JA - IRP- Award Notice.pdf

VA-21-00061745

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: This proposed action is for the award of a firm-fixed-price delivery order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Infoblox NetMRI perpetual software licensing, hardware, ancillary components, hardware warranty support, annual software maintenance support, installation, Next-Generation Network Automation (NA) team and operational services to include architecture design, testing, training, maintaining, patching, operating, change management, automation workflow planning, automation workflow development and validation services for all VA primary locations and all associated remote offices that contain networking infrastructure elements to meet VA Network System Baseline requirements services and support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA’s Office of Information and Technology, Information and Technology Operations and Services (ITOPS) has a requirement to replace network management software that ensures compatibility and interoperability with the existing Infoblox Internet Protocol (IP) Address Management (IPAM) / Domain Name Service, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and IPAM (IPAM/DDI) environment, native IP version 6 (IPv6) mandate, VA Multi-Vendor Enterprise Network (EN), Medical Systems and Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) requirements.

VA EN transports all networking traffic for all Information Technology equipment components, EHRM, Veterans Health Information Systems & Technology Architecture (VistA), VistA Imaging Systems, desktop computers, Voice over IP (VoIP) devices, VA Medical Center hosted servers, and lab equipment throughout VA. VA requires networking infrastructure to more efficiently deliver healthcare and perform its business and mission of ensuring timely inpatient and outpatient medical care services, mental health benefits, disability benefits, education benefits, housing benefits, and memorial services to over nine million Veterans. Existing NA equipment, currently installed for ITOPS, either has become, or is becoming, obsolete and needs replacement.

Infoblox NetMRI is the only Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software product that fully meets VA’s functional requirements to provide the NA foundation essential for ITOPS to proactively manage the VA Multi-Vendor EN healthcare system. VA requires a pre-built solution to provide ITOPS with topology aware infrastructure management, with dynamic network discovery, vendor agnostic End of Sale, End of Software Maintenance, End of Security Patching, End of Hardware maintenance (EoX) and Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) notices, automation solutions for network changes, configuration management, security policy and compliance

Infoblox Control Number VA-21-00061745 management inclusive of traditional and virtualized multi-vendor environments. In addition, VA requires a pre-built network configuration analysis for lifecycle and capacity planning and to identify underlying issues that can be proactively remediated to prevent unnecessary outages and to provide valuable insights into underlying network issues which positively impacts Time to Resolution. Furthermore, VA requires a software product that provides immediate operational impact without custom development delays. The solution must also support Office of Management and Budget (OMB) mandated native IPv6 for EN device discovery and automation via mandatory secure connectivity with Secure Shell Protocol and Simple Network Management Protocol. VA also requires pre-built Executive-level dashboards correlating network health scoring with issue remediation, network compliance, outstanding issues, and velocity of change resolution. This action includes 50,000 Infoblox NetMRI perpetual software licenses, storage, hardware, and hardware and software installation. The hardware consists of 40 servers, minimum of 10 controllers (with a minimum of 250TB storage per controller), 10 fabric interconnect switches, and 10 ethernet switches. This action also includes hardware warranty support and software maintenance support. This support includes hardware replacement, troubleshooting, software updates, software patches, 24x7 phone and e-mail technical support. All hardware and software will be procured in the base period. All hardware will carry a one-year warranty. This requirement also includes two Resident Engineers and a Project Manager specializing in NA implementation and management. The Resident Engineers and Project Manager will assist VA with implementation, management and use of the Infoblox NetMRI NA solution.

The Period of Performance includes one 12-month base period and four 12-month option periods for annual software maintenance support, and four Optional Tasks to provide system training, up to an additional 50,000 Infoblox NetMRI perpetual device licenses procured in quantities of 100, engineering professional services and transition support.

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 the FAR 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 paragraph 8 of this document, it is determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for the brand name Infoblox NetMRI NA solution.

Infoblox NetMRI is the only solution that can meet VA’s functional requirements and allows VA to seamlessly integrate with the current VA IPAM/DDI environment.

Specifically, only Infoblox NetMRI can provide VA with a pre-built solution that can meet the VA functional requirement to provide a curated feed of vendor agnostic EoX notices.

Additionally, Infoblox NetMRI is the only solution that provides this multi-Original

Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) EoX data presented in pre-built lifecycle analysis tools.

This provides VA the capability to forecast replacement of equipment before it reaches EoX. For example, when hardware device models and Operating System versions may no longer be supported by the OEM, this results in a greater risk of network service interruption due to lack of hardware or software support contract coverage. The Infoblox NetMRI Advisor feature automatically detects and reports when devices and software are reaching end-of-life and end-of-support so VA can properly plan to upgrade these devices. The pre-built lifecycle analysis tools provide dynamic analysis of port usage, i.e. ports that haven’t been used in a number of days. This lifecycle refresh analysis can be accomplished within minutes versus manually which can take personnel 30 days to compile for one site. Infoblox NetMRI is the only product that provides pre-built executive-level dashboards illustrating network performance, utilization, compliance, security, and availability statistics. Additionally, Infoblox NetMRI is the only out-of-the-box COTS solution that provides a curated feed of vendor agnostic PSIRT notices. Continuous updating of PSIRT notices and automated analysis of EN inventory impact is critical for appropriate triage of potential security issues. Infoblox NetMRI is also the only product that can support VA requirements with Native IPv6 functionality. Product support for Native IPv6 is imperative for VA to meet the OMB IPv6 mandated timelines, which has the first milestone defined by the end of Fiscal Year 2021 and is to be fully implemented by the end of Fiscal Year 2025.

Infoblox NetMRI is the only solution which provides out-of-the-box COTS software requiring no software development or custom programming to immediately meet VA’s functional requirements. VA requires this capability immediately to alleviate manual administration of the network operations, meet the OMB and EHRM timelines, and to replace obsolete equipment which is end of life. VA technical subject matter experts estimate that any alternative tool would require extensive custom development estimated to take a minimum of 9 months prior to any potential operational availability.

This estimate is based on VA subject matter experts working knowledge and evaluation during market research lab testing.

Only Infoblox NetMRI or an authorized reseller of Infoblox NetMRI can provide the necessary products for the immediate replacement of the NA toolset and automation software deployed throughout the VA enterprise. Additionally, only Infoblox or an authorized reseller can provide the required installation, maintenance, warranty, and operational services due to proprietary constraints. Specifically, only Infoblox NetMRI or an authorized reseller can access the proprietary source code necessary to perform these services. Failure to implement this tool will continue the inefficient and error prone manual EoX/PSIRT and lifecycle analysis process and compromise VA’s ability to perform its mission. Additionally, the functionalities only provided through use of this tool will have impacts on the support of the EHRM program and its rollout. Without use of this tool, VA’s ability to analyze technical network site readiness would be compromised which will have impacts on rollout and will degrade VA’s ability to provide comprehensive care to its Veterans.

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 Infoblox NetMRI products. 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 Contracting 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: VA Solution Delivery (SD) Engineering technical experts conducted market research concluding in May 2021, which consisted of a review and evaluation of similar products including those from vendors such as Dorado Cruz, Cisco Network Services Orchestrator, Itential, SaltStack, Gluware, Ansible/RedHat, Cloud Pak for Network Automation, LiveAction, and SolarWinds. While other networking tools and software solutions from alternative manufacturers exist, they do not fully meet all of VA’s functional requirements.

The Infoblox NetMRI product is the only product that has demonstrated meeting VA’s functional requirements and integrates natively with the VA IPAM/DDI data across the Enterprise. VA requires a solution that will provide the features and functionality required without custom coding efforts. Through market research, VA identified that only Infoblox NetMRI can replace its COTS software and services and accelerate network deployment changes, audit security policy, provide full real time visibility, provide control change and configuration management, provide valuable insight for troubleshooting and support on premise and virtualized cloud computing. Only Infoblox NetMRI allows VA to seamlessly integrate with the current VA IPAM/DDI environment in support of the OMB mandate to migrate to native IPv6. Additionally, only Infoblox NetMRI offers pre-built vendor agnostic inventory reporting that includes curated Multi- OEM EoX, PSIRT and OEM Contract data, pre-built time-based Lifecycle Analysis Utilization Optimization, and pre-built Operational analytics to discover devices, evaluate device configurations and identify underlying issues.

In addition, VA SD technical experts regularly engage with companies within the network and configuration management industry for product updates, presentations and demonstrations. VA reviews industry trade publications and conducts internet research to ascertain if any other brand name equipment is available. Market research revealed that Infoblox NetMRI features and software is the only brand toolset and software that can be added to VA’s infrastructure without a disruption to the existing services and providing an immediate impact to the operations environment.

Lastly, the Contract Specialist conducted market research on May 18, 2021, by using the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup Tool, which resulted in the identification of multiple resellers of the required Infoblox NetMRI brand name. It was determined that there are Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) resellers under NASA SEWP. As a result, there is a reasonable expectation for limited competition on the NASA SEWP V GWAC for a total SDVOSB set-aside.

9. Other Facts: None.

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 based on anticipation of competition and discounts among NASA SEWP V GWAC authorized resellers of the required brand name Infoblox NetMRI software, services and support. Additionally, catalog pricing for SEWP V GWAC holders has already been determined by NASA to be fair and reasonable. Finally, price analysis shall be conducted by comparing quotations received with the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

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

Approval

In my role as Head of the Contracting Activity, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of brand name Infoblox NetMRI perpetual software licensing, hardware, ancillary components, hardware warranty support, annual software maintenance support, installation, Next-Generation NA team and operational services 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.