JA - FY25 Bull HWSW Maint - redacted_Redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-25-00007600

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, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for a firm-fixed-price delivery order to renew brand name Bull NovaScale Mainframe hardware and software maintenance support and onsite technical support for the current Bull NovaScale Mainframe infrastructure. The proposed action will be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) on a sole source basis to Merlin International, Inc. (Merlin) located at 8330 Boone Blvd., Vienna, VA, 22182.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed action provides VA’s Office of Information & Technology, Information Technology Operations and Services, Infrastructure Operations with continued brand name Bull NovaScale Mainframe hardware and software maintenance support, and onsite technical support necessary for the sustainment of the current Bull NovaScale Mainframe infrastructure. This includes support for all hardware and perpetual software licenses operating within the Veterans Benefits Administration's (VBA) Benefits Delivery Network (BDN) Payment System. The BDN Payment System is VBA’s primary database and benefit system, utilized to process entitlements for VA's Education Service and distribute billions of dollars each year under its various Veteran benefits programs, including burial awards and the processing of benefit disbursements. The BDN Payment System consists of Bull NovaScale Mainframe with integral front-end Gateway Network Service Processors (GNSP), Bull Escala Gateway servers, Bull Escala Print Servers, and Bull Virtual Tape Systems (VTS). Eviden USA, Inc. (Eviden) is the Original Equipment Manufacturer of the brand name Bull NovaScale Mainframe and Merlin is the sole provider of the required maintenance services as detailed in Section 8 of this document. The Bull mainframes and VTS are critical elements within a network of VA owned legacy systems that comprise VA's BDN Payment System for the Hines Information Technology Center (HITC) and the Philadelphia Information Technology Center (PITC).

The renewal of the Bull NovaScale Mainframe hardware and software maintenance support and onsite technical support, to be provided under the proposed effort, will ensure that the BDN payment system, which is a critical component of VA's benefits system, remains usable and operational.

The required hardware maintenance includes repairs and/or replacement of Bull NovaScale Mainframe components. The onsite technical support provides dedicated onsite technicians at a facility to manage databases, install required upgrades, build accounts, assist end users in troubleshooting and setting up jobs, and fully restore the system to operational status in the event of a system failure. Hardware maintenance services shall be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year. The required software maintenance support consists of minor software upgrades, bug fixes, Bull Hardware-Software Control Number VA-25-00007600 Maintenance and Support authorized provider, to provide the aforementioned Bull maintenance and services. The research consisted of reviewing similar mainframe computer performance software, products, and support services to include Dell, IBM, and Oracle. None of the products offered by these companies can meet VA's interoperability and compatibility requirements. Dell, IBM, and Oracle’s software cannot communicate with or through the existing Bull proprietary source code. In addition, the Government’s technical experts reviewed Forrester Research, Gartner Research, and conducted research on technical mainframe computer websites and web-based forums related to the mainframe computer performance requirements to identify potential mainframe computer performance software solutions that could meet the Government’s requirements. All of the products and services offered by these sources were found unable to support the VA’s application source code, TP8 application implementation and interface to the Service Migration Gateways, batch JCL, and production scripts in their present form. VA verified with Eviden in April 2024, that Merlin is the sole authorized source for the required Bull maintenance and services to maintain the current Bull NovaScale mainframes infrastructure.

Only Merlin, as the sole authorized reseller, can provide the requisite brand name hardware and software maintenance and technical support required by the Government.

No other vendor has the ability or data rights to access the software source code to develop and push software updates and patches. Additionally, no other vendor can provide maintenance or technical support on Eviden’s products so to safeguard its operational status. Any other source would need software distribution rights from Eviden and/or access to Eviden’s Bull NovaScale proprietary source code in order to repair and properly configure the existing Bull hardware and develop/push software patches. If another source was to provide hardware or software maintenance and technical support without the Bull proprietary source code, it would not be able to push upgrades to the existing software or fix and configure the hardware and software. Access to the proprietary source code is critical to meet VA’s need to maintain the current Bull hardware and software as operational. No company other than a Eviden authorized reseller has such access.

9. Other Facts: None.

Bull Hardware-Software Control Number VA-25-00007600 Maintenance and Support

13. Office of General Counsel (OGC) Review

I have reviewed this document and find it legally sufficient, based on the representations set forth in the documents and, if any, attachments. The Head of the Contracting Activity approval is an independently supported decision not wholly reliant on the legal sufficiency determination.

Date

14. Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA) Approval

In my role as HCA, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition for the renewal of Bull NovaScale Mainframe hardware and software maintenance support, 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 services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date

10/03/2024

10/04/2024