JA for VISN 7 HCI and Backup - Redacted.pdf

VISN 7 Hyperconverged Infrastructure and Backup Servers Control Number VA-21-00070845

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

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

Office of Procurement Acquisition and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a brand name firm-fixed-price (FFP) order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Cisco Hyperflex Servers, Cisco Nexus Local Area Network (LAN) switches, and CommVault Complete Data Protection Software.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: This proposed action supports the Veterans Health Administration, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 7, Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) Program by acquiring brand name Cisco Hyperflex Servers, Cisco Nexus LAN Switches, and CommVault Complete Data Protection Software at six of the Veterans VISN 7 VA Medical Centers (VAMCs). The Cisco Hyperflex Servers and Cisco Nexus LAN Switches are required for the Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) and Backup Servers project, which is planned for modernizing medical applications infrastructure for improved reliability, efficiency, optimization, and redundancy. Specifically, this will allow VISN 7 HTM to host virtual servers for clinical care applications in a single HCI at each VAMC, as opposed to utilizing individual physical servers for each. The backup solution needs to utilize CommVault Complete Data Protection Software to create backup and recovery files of the application servers and store them to allow for restoring quickly in the case of any failures. All required hardware shall be delivered no later than 90 days after award, and the total period of performance for the Order shall be 180 days. The total estimated value of the proposed action is

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 is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 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.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for the brand name Cisco Hyperflex Servers, Cisco Nexus LAN Switches, and CommVault Complete Data Protection Software as described in section 3 of this justification. The current infrastructure within VISN 7 is based on existing Cisco Hyperflex Servers, Cisco Nexus LAN Switches, and CommVault Complete Data Protection Software and VA requires support compatible with the existing infrastructure

VISN 7 Hyperconverged Infrastructure VA-21-00070845 protocols and functionality for continue operational availability. This protocol and functionality includes using a single software, service tool and code to manage the switches, and having the same model of hardware for failover redundancy for the servers. The server infrastructure currently in use at the VISN7 VAMCs is comprised of Cisco Hyperflex brand name equipment. In order to expand this server infrastructure, only Hyperflex servers can be used due to the compatibility requirement for failover redundancy. This infrastructure is programmed and managed using software, code and service tools that are proprietary to Cisco. As such, due to compatibility and integration requirements, only Cisco Hyperflex and Cisco Nexus is interoperable and compatible with the existing VA network infrastructure. Only Cisco, or a reseller can provide the proprietary information to meet the Governments needs and ensure the infrastructure is operational. Use of other brand name servers or switches would not be interoperable in the currently fielded Cisco equipment and would necessitate a complete replacement of the Cisco infrastructure in place. The cost to replace the current Cisco infrastructure is estimated to cost approximately and would take about 12 months to complete.

This estimate is based on previous acquisition history as VISN 7 would need to repurchase initial hardware to establish a brand-new infrastructure. There are no other products that are compatible and interoperable with the existing VA Cisco hardware.

A Backup Server and Software solution is required as part of this procurement to protect the data that will be stored on the Cisco Hyperflex servers. The Backup solution will be used to make daily copies of the physical servers and the virtual server files contained on them. It is necessary to have the backup solution and Hyperconverged Infrastructure deployed in a single project to ensure the overall system is fully integrated, functional, and available for operation upon completion of the contract. The VISN 7 VAMCs currently use CommVault Complete Data Protection Software for accessing, creating and manipulating existing VA backup content. Due to the proprietary nature of the software, use of a software other than CommVault may cause a complete loss of all VISN 7 historical data. The procurement of other available software does not contain the proprietary source code necessary that would allow the VA’s historical data currently stored in VA’s existing CommVault licenses to be transferred over to the new software.

The current infrastructure communicates through source code that is based on CommVault’s proprietary data and only Commvault or a reseller must have access to this proprietary code necessary to expand the existing backup solution in order to ensure that the software is operational. Access to this code is also needed to develop updates and push them to the existing software as well as allow CommVault’s historical data to be transferred over. VA requires access to this media and cannot replace or replicate the media without a significant administrative burden and risk of data corruption when migrating. Additionally, the cost to replace or replicate the media is roughly and would take about 12 months to complete based on the previous acquisition history.

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 meet the Government's requirements. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among resellers for brand name Cisco Hyperflex Servers, Cisco Nexus LAN Switches, and CommVault

Complete Data Protection Software. 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 in March 2021 by OIT Solutions Delivery to determine what network infrastructure can meet the requirements for space and configuration integration with the existing infrastructure. Subject Matter Experts conducted online research, which consisted of a review of similar solutions. Products from Aruba, Arista, Extreme Networks, and Juniper Networks were reviewed, but could not support VA's protocols, interoperability, and compatibility requirements because they don’t have functionality to interface with VISN 7’s existing infrastructure. Only Cisco or its resellers can meet this requirement.

Market research was conducted in March 2021 by VA Subject Matter Experts to determine what server infrastructure can meet the requirements for space and configuration integration with the existing infrastructure. Subject Matter Experts conducted online research, which consisted of a review of similar solutions. Products from Dell and Nutanix were reviewed, but could not support VA's protocols, and compatibility requirements because these products do not interface with VISN 7’s existing infrastructure. Only Cisco or its resellers can meet this requirement.

Market research was conducted in May 2021 in coordination with VA’s Backup and Storage team to determine if any other sources can meet VA’s backup solution need.

Subject Matter Experts conducted online research, which consisted of a review of similar solutions. Specifically, the technical expert reviewed similar applications from Veeam and Arconis and determined that these products cannot meet the technical and interoperability requirements because they do not have the functionality to access and manipulate VISN 7s existing content. Additionally, ongoing market research efforts were conducted through regular reviews of trade publications, discussions with VA data managers and researchers, and a provider search on NASA SEWP to determine if other brand name products can meet this requirement. Based on this market research and due to the proprietary nature of the source code, it was concluded that there are no other service providers capable of performing the service, without the proprietary source code. Only Commvault or its resellers can meet this requirement.

Finally, the NASA SEWP IV Manufacturer Lookup tool was used to determine that there are several resellers of the required Cisco hardware and CommVault software. Based on the results of the market research, resellers were found capable for meeting the full requirement. As a result, there is reasonable expectation that limited competition exists among verified SDVOSB contract holders under the NASA SEWP GWAC.

9. Other Facts: N/A

Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of the acquiring brand name Cisco Hyperflex Servers, Cisco Nexus LAN Switches, and CommVault Complete Data Protection Software on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date: ____________ Signature: _________________________________ Philip Weckesser Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center

Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics