2 or 2.5M h Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF).

The total estimated price for this acquisition is $20,000.00.

4. The authority and supporting rationale.

This Brand Name Justification is prepared in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(b), “Items peculiar to one manufacturer”.

GTAC operates and maintains NAS devices to stage large volumes of data. GTAC optimizes computing performance with a combination of high-performance workstations, NAS devices, and network infrastructure. NAS devices offer storage and support for hundreds of projects involving image analysis, data modeling, analytics, and national level product generation.

This acquisition is for equipment that will replace or supplement internal hard drives in existing NAS devices equipment that are at end of life. Replacement of hard drives will extend operational life, increase operational capacity, and provide for spares for potential failures within the existing hardware base. Due to hardware and operational compatibility with existing government equipment, only the specific items listed in Section 3 are acceptable. NAS devices have Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) storage controllers that present a compatibility risk to configured hard drives. Brands other than Seagate meeting the required specification above may work; however, may not be on the compatibility list and be inoperable with existing NAS equipment, may decrease individual NAS device performance, and /or may not be interoperable with other NAS equipment maintained at GTAC.

Substitution of, or modification to, a similar product may not meet the technical requirements and will not meet our GTAC’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) objectives.

This brand name justification will be made publicly available in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(b)(3).

5. A determination by the ordering activity Contracting Officer (CO) that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

Although GSA-FSS has already determined prices under its Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts to be fair and reasonable, the Contracting Officer will ensure the proposed cost to the Government for the supplies or services covered by this justification are evaluated for price reasonableness and the contemplated order represents the best value to the Government. This hardware will be competed among vendors that can provide the necessary brand name products identified in section three above, and price reasonableness will be determined through adequate price competition..

The contractor’s quote, will be compared to the Independent Government Cost Estimate and other GSA published price lists.

6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Market research was conducted via a Request for Information/Sources Sought posted to GSA eBuy on 17 June 2021, posting number 1499080. Sixteen responses were received on 22 June 2021 revealing that Seagate hard drives are commercially available from multiple vendors under the GSA MAS 33411 schedule. In addition, industry best practice is to replace drives in NAS equipment with matching hardware that is already used in the system to minimize I/O failures. We tested compatibility with spare drives that were available and determined that the Seagate models configured correctly and maximized performance. Replacing the existing equipment with drives that are known to be compatible with the NAS devices minimizes incompatibility risk and provides a higher level of certainty that the replacement parts will function properly. There is a “drive compatibility list” for these specific RAID controllers that was last updated in 2017 and includes older drive models. This series of Seagate drive has been tested and used with these specific controllers in the past and various sizes were used to determine proven compatibility. Drives in other as-purchased systems are also Seagate, so the return/replace process is the same across all systems in the datacenter, helping to minimize maintenance costs and Total Cost of Ownership. These drives have a 2.5M hours MTBF rating and based on GTAC’s experience of operating and maintaining of literally thousands of production drives have also proven to be the most reliable when compared to other similar brands.

7. Any facts supporting the justification.

Market research and product evaluations have been completed on the items identified within this justification. At this time, there are no known alternative solutions to the hardware listed. This hardware is required as it is the only known compatible hardware for existing government equipment.

NAS appliances are reviewed and approved by the Forest Service Chief Information Office (CIO). The Government may only purchase NAS appliances that have received CIO Technical Approval.

Replacement parts must therefore be compatible with the approved equipment.

It is not economical to replace the NAS devices at this time rather than to simply replace the hard drives that are at end-of-life. The cost to replace a similar NAS device with120TB RAID storage is about $12,000.00 which would cost the Government over $36,000.00 as opposed to $20,000.00 for maintaining / reconditioning the current equipment by investing in replacement hard drives. That’s a saving of $16,000.00 and almost half the price for the same level of storage.

8. A statement of actions the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition if subsequent acquisitions are anticipated.

The Government will continue to perform cost/benefit analysis between maintaining existing equipment versus replacement. When replacement becomes a feasible option, the Government will seek out competition and additional sources for that equipment.

Certifications & Approvals

☒ The information provided for this justification has been prepared and certified accurate and complete by Robert Thomas, Geospatial IT Specialist (ITDO Business Sys Analyst), Chief Information Office, USDA Forest Service.

Contracting Officer (not exceeding $750,000). I have reviewed this justification and certify it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Mary Shinney Contracting Officer

Concur:

The information contained in this Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition is certified accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

James Bailey Branch Chief, ITCB