HS002125FE078 Limited Sources Justification_Redacted.pdf

CUI//SP-PROCURE

CUI//SP-PROCURE Page 1 of 6 Version December 2021

Limited Sources Justification National Background Investigation Services (NBIS)

Joint Cyber Warfighter Architecture (JCWA) Common Runtime Stack for Data (JCRS-D)

Identification of the agency and contracting activity.

The United States (US) Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) Contracting and Procurement Office (CPO) proposes to enter a contract with Enlighten IT Consulting (Enlighten) in support of the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) Program Management Office (PMO).

Requiring Activity/Program Office:

DCSA NBIS PMO

27130 Telegraph Road Quantico, VA 22314 Contracting Activity:

DCSA CPO

27130 Telegraph Road Quantico, VA 22314

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

The Contractor shall provide

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

The contract scope encompasses deployment and sustainment across seven distinct

JCRS-D environments: three Unclassified environments (Development, Test, and Production) supporting Atlas-U with 10 JCRS-D + 10 IONIC nodes in production (with 2 additional nodes planned for FY26); two Secret environments (Test and Production) supporting Atlas-S with 10 JCRS-D + 5 IONIC nodes; and two Top Secret environments (Test and Production) supporting Atlas-TC2S with 10 JCRS-D + 5 IONIC nodes in production. IONIC is a next-generation data analysis solution that offers full visibility across a wide range of data points (e.g., intelligence, infrastructure, operational readiness, and cybersecurity posture). This cloud-based big data platform supports normalization, enrichment, ingestion, and storage of big data from a wide variety of sources. In this environment, previously

Version December 2021 CUI//SP-PROCURE Page 2 of 6 isolated events can now be fused with others to create a comprehensive situational awareness picture. This proposed sole source contract to Enlighten, valued at an estimated for a period of performance including a Base Period of 12 Months and Two (2) 12 Month Option Periods. This contract is essential to ensure uninterrupted support, maintenance, and enhancement of JCRS-D operations utilizing proprietary RADMF licensing and specialized software operations capabilities that exist exclusively within Enlighten's technical portfolio.

4. The authority and supporting rationale (see FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) and, if applicable, a demonstration of the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

The authority for this procurement is FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) - only one source capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized. Under other transaction (OT), HS00212490005, issued September 5, 2024, Enlighten IT Consulting, LLC initiated the development of the current JCRS-D environment (formerly BDP 6.x) and the data migration and transition from BDP 5.x to the new JCRS-D environment. As the original architect and developer, Enlighten has served as the sole steward of successful Big Data ( BDP)platform evolution, orchestrating the sophisticated transition from BDP 5.x to the current JCRS-D environment (formerly BDP 6.x). Enlighten's development of JCRS-D over the past year has delivered revolutionary architectural improvements, including comprehensive containerization through Amazon Wed Service Elastic Kubernetes Service (AWS EKS) Managed Nodes, strategic replacement of legacy Kronos and BDP data storage systems with advanced IONIC containers for superior indexing and querying performance, and optimized integration with native AWS Simple Storage Service ( S3). DCSA has commenced upgrading existing BDP 5.x systems under Enlighten's technical guidance, with strategic completion of all environment upgrades, including on the JWICS security fabric. The effort is currently ongoing and is targeted for calendar year 2025 completion.

Additionally, the platform's future evolution toward modular, containerized architecture featuring plug-and-play applications, advanced data type handling, enhanced parsing capabilities, and standardized field structures remains dependent on Enlighten's proprietary development framework for the BDP at this time. Enlighten's proprietary Rapid Application Development and Management Framework (RADMF) license constitutes an irreplaceable foundation for system functionality. RADMF provides essential governance, automation, and data processing capabilities required for deploying JCRS-D components and analytics to AWS Cloud Infrastructure. This proprietary framework serves as the critical automation engine enabling JCRS-D cloud deployment. System architecture mandates that servers lacking RADMF and IONIC integration cannot establish communication protocols with the JCRS-D cluster, rendering this technology essential for operational capability.

Enlighten possesses exclusive operational expertise in the JCRS-D environment, having conceived, developed, and deployed this platform in May 2024. No alternative contractor has acquired specialized technical knowledge, implementation experience, or optimization capabilities necessary for JCRS-D deployment, management, and enhancement. The tightly

Version December 2021 CUI//SP-PROCURE Page 3 of 6 integrated application dependencies within JCRS-D architecture necessitate consolidated platform development and application work under single-vendor management throughout upgrade completion to maintain system integrity and operational functionality.

Based on the aforementioned, Enlighten IT Consulting, LLC represents the only qualified vendor capable of fulfilling these mission-critical contract requirements due to exclusive capabilities in the BDP platform and proprietary technologies that cannot be replicated by any other contractor in the marketplace in the timeframe required.

5. A determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with 8.404(d).

The Government has determined that issuing a Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) task order against Enlighten’s MAS contract is in the best interest of the Government and provides the greatest overall benefit. This path furthermore represents the best value to the Government resulting in the overall lowest cost alternative (considering price and special features necessary to meet the Government’s requirements) in a sole source environment.

This determination is made on the basis that the labor requirement is available via FSS;

which will decrease administrative time/burden in issuing a contract and the Contractor’s proposed prices were determined fair and reasonable at time of MAS contract award.

Additionally, the Government will also seek further price discounts from the published MAS rates. The Contracting Officer will also conduct price analysis using one or more of the methods identified within FAR 15.404, including but not limited to, comparison of pricing to historical prices paid and comparison with competitive published price lists of similar requirements.

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.

A Request for Information (RFI) and draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) were released on GSA on 19 August 2024, with responses due on 6 September 2024 in anticipation of the Software Engineering Service multiple award blanket purchase agreement (BPA) that contained the BDP/JCRS-D requirements.

Ninety-seven vendors replied with on-time responses and were analyzed. Nineteen vendors were large businesses and 78 were small businesses in accordance with the two NAICS codes referenced in the RFI (541512, 541519). The responses provided by the companies to the questions and additional information provided such as relevant experience references were evaluated by the Acquisition/Technical Team.

Market Research was finalized December 2024 for the Software Engineering Services Multiple Award Blanket Purchase Agreement. Based on the results of the Market Research 17 vendors were deemed capable of performing the requirements of the BPA, Enlighten was one of those vendors. Enlighten was the only vendor that demonstrated the ability to successfully perform requirements similar in scale and complexity to the full BDP/JCRS-D requirements at this time.

Version December 2021 CUI//SP-PROCURE Page 4 of 6

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

If this requirement is not awarded to Enlighten, Atlas systems listed above would cease and requirements development/enhancement for High Side (CVHS), Expedited

Case Management System (PVCCMS) would cease. The impact to the Personnel mission would be severe. While the be automated. Atlas-T is the only system-to- -

-side to manually ingest store, and process Datamart Environment (TIDE) alerts.) Atlas-T also assists the low-side teams with the triage of FinCEN alerts, as well as store the ~40 million travel alerts.

If the RADMF license is not renewed, usage of the current Atlas-N development environment, Atlas-T production environment on JWICS, and Atlas-U future low-side production environment would cease operations. There would no longer be a system-to-system JWICS connection to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Continuous Evaluation System (CES) thereby ending required alert notifications and workflows and removing required Trusted Workforce Continuous Vetting capabilities. The system-to-system connection with the DHS National Vetting Center (NVC) would cease as well, impairing DCSA participation in the worldwide rollout of vetting of Non-Immigrant VISA applications for International Partners Vetting and Visitors (IPV2).

The ODNI CES is an information technology (IT) system that conducts automated checks of security-relevant information, a capability that is the cornerstone of security clearance transformation efforts within the Trusted Workforce 2.0 framework and the move toward government-wide Continuous Vetting.

-Immigrant Visas (NIVs).

Support Agency

l. Currently, DCSA has an automated feed for DS-160 IMS Visa The automated response feed for risk decisions back to NVC/DOS is targeted in Q1 FY26.

Currently, the is discussing expanding this automated feed to

The resulting break or lapse in software and associated required service support to the JCRS-D platform if this contract is not awarded would cause grave damage and halt DCSA’s security clearance mission and impact national security processes which would take several

Version December 2021 CUI//SP-PROCURE Page 5 of 6 months to correct. Awarding this sole source action to Enlighten is the only way to avoid a break in service and to continue the NBIS mission that is critical to National Security.

8. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

Currently, the JCRS-D platform represents emerging technology with limited market penetration. At this time, no vendors other than Enlighten possess the operational experience, technical expertise, or demonstrated capability required to successfully complete development, deploy, manage, and optimize the JCRS-D platform. The specialized nature of this technology, combined with its recent introduction to the marketplace, necessitates sole source procurement.

DCSA anticipates transitioning to competitive acquisition for the sustainment of the JCRS-D platform once the current vendor achieves full operational maturity, following successful upgrade completion. JCRS-D is expected to mature greatly over the next year as all existing BDP customers upgrade and accredit the platform, allowing other vendors to work with the product. The Government strategies when alternative vendors demonstrate verified operational competency and proven experience managing the JCRS-D platform in production environments.

DCSA will continuously monitor market conditions and vendor capabilities to identify opportunities for competitive procurement as the JCRS-D ecosystem matures and additional qualified contractors emerge with requisite experience and technical proficiency. DCSA will also expand competition/fair opportunity efforts in future requirement needs and will also continue to conduct strategic market research to determine if competitive efforts to support the transition to new technologies exist and are capable of meeting or exceed the minimum needs of the Government.

Certification Program Official:

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this

Contracting Officer:

I certify that this is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Version December 2021 CUI//SP-PROCURE Page 6 of 6

Reviews and Approvals

Program Senior Official:

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this

Advocate for Competition (if over $750K):

I have reviewed this find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

APPROVAL

Head of the Contracting Activity (if over $15M):

I have reviewed this find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Since this Limited Sources Justification does not exceed $100M, this review and signature serves as approval.