IB08 W9124D25R0022 JEFO redacted.pdf

Control Number: MICC 2025-2

Justification Review Document for an Exception to Fair Opportunity – FAR Part 16

Equipment: United States Army Human Resources Command (HRC) requests the renewal of New Relic Application Performance Monitoring (APM) software to ensure the viability of the Army’s Human Resource and Accessioning systems. New Relic software provides an enterprise level monitoring tool which enables HRC to detect problems before users are impacted, rapidly resolve the issues detected, and enhance the behavior of HRC applications, systems, and databases.

Authority: FAR 16.505(a)(4) – Restricting consideration to an item peculiar to one manufacturer (e.g., a particular brand-name, product, or a feature of a product that is peculiar to one manufacturer.

Amount:

Prepared by:

Contracting Officer: Joseph R. Lawrence Phone: 520-945-8992 Contracting Officer Date: 3 Oct 2024 Email: joseph.r.lawrence3.civ@army.mil

Technical:

Requirements:

Reviews: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support the justification for an exception to fair opportunity.

Program Manager:

Small Business Professional:

MICC Legal Counsel:

Division Chief, Mission Division 1:

Director, MICC—Ft Knox:

Assistant Director, Small Business Program:

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

a. New Relic Inc. is the sole proprietor for the New Relic programming and software products. New Relic renewal is currently a top HRC priority procurement. New Relic software is currently installed, or planned to be installed, on 1500+ servers enabling real-time systems monitoring for mission critical Accessions and Human Resources systems.

b. The New Relic solution provides HRC an enterprise performance baseline capability, for the Army’s Human Resources and Accessioning efforts and provides visibility to applications and systems of customers that migrate into the HRC Army Enterprise Data Center. New Relic is an enterprise monitoring tool that ensures that HRC systems are at peak efficiency and provides a problem detection capability that ensures effective resolution of user issues. In addition, New Relic reduces the Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) for enterprise systems and Accessioning applications enabling smooth accomplishment of the Army’s Human Resource and Accessioning missions.

c. New Relic is an integral solution for HRC in supporting the detection of problematic issues in the Army Recruiting Information Support System (ARISS) — which is critical to the Army’s Recruiting effort. New Relic will not require HRC to procure any hardware to support the solution, whereas the deployment of other solutions (similar in nature) would be cost prohibitive and time-consuming.

d. Alternatives. As previously stated, New Relic is installed on thousands of servers and hundreds of applications in the HRC Data Center. HRC has invested approximately in application integration, configuration, deployment, and training beyond the initial purchase cost. Uninstalling the tool would cost an estimated additional in work force labor costs. New Relic is only offered by one company and performs functions vital to the HRC monitoring capabilities such as full stack observability. This feature is not offered among New Relic competitors and is vital to our requirements. To use a product with less functionality would jeopardize HRC’s ability to properly identify potential information technology system issues which could have catastrophic impact to the HRC and accessioning mission. In addition, the HRC work force is now properly trained in the installation, configuration, and monitoring of the New Relic Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tool. To introduce a new tool would take years to reach a maturity level which currently exists.

e. Impact if justification is not approved. The HRC Data Center is undergoing an infrastructure modernization through FY25, transitioning from legacy infrastructure to a modern converged infrastructure. New Relic provides the performance monitoring services required to facilitate the upgrade. The effort to replace the existing public cloud-based application performance monitoring service would require the procurement of hardware for hosting on premise, hardware and software installation services, and transition hours estimated at in labor to deploy the solution. Replacing New Relic during the Data Center modernization would double the labor and support costs required of both the existing legacy environment and the future environment.

6. Actions to Increase Competition: The products to be acquired with this acquisition fit within the framework of a larger end-to-end system therefore, no other brands were considered. Army Regulation 25-1, Army Information Technology, directs commands to plan for a life cycle of existing information technology equipment. Based on a five (5) year life cycle replacement cycle, this system will be reviewed in FY 25 for possible replacement options.

7. Market Research: Per AFARS 5139 the Army’s Computer Hardware Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) is the mandatory source for commercial information technology hardware and software. The required software is available through the ITES- SW suite of contracts in CHESS. The requiring activity and the contracting activity have conducted market research in accordance with the ITES-SW2 Ordering Guide. A Request for Quote was submitted through CHESS RFQ# 508448, and eight (8) vendors (5 large and 3 small) indicated that they are capable of providing this maintenance.

Therefore, this action will be solicited as 100% Small Business Set-aside.

8. Other Facts:

Procurement history.

Contract: W9124D-24-F-0383 Contractor: Carahsoft, Inc.

Award Date: 30 September 2024 Competitive Status: Brand Name Only Authority cited: FAR 16.505(a)(4)

Contract: W9124D-23-F-0550 Contractor: Carahsoft, Inc.

Award Date: 30 September 2023 Competitive Status: Brand Name Only Authority cited: FAR 16.505(a)(4)

Contract: W9124D-22-F-0465 Contractor: Carahsoft, Inc.

Award Date: 30 September 2022 Competitive Status: Brand Name Only Authority cited: FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(B)

9. Technical Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

System Administrator

10. Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

IT Specialist

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. This determination will be made using price analysis. As a part of this basis, certified cost or pricing data will not be required and the following exception applies: FAR 15.403(b)(3), a commercial item is being acquired.

Contracting Officer

12. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Joseph R. Lawrence Contracting Officer

Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of New Relic Application Performance Monitoring (APM) software renewal using an exception to fair opportunity pursuant to the authority of FAR16.505(a)(4) -Restricting consideration to an item peculiar to one manufacturer. The estimated cost of this action is with a period of coverage of twelve months. The approval is subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and property herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Alternate Advocate for Competition U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, TX