J_A NetApp Storage Upgrade.pdf

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center

1701 Directors Blvd Austin, TX 78744

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-priced delivery order under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name NetApp hardware, software, installation, and maintenance.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Management, Financial Services Center (FSC) has a requirement to upgrade of its current brand name NetApp data center Serial Attached Network (SAN) storage grid in Waco, Texas (TX). This upgrade includes disk shelves and administrative software tools to support new, existing, and expanding business operations, as well as continuity of operations plans.

Specifically, VA requires 2 DS224C disk shelves, each with 3.8TB solid-state drive (SSD) to be connected to the existing NetApp FAS8200 system. The software that is required in this action is the administration software tools for the storage grid that will manage the storage and provision the storage to the virtual servers in use at the FSC.

This upgrade and expansion is critical as it will add high performance storage needs and an object storage (tier 3) solution to the Waco, TX office location which will provide additional storage and a robust tiering option. The storage expansion will allow for the system to run applications with improved performance during outages or service roll-overs from the Austin, TX office. The Tier 3 storage addition will augment the existing Tier 1 solution and allow for lesser-used data to be stored on less expensive, Tier 3 disk drives, making the Tier 1 disk drives available for higher performance needs. The installation services that are needed are going to cover the rack installation at the FSC and the services to get the connections set up in the server room. The maintenance service will cover the hardware and software, with access to phone support, online forums, and replacement of hardware if there is a faulty part. The total period of performance includes one 12-month base period and two 12-month option periods.

Delivery, installation, and configuration of all hardware and software shall be provided within 60 days after receipt of order. Hardware and software maintenance will be provided for 12 months from date of acceptance. The two 12-month option periods are for continued hardware and software maintenance only. The total estimated value of the proposed action is , inclusive of all option periods.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(a)(4), the following brand name requirement is being justified and approved as an exception to fair opportunity under the statutory authority of Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled “Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.”

SAN Storage Upgrade Control Number VA-21-00073121

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in paragraph 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for the brand name NetApp hardware, software, installation, and maintenance. This action will augment the existing NetApp SAN storage system in the Waco, TX location. This augmentation will provide VA with the ability to provide a high-performance storage tier during fail-over scenarios from Austin, TX to Waco, TX. Currently when fail-overs happen, applications run in a degraded state due to the lack of high-performance disk drives.

The Government has a requirement to expand and strengthen the storage infrastructure at its Waco, TX location. Currently the Waco, TX location utilizes a NetApp FAS8200 storage platform. The existing storage environment is designed entirely around NetApp SAN storage devices. The existing NetApp SAN storage arrays are proprietary to NetApp and, due to the included proprietary NetApp code, no other brand of SAN storage array is compatible with the current infrastructure. The additional required disk shelves require the ability to connected to the existing NetApp FAS8200 storage platform. Therefore, NetApp’s proprietary storage platform can only be expanded through additional brand name NetApp storage due to the proprietary nature of the platform. Additionally, VA has other NetApp solutions installed within VA and more specifically supporting FSC operations. NetApp makes use of a proprietary software to perform data replication between the VA sites in Austin, TX and Waco, TX. Disaster Recovery design architecture within the FSC uses NetApp hardware and NetApp software (IntelliSnap) at the respective data centers. The IntelliSnap makes up the Disaster Recovery design for FSC for array management, backup and recovery, and data coping and must use NetApp SAN hardware and software from end-to-end in order to satisfy NIST 800-53 Contingency Planning and Media Protection requirements. Only Netapp brand has the proprietary hardware and software that can interoperate with the existing NIST compliant storage arrays. Further, only NetApp installation and maintenance services can meet VA’s requirements. No other vendor would have access to the NetApp proprietary source code necessary to perform the installation services or provide the maintenance services necessary to ensure the equipment and software is up to date and operational. If any other hardware or software solution was utilized, it would require a complete replacement of the NetApp infrastructure in place.

Such a replacement is estimated to cost approximately and would take 6 months to complete. These estimates are based on previous acquisition history and these duplicative costs would not be recovered through competition.

Without the procurement of the brand name NetApp hardware, software, installation, and maintenance the existing NetApp storage arrays will increasingly push this equipment beyond its performance threshold when fail-overs occur. Critical applications will continue to run in a degraded state which will compromise VA’s ability to manage the processing of Veteran claims, invoice payments, and ensure prompt payment of all vendors which will adversely impact VA’s ability to provide care to Veterans.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can

SAN Storage Upgrade Control Number VA-21-00073121 meet the Government's requirements. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name NetApp hardware, software, and maintenance. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301, 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted by VA technical personnel in January and Febuary of 2021 by researching websites for products comparable to the NetApp disk array, software, and maintenance services. Specifically, Government's technical experts conducted research of similar solutions, including EMC Corporation, Pure Storage, and Hewlett Packard. While these vendors provide similar capabilities, they cannot provide the products, licenses, and support that are compatible with the existing NetApp storage environment or avoid the duplicative time and costs as outlined in Section 5 of this justification. Similarly, while other vendors possess general capabilities needed to provide similar services, no other source was found to meet VA’s needs due to the proprietary source code specific to the maintenance for this solution.

Therefore, no other brand software and hardware providers do not have access to the proprietary data, source codes, and protocols of the NetApp storage solution in order to provide the required hardware and software, as well as maintenance, that is compatible with the existing environment.

9. Other Facts: None