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Amendment 0005 - Questions and Answers for 240 through 263
RFP HC1028-11-R-0104
| DOCUMENT |
| HC1028-11-R-0104 conformed copy modified July 22 |
| SECTION NAME |
| Required Submittals |
| SECTION TEXT |
| 2) Non-Disclosure Agreement for Offeror employees (Attachment J-4) |
| QUESTION |
| Attachment J-4 is the DD- Form 254 – Contract Security Classification Specification. There is no “Non-Disclosure Agreement for Offeror employees.” If this is required, please provide the Non-Disclosure Agreement. |
| ANSWER |
| The Non-Disclosure Agreement will be provided at time of award. |
| DOCUMENT |
| HC1028-11-R-0104; Amendment 002; revised 22 July 2011 |
| SECTION NAME |
| Evaluation Factors; specifically Subfactor 1: Technical Solution; 1.2 Capacity Service; 1.2.1 |
The Government will assess the technical solution proposed to provide for an “On Demand” environment for scale-up and scale-down of capacity and component changes while minimizing the impacts those changes will impose. This includes such items as reducing or eliminating disruption to processing schedules necessary to implement the solution, the impact on current software licensing, the impact to existing peripherals, and the impacts on facilities with a heterogeneous hardware environment.
| QUESTION |
| In context of this solicitation, the statement, “…the impact on current software licensing” implies the specified operating environment software exists on incumbent capacity services contracts *and* is NOT presumed to be provided as an operating system pre-loaded/ included in the base price of the computing hardware (e.g., VMWare). Plus, In J-1 Statement of Objectives, Page 2, Section 3.5, DISA states that it will provide the Z-Series operating software, therefore this software is not required to be provided (or priced) in the RFP. What are the current software licensing scenarios, as relates to the incumbents on the HC1013-07-D-2xxx series contracts (on a per-software, per-chipset basis)? |
| ANSWER |
| The offeror is responsible for all Operating System software required for the chipsets with the exception of Z-series. The statement “impact on current software licensing” relates to all other Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) licensed by the Government on the processors, including the Z-Series. |
| DOCUMENT |
| HC1028-11-R-0104; Amendment 002; revised 22 July 2011 |
| SECTION NAME |
| Evaluation Factors; specifically Subfactor 1: Technical Solution; 1.2 Capacity Service; 1.2.1 |
The Government will assess the technical solution proposed to provide for an “On Demand” environment for scale-up and scale-down of capacity and component changes while minimizing the impacts those changes will impose. This includes such items as reducing or eliminating disruption to processing schedules necessary to implement the solution, the impact on current software licensing, the impact to existing peripherals, and the impacts on facilities with a heterogeneous hardware environment.
| QUESTION |
| What are the existing peripherals (on a per-chipset basis)? |
| ANSWER |
| X86: SAN attached storage devices, HBAs and NICs |
System z: FICON Directors (mostly Brocade) to include tape drive connectivity, ESCON for legacy 36-track tape drives and Visara console controllers, OSA attached comm devices, Hitachi USP-V DASD, Luminex DataDomain devices
UNIX: SAN attached storage, NIC's, HBA's, and specialized interface components
| DOCUMENT |
| HC1028-11-R-0104; Amendment 002; revised 22 July 2011 |
| SECTION NAME |
| Evaluation Factors; specifically Subfactor 1: Technical Solution; 1.2 Capacity Service; 1.2.1 |
The Government will assess the technical solution proposed to provide for an “On Demand” environment for scale-up and scale-down of capacity and component changes while minimizing the impacts those changes will impose. This includes such items as reducing or eliminating disruption to processing schedules necessary to implement the solution, the impact on current software licensing, the impact to existing peripherals, and the impacts on facilities with a heterogeneous hardware environment.
| QUESTION |
| What quantity of DISA datacenter facilities do *NOT* have heterogeneous hardware environments? |
| ANSWER |
| All DISA datacenters contain a heterogeneous environment. |
| DOCUMENT |
| HC1028-11-R-0104; Amendment 002; revised 22 July 2011 |
| SECTION NAME |
| Evaluation Factors; specifically Subfactor 1: Technical Solution; 1.2 Capacity Service; 1.2.1 |
The Government will assess the technical solution proposed to provide for an “On Demand” environment for scale-up and scale-down of capacity and component changes while minimizing the impacts those changes will impose. This includes such items as reducing or eliminating disruption to processing schedules necessary to implement the solution, the impact on current software licensing, the impact to existing peripherals, and the impacts on facilities with a heterogeneous hardware environment.
| QUESTION |
| Does VMWare software purchased subsequent to the original award of HC1013-07-D-2xxx contracts convey to DISA in similar fashion to the IBM Z-Series operating system software, or do(es) the incumbent(s) retain title? If the incumbent(s) retain title, how does DISA propose to conduct a fair and open competition considering the $10 mil - $15 mil pricing advantage to the incumbent(s) – especially considering none of the offerors who originally bid VMWare on HC1013-07-D-2xxx contract won the pricing aspect of the competition, only the incumbent(s) who did not bit VMWare originally? |
| ANSWER |
| The Government will be answering this question in another amendment. |
| DOCUMENT |
| J-2, Amendment 002 |
| SECTION NO. |
| 1.2.1.3 Image of CSD operating environment |
| SECTION NAME |
| 1.2. Technical Requirements and Architecture |
| SECTION TEXT |
| “Provide an “image” of the CSD operating environment. The “image” will not run on the capacity services hardware. The “image” will be purchased for customers in the IT development stage prior to transitioning their projects to CSD. Purchase of the “image” for customers is intended to reduce transition issues. This image should include all operating system software, monitoring software, etc that would normally be provisioned via service. This service should be priced as a one-time purchase.” |
| QUESTION |
| DISA CSD owns the Computer Associates/ iTKO “Lisa” virtual dev/test application. iTKO describes its LISA solution thusly, “enables organizations to “mock up” a service at enterprise speed and enterprise scale—even if the application is unfinished or unstable or the physical resource is unavailable. LISA virtualizes an environment by simulating the behavior of external services without actually invoking them.” This includes the mockup of the operating environment in context of the hardware, operating system, virtual instances of operating environments, platforms, software, etc. Is there an unforeseen reason to preclude DISA CSD from leveraging this existing asset, and/or providing it to bidders GFE? |
| ANSWER |
| DISA CSD will not be providing CA iTKO "Lisa" software for use with this contract. |
| PAGE |
| 1 (in J-1), and 25 (in J-2, Amendment 002) |
| SECTION NO. |
| 2.0 (in J-1), and ATTACHMENT THREE (in J-2, Amendment 002) |
| SECTION NAME |
| Purpose (in J-1), and Enterprise Management Products for Servers (in J-2, Amendment 002) |
| SECTION TEXT |
| “The service provider will acquire, install, deinstall, transport, configure, and provide the necessary hardware (including cabinets/racks/cabling/cable management/PDUs), hardware maintenance, operating system software, VMWare, as well as, any other software required for the offeror solution to operate, and services to support the processor infrastructure associated with this contract.” |
| QUESTION |
| Is it the Government’s intention that the offerors will purchase the server-side and/or agent software for any of the software solutions listed in ATTACHMENT THREE, Enterprise Management Products for Servers in Attachment J-2, Amendment 002, of HC1028-11-R-0104; and, if yes, specifically which categories and software solutions? |
| ANSWER |
| All software identified on Attachment Three is owned by the Government. |
| SECTION NAME |
| Virtual Environments |
| SECTION TEXT |
| Provide solution that recognizes Virtual VMware environment as standard infrastructure for the x86 environment. The Government support staff will manage the ESX environment (hosts), placements, relocating environments (vmotion), and the VIC. The Virtual Environment software for all platforms will be included in the processor utility service. Offeror will provide the underlying infrastructure, tools, software, licensing, and licensing agreements to support the VMware Virtual infrastructure as well as native virtual capabilities for HP-UX and Solaris. |
| QUESTION |
| Oracle no longer sells or supports the Sun Solaris operating system as an independent OS offering on the X-86 platform; is it the Government’s intention that support for Solaris virtualization be on the “bare-metal” X-86 environment, or the VMWare virtual environment only? |
| ANSWER |
| Government requires support for Solaris virtualization on both "bare-metal" X-86 and the VMware virtual environment. |
| DOCUMENT |
| J-2, Amendment 002 |
| SECTION TEXT |
| The acceptance of equipment by the Government will start the billing cycle for this service. The offeror will work with DISA to develop an acceptance testing methodology to smoothly transition equipment into the DISA production environment. The official acceptance documentation will be provided by the Government after the contract award. |
| QUESTION |
| Certain areas of the RFP documents, e.g., J-2 Section 6.6, Section B Pricing Models, specify monthly billing for compute capacity turned on (or off) by the contractor at Government direction. Not all call orders will result in new equipment being delivered, rather compute capacity, plus operating and virtual environments being turned on (or off). Therefore, will the standard capacity services “Ready for use” order/delivery acceptance policy suffice to initiate and authorize billing? Will the government revise all areas of the RFP to indicate “ready for use” is an acceptable means to initiate monthly billing? |
| ANSWER |
| Once the vendor provides and installs the equipment as specified in the call order the Government will verify and provide acceptance for billing to begin. The Government will not revise the RFP. |
| DOCUMENT |
| J-2, Amendment 002 |
| SECTION NAME |
| Install and Configuration |
| SECTION TEXT |
| All installation, uninstallation, and power-up configuration will be completed by the Offeror based upon Government approval. The Government will perform final configuration as required. |
| QUESTION |
| How does the Government define and measure “final configuration” and performance, plus a delivery acceptance methodology suitable to enable and authorize the Offeror to initiate timely billing for capacity services delivered? |
| ANSWER |
| See Question 136, Amendment 0004. For installations, a checklist is used to validate and accept the delivered configuration/call order. Once the vendor provides and installs the equipment as specified in the call order the Government will verify and provide acceptance for billing to begin. |
| DOCUMENT |
| J-2, Amendment 002 |
| SECTION NAME |
| Delivery & Installation (after hours requirement) |
| SECTION TEXT |
| Normal equipment installations should be accomplished during normal business hours, 0600-1800 local time, Monday through Friday. Under certain conditions, the offeror may be required to perform an installation/update after normal business hours during evenings and weekends. Although the Government will try to minimize this requirement, the offeror must plan to work after hours, weekends, and or holidays for delivery and installation of new or updated orders. |
| QUESTION |
| What is the historical data to use for pricing each of the five categories of compute capacity, specifically the number of instances per year that occurred after normal business hours during evenings and weekend, and the number of hours expended to complete each equipment installation during these instances? And how are these service hours being evaluated for award? |
| ANSWER |
| Historical information is not available; however the vendor must plan to complete some installations after hours. Such cases may be when a production system is in need of additional resources and installation must occur within the customer defined maintenance window. See J-2, para 1.3.1 - All maintenance requirements are included in the “utility” pricing. See revision to J-2 para 10.3 and J-5, para 6.2.4.4.1 - All installation requirements should be included in the “utility” pricing. |
| DOCUMENT |
| J-2, Amendment 002 |
| SECTION NAME |
| DoD Directive 8500.1, Information Assurance & DoD Directive 8500.2, Information Assurance (IA) Implementation |
| SECTION TEXT |
| Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 8500.1, Information Assurance, and DoD Instruction 8500.2, "Information Assurance (IA) Implementation requires that "all IA and IA-enabled IT products incorporated into DoD information systems shall be configured in accordance with DoD-approved security configuration guidelines." DISA Instruction 630-230- 31 assigns the DISA Deputy Director for Operations with the responsibility to develop and maintain Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs). These STIGs (or Addendum, as appropriate) serve as the security configuration guidelines required by DoDD 8500.1. DoDD 8500.1 has been supplemented with additional information concerning specific operating system environments including the Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, and Windows XP operating systems. |
Additionally, all equipment that provides an information assurance function, such as SSL termination meet specific guidelines such as Federal Information Protection Standards (FIPS) 140-2, or National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Common Criteria EAL-4 evaluation. The service provider and Government will work together to ensure that all equipment provided meets all required federal, DoD, and/or DISA standards as appropriate.
| QUESTION |
| Microsoft Windows NT, 2000, XP, and to some extent 2003 products are end-of-life. Will the Government consider restating the requirement in terms of current Microsoft Windows O/S offerings? |
| ANSWER |
| The specific operating system environments identified relate to security for workstations and any revisions can be found in DoD 8500.1. |
| DOCUMENT |
| J-2, Amendment 002 |
| SECTION NAME |
| Classified and controlled unclassified information |
| SECTION TEXT |
| DISA utilizes classified and controlled unclassified information to accomplish mission objectives. Contractor personnel exposed to this level of information must protect the data through the use of the security features inherent to software loaded, strong authentication and physical constraints as outlined below. Any deviation from standard practices may compromise data resulting in harm to the government. |
| QUESTION |
| DFARS Case No. 2011-D039 (Safeguarding Unclassified DoD Information) states, “DoD is proposing to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to add a new subpart and associated contract clauses to address requirements for safeguarding unclassified DoD information.” In addition, the associated preceding DFARS Case No. 2008-D028 (Safeguarding Unclassified Information), states its intention thusly, “Amends the Defense FAR Supplement to address requirements for the safeguarding, proper handling, and cyber intrusion reporting of unclassified defense information within industry.” These proposed changes to the laws are anticipated to take effect before or during the initial delivery phases of the Processor Capacity Services contract, the anticipation is these changes to standard practices will be quite costly to Government and Offeror alike. Will the Government be willing to factor the proposed changes to the DFARS into the requirements called out in Sections 16.5 to 16.10? |
| ANSWER |
| We cannot include proposed changes in the RFP. If the proposed changes are incorporated into DFARS, we will add them via amendment or contract modification as soon as we are notified of the inclusion into DFARS. |
| DOCUMENT |
| J-2, Amendment 002 |
SECTION NO.
| SECTION NAME |
| P-Series Tier Definitions |
| SECTION TEXT |
| Tier 1 (Blade) |
2-16 Cores
(Power 7)
Up to 64 GB RAM
Little or no local storage required. Redundancy for internal/SAN storage required.
Standalone, partitioned and virtual machines. Clustering is optional.
Application Servers Database servers
Web Server Farms
Virtual machines
Redundant power supplies
Mirrored boot disks Redundant disk controllers (minimum 2 per OE), Redundant network controllers (minimum 4 per OE).
Green systems.
Supports AIX and/or Linux
Supports AIX 5.3, 6.x
Ability to move workload
| QUESTION |
| It is not necessarily in the Government’s best interest to have a P-Series chipset on a Blade Server. Will the Government be willing to remove the word “Blade” from the Tier 1 requirements definition? |
| ANSWER |
| Yes. J-2, Requirements Document, Attachment One, Server Chipset Definitions for P-series has been revised. |
| DOCUMENT |
| J-2, Amendment 002 |
SECTION NO.
| SECTION NAME |
| P-Series Tier Definitions |
| SECTION TEXT |
| Tier 1 (Blade) |
2-16 Cores
(Power 7)
Up to 64 GB RAM
Little or no local storage required. Redundancy for internal/SAN storage required.
Standalone, partitioned and virtual machines. Clustering is optional.
Application Servers Database servers
Web Server Farms
Virtual machines
Redundant power supplies
Mirrored boot disks Redundant disk controllers (minimum 2 per OE), Redundant network controllers (minimum 4 per OE).
Green systems.
Supports AIX and/or Linux
Supports AIX 5.3, 6.x
Ability to move workload
| QUESTION |
| DISA standards currently emphasize booting servers from SAN-attached storage. The processor OEM does not require local boot drives (on the server). In consideration of these two facts as stated, will the Government consider changing the specification to require or allow for booting the servers from SAN-attached storage – and – remove the requirement for mirrored boot disks with redundant disk controllers? |
| ANSWER |
| No, the Government cannot change the specification. |
| DOCUMENT |
| Requirements Document Processor Environnent, Attachment J-2 |
| SECTION NAME |
| P-Series Tier Definitions – Tier 1 thru 3 |
| QUESTION |
| Is there a definition for Tier 4 for SLIN 5001AD? |
| ANSWER |
| See Question 34, Amendment 0003. |
| DOCUMENT |
| Requirements Document, Attachment J-2 & Attachment J-10 |
| PAGE |
| J-2, Page 22 and J-10, Tab Monthly Rates |
| SECTION NO. |
| P-Series Tier Descriptions |
| SECTION TEXT |
| CPU Capacity/Type |
| QUESTION |
| Given, that the offeror must strictly adhere to the SLINs in the Pricing Model, how does DISA intend to increase the number of cores in any Tier after initial Call Order? Additionally, the Offeror believes the range of cores DISA has indicated in each POWER Capacity Tier (2-16 cores for Tier 1; 8-64 cores for Tier 2; and 32-256 cores for Tier 3) are not practical for developing a single price in any of the POWER Capacity Tiers. |
| ANSWER |
| See Question 34, Amendment 0003. |
| DOCUMENT |
| Requirements Document, Attachment J-2 & Attachment J-7 |
| PAGE |
| J-7 Worksheet Tab “EVALUATION PURPOSES – Scenario 1” |
| SECTION NO. |
| Cell E4 - Qty for Month 1 for SLIN 2001AA |
| SECTION NAME |
| Qty for Month 1 for SLIN 2001AA |
| SECTION TEXT |
| 2001AA – tier One - Blade |
| QUESTION |
| What is it that DISA intends the Offeror to price: |
A. A Two-Socket Blade with a minimum of 96 GB of RAM IAW the X-86 Tier Definitions in J-2, OR
B. 5 Operating environments (Windows, Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, or Solaris) whose underlying hardware is a Two-Socket Blade with a minimum of 96 GB of RAM IAW the X-86 Tier Definitions in J-2
| DOCUMENT |
| Attachment J-1, Statement of Objectives |
| SECTION TEXT |
| The purpose of this contract is to obtain reliable, responsive, and cost-effective processor infrastructure services of “on-demand” processing capabilities for specified chipset architecture in both DISA and other DISA-approved locations, which are both in the continental United States (CONUS) and outside of the continental United States (OCONUS). |
| QUESTION |
| How much money has DISA spent on each of the currently awarded SPE contracts over the life of the contract? |
| ANSWER |
| That information would only be obtainable through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. |
| DOCUMENT |
| Attachment J-1, Statement of Objectives |
| SECTION TEXT |
| The purpose of this contract is to obtain reliable, responsive, and cost effective processor infrastructure services of “on-demand” processing capabilities for specified chipset architecture in both DISA and other DISA-approved locations, which are both in the continental United States (CONUS) and outside of the continental United States (OCONUS). |
| QUESTION |
| The 5-year ordering period for the current contracts expire on September 30th. Will the incumbent vendors be allowed to supply “net new” equipment after the expiration of the base period? |
| ANSWER |
| Yes, capacity orders will continue to be placed against existing contracts until a new contract has been awarded. |
| DOCUMENT |
| Attachment J-2, Requirements Document |
| SECTION NAME |
| Transition and Exit Strategy |
| SECTION TEXT |
| The transition and exit strategy will begin at the end of the base contract. |
| QUESTION |
| Will DISA publish each response to Paragraph 5.6, Exit Strategy, for each of the originally awarded SPE contracts? |
| ANSWER |
| No. That information would only be obtainable through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. |
| DOCUMENT |
| Attachment J-1, Statement of Objectives |
| SECTION NAME |
| Virtual Environments |
| SECTION TEXT |
| Provide solution that recognizes Virtual VMware environment as standard infrastructure for the x86 environment. |
| QUESTION |
| What was the date of the first call order for VMware? How much money was paid for VMware and to whom was it paid? |
| ANSWER |
| That information would only be obtainable through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. |
| DOCUMENT |
| J2, Attachment 5 |
SECTION NO.
| SECTION NAME |
| Facilities Rack and Power Details |
SECTION TEXT
| QUESTION |
| Assuming the supplied rack conforms to all requested EIA, NEMA, and associated specifications, if the dimensions of the rack exceed height by less than one inch and depth by less than two inches, would that still be considered compliant? |
| ANSWER |
| DISA is seeking to establish rack size standards. Vendors may submit deviations to the standard rack configurations IAW Attachment 5 which must be validated and approved by DISA. |
| DOCUMENT |
| Requirements document (Attachment J-2) |
| SECTION TEXT |
| Capacity can be cancelled at any time at no cost to the Government. |
| QUESTION |
| The size and structure of this opportunity (> $400M, monthly fees, etc.) has caused this offeror to work with financial institutions in the development of our solution. The requirement which allows the Government to cancel capacity at any time and at no cost makes financing, under standard terms and conditions, with these institutions impossible, especially for small and medium sized businesses. The answer to Question #006, where the Government also indicated that they can migrate to new capacity and cancel the original capacity, again at any time and at no cost, is also not supported by these standard terms and conditions. These financial partners have further indicated they deem these as unacceptable risk, and as such, are preventing this offeror from submitting a proposal. Question: Request the government reconsider this requirement and remove from the RFP, and revise their answer to Question #006. |
| ANSWER |
| In order to meet the tenants of a capacity on demand contract, the govt requires scaleabilty and can cancel capacity when it is no longer needed. |
Defense Information Systems Agency