JA GigamonServices redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-20-00048582

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: This proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price task order (TO) issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) to acquire brand name Gigamon dedicated engineer services.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Information Technology Operations, Infrastructure Operations (IO) Cybersecurity Management division has a requirement for brand name Gigamon dedicated engineer services. The Gigamon dedicated support engineer will provide on-site technical assistance for system design, deployment, maintenance, and optimization of VA’s existing Gigamon hardware and software. This will allow IO staff to have real time access to the Gigamon dedicated support engineer daily for technical support of Gigamon hardware and software. The Gigamon dedicated support engineer services will consist of a 12-month base period of performance from August 7, 2020 to August 06, 2021 with two, 12-month option periods for continued support services. The total estimated value of the proposed action, inclusive of the options, is .

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 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 Above: Based on market research, as described in section 8 of this justification, VA has determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers of brand name Gigamon engineering services.

The current IO infrastructure is based on existing Gigamon hardware and software;

therefore, a brand name Gigamon support engineer is required to ensure functionality of the current Gigamon infrastructure to ensure continued operational availability. Any other engineer dedicated services solution, other than brand name Gigamon dedicated engineer services, would not be able to successfully provide services as they would be unable access Gigamon source code as the code is proprietary to Gigamon. Further, utilizing dedicated engineering support services other than Gigamon would put VA at risk of voiding current warranties on the existing Gigamon hardware and software infrastructure. Therefore, based on the proprietary nature of the Gigamon hardware

Infrastructure Operations Brand Name Gigamon Dedicated Engineering Services and software, only brand name Gigamon dedicated engineer services will meet VA’s requirements to ensure that IO’s current Gigamon infrastructure remains operational.

Failure to procure the needed brand name Gigamon dedicated engineer services would result in the inability to meet certification requirements to access Gigamon source code as the code is proprietary to Gigamon. A brand name Gigamon support engineer is required to ensure functionality of the current Gigamon infrastructure to ensure continued operational availability.

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 authorized resellers for brand name Gigamon hardware maintenance and 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 (FBO) 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: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the agency will work with the program office to continue to perform market research to consider and ascertain if any other sources can provide these services in the future.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research by reviewing other similar network monitoring engineer dedicated services solutions.

This market research is an ongoing process that started in 2019 and is continuously being conducted, as recently as January 2020. While there are other network monitoring engineer dedicated service solutions that were reviewed such as those solutions by Imperva and IBM, no other solution has access to the proprietary source code for VA’s Gigamon infrastructure. Based on the proprietary nature of the Gigamon hardware and software, only brand name Gigamon dedicated engineer services will meet VA’s requirements to ensure that IO’s current Gigamon infrastructure remains operational.

Additional market research was conducted in January 2020 utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Look-up tool to ascertain the extent of limited competition among resellers. The results of the search found that there are numerous resellers of this service that could possibly meet VA’s needs, including 17 Service-Disabled Veteran- Owned Small Businesses. Therefore, limited competition is anticipated.

9. Other Facts: N/A

Infrastructure Operations Brand Name Gigamon Dedicated Engineering Services

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of brand name Gigamon dedicated engineer services, on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the statutory authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.