JA Gigamon signed Redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-20-00033823

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 action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the procurement of brand name Gigamon hardware and software maintenance and technical support.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology, Information Technology Operations and Services, Infrastructure Operations, Austin Information Technology Center, located at 1615 Woodward Street, Austin, Texas 78772 has a requirement for brand name Gigamon hardware and software maintenance with 24/7 technical support via telephone, e-mail, or internet to troubleshoot malfunctioning equipment/components or provide replacement equipment/components that restore full operation and accessibility to the original redundant component configuration. Initial response to all requests for maintenance shall be initiated within one hour of the initial notification from VA.

Additionally, hardware maintenance shall consist of firmware upgrades, updates to include major releases, point releases, service releases and security releases of applicable firmware on a quarterly basis, and/or within 48 hours in cases where a high-risk vulnerability fix becomes available. The hardware and supporting software are part of an integrated monitoring system that was built upon Gigamon devices.

The maintenance is required to ensure the hardware remains operational. No hardware or software is being procured as a result of this action. The period of performance shall be from date of award through 4/30/2021 with two 12-month option periods. The total estimate price of this action inclusive of options 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 under the statutory authority of Section 41 U.S.C.

4106(c)(2) as implemented by 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: Based on market research, as described in section 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available among resellers for this requirement. The current IO infrastructure is based

Gigamon Hardware and Software Maintenance and Technical Support Control Number: VA-20-00033823 on existing Gigamon hardware and VA requires support compatible with the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. The existing, in-use, Gigamon devices and products located at five IO data centers only integrate with other Gigamon devices. Specifically, both the administrative control interface, which controls the network visibility fabric and the physical device interfaces for clustering and load balancing, are proprietary and only Gigamon devices are able to integrate into the existing Gigamon infrastructure. No other manufacturer has the capability of providing hardware or software maintenance or required technical support for existing IO requirements because the network visibility/port aggregation/filtering hardware solutions from other vendors will not integrate with the existing IO Gigamon infrastructure. Additionally, only Gigamon, or a reseller, can provide the required firmware updates since access to Gigamon’s proprietary code is required to ensure all the services provided are properly configured. If a different hardware and software maintenance and technical support solution were implemented, it would require the existing Gigamon infrastructure to be replaced. It is estimated that this would result in duplicative costs of over $20,000,000.00 which would not be recovered via competition. Additionally, it is estimated that this transition would take over two years to implement. These estimates are based on the costs associated with procurement and implementation of the existing Gigamon infrastructure and on the time needed for individual site coordination and transition time post-implementation. Finally, even if another brand of hardware and software maintenance and technical support existed that could integrate with existing Gigamon infrastructure, utilization of another brand of hardware and software maintenance and technical support may jeopardize existing warranties in place with the hardware and software. Failure to procure the required brand name Gigamon hardware and software maintenance and technical support would severely impact the security visibility of Department of Homeland Security and VA cybersecurity. To replace the system would not be cost or time effective due to the current investments into this system by VA mentioned above.

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 Gigamon hardware and software maintenance with technical support. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2), this action will be synopsized within 14 days of award on the Federal Business Opportunities page and the justification will be made publicly available. In addition, in accordance with 16.505(a)(4(iii)(A), this Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity will be posted on the NASA SEWP V website with the solicitation.

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

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted in January 2020. Government technical subject matter experts (SME) conducted web-based market research to ascertain if any other non-proprietary but fully compatible and functional hardware and software maintenance and technical support is available. VA SMEs compared hardware and software maintenance with technical support from various vendors such as CommView and Solar Winds Netflow who have similar offerings and determined that none have access to the proprietary source code required to maintain the existing Gigamon infrastructure. No other manufacturer has the capability of providing hardware or software maintenance or required technical support for Gigamon to support existing IO requirements. The products researched would be unable to integrate with the existing IO Gigamon infrastructure.

Additional market research was conducted in April 2020 by the Contract Specialist utilizing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) Provider Lookup tool that identified multiple prospective Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business GWAC holders that are resellers of the required Gigamon services and were also verified in the Vendor Information Pages (VIP) database. Additionally, NASA SEWP V has a dynamic product catalog where line items can be added based on customer requests; therefore, as long as the required item or service is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC, items and services can be added to a NASA SEWP V GWAC holder’s catalog on a daily basis. These requirements have been found to be within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC in a separate determination.

9. Other Facts: N/A

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

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. Contracts awarded on NASA SEWP V GWAC have already been determined to be fair and reasonable. Price competition is anticipated as there are multiple potential vendors on NASA SEWP V GWAC. Finally, the successful quote will be compared to the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

Date: __________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: _ __

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

Date: __________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: _ __

13. Legal Sufficiency Certification: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support an exception to fair opportunity and deem it legally sufficient.

Legal Counsel

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of brand name Gigamon hardware and software maintenance and technical 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: ____________ Signature:

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

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