JA - IBM - XIV Gen 3.pdf

IBM - XIV Gen 3 Storage Systems Control Number VA-20-00041420 Maintenance

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: This proposed action is for a firm-fixed price order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for International Business Machines (IBM) hardware and software maintenance and hard drive retention.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), Information Technology Operations and Services (ITOPS), Infrastructure Operations (IO), requires hardware and software maintenance for the IBM Storage Are Network (SAN) currently in use at Quantico Information Technology Center (QITC). The IBM SAN provides data storage for the entire Memorial benefits (MEM) environment. The IBM hardware and software maintenance shall consist of technical support via telephone, e-mail, or internet to troubleshoot malfunctioning hardware or software that restores full operation and accessibility to the original redundant configuration. In addition, hardware and software maintenance shall consist of firmware upgrades and 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 Contractor shall provide one telephone number for VA to contact and open a maintenance support call. The Contractor shall staff the telephone service 24 x 7 x 4 365/366 (Hours per Day x Days per Week x Hours per initial call x Days per Year). All VA support calls shall be initiated by the VA designated point of contact. The period of performance is from September 27, 2020 to September 26, 2021 with one 12-month option period. The total estimated price of the proposed action is including options.

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 document, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for the brand name IBM hardware and software maintenance.

The maintenance is required for the IBM - XIV Gen 3 storage system currently in production. Continued maintenance and support are required because the manufacturer’s three-year warranty expires this year. The current IBM system is providing data storage for all MEM environments to include DEV ALPHA BETA and Production. The VA requires support that is interoperable with the existing products for continued operational availability. Only IBM or a reseller can provide the necessary maintenance, because of the propriety source code required to develop and implement updates. No other source can provide the required maintenance that meets VA’s unique functional requirements and no other maintenance is compatible with or interoperable with the existing IBM products. Therefore, only IBM and its resellers can meet the Government’s requirements.

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. 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 market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted in March 2020. Government technical experts reviewed similar products to ascertain if these items could meet VA’s requirements. Specifically, the Government’s technical experts conducted web-based research on web sites for similar items provide by Dell and HP. Although these products possess similar capabilities, only IBM or a reseller has access to the proprietary source code specific to the maintenance for this product. As a result of the market research, the technical experts confirmed that as the source code required to issue the maintenance is proprietary, IBM is the only source capable of providing the required maintenance and upgrades of the existing IBM Storage Controller. No other firm has the capability of developing and issuing hardware and software maintenance coverage necessary to support existing IO requirements.

The Contract Specialist (CS) conducted market research from March through April 2020 by using the SEWP market research tools. Based on this market research, the CS found resellers under SEWP capable of meeting the full requirement.

9. Other Facts: None