JA IXIA_REDACTED_Redacted.pdf

Keysight Technologies Hardware Reset Control Number: VA-21-00058668

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR 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 Delivery Order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the procurement of brand name Keysight Technologies Vision ONE Network Tap appliances and maintenance.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA Infrastructure Operations (IO) requires a refresh of the existing production cybersecurity tap infrastructure to cover the IO data center environments. A tap is a dedicated hardware device, which provides a way to access the network data flowing across the network segment in and out of the data centers. VA is replacing all of the appliances currently in production at the Information Technology Centers located in Austin, TX; Hines, IL; Philadelphia, PA;

and Martinsburg, WV. The current production appliances are in need of refreshing to new hardware to sustain new growth and network capacity. The proposed action will provide a brand name Keysight Technologies Vision ONE managed network cybersecurity tap appliances and maintenance. The refresh of the current IO Information Technology (IT) solutions is needed to be able to sustain IO’s IT data center inline coverage with the Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) and Web Application Firewalls (WAF) production infrastructure. The refresh will also address ongoing existing performance limitations if not able to address network traffic or host-specific source whitelisting rules, including addressing existing limitations with external tap performance monitoring causing negative operational performance impact. The architecture refresh will meet the centralized IT cybersecurity standard currently implemented in IO using AppStack central management console. This requirement is for four Keysight Technologies Vision ONE appliances that will supports existing data center cybersecurity architecture requirements in production at VA Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) and IO.

Additionally, the IO Cybersecurity group has a requirement to sustain IO’s network environment against the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Federal Information Cybersecurity Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), and Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) controls. Additionally, appliance maintenance is required. Appliance maintenance support will allow for remedying appliance defects as well as enhancing and optimizing the appliance; it includes all new fixes, patches, corrections, releases, updates, and upgrades to the Keysight Technologies Vision ONE device. Vendor maintenance providing “24x7x365” assistance for the device via telephone, e-mail, Website, or otherwise.

The base period of performance shall be 12 months, plus three 12-month option periods for the renewal of the hardware maintenance if exercised. All appliances shall be delivered within 30 days after receipt of order.

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 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 paragraph 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available for the aforementioned brand name appliances and maintenance support. Only brand name Keysight Technologies Vision ONE Network Tap appliances are interoperable and compatible with the current IO IPS and WAF architecture in production. VA is not replacing the current network cybersecurity infrastructure. The current cybersecurity infrastructure utilizes Keysight Technologies Vision ONE Network appliances for inline inspections and provide the availability needed for uninterrupted network connectivity. Use of any other brand name appliance would require an extensive redevelopment effort on the existing IPS and WAF IO network/cybersecurity infrastructure located at Denver, CO; Sacramento, CA; Brooklyn, NY; Austin, TX; Hines, IL; Martinsburg, WV and Philadelphia, PA. Redevelopment of cybersecurity infrastructure consists of establishing new standards procedures and separate diagnostics with respect to configuration, cybersecurity, access, and command procedures that also support other cybersecurity technologies dependent on existing production processes and configurations. Additional risks would be incurred, as the redevelopment of the IPS and WAF solutions would require additional administration, installation, training, and maintenance costs to the infrastructure in order to accommodate the new non- Keysight Technologies Vision ONE tap. The cost for the duplication of effort required to redevelop the existing cybersecurity is estimated to be over $4 million.

This duplicative cost, which is based on previous efforts, would not be recovered through competition.

Furthermore, only Keysight can provide the maintenance for the Vision ONE Network Tap appliance(s) as only Keysight has the proprietary rights to the data required to provide fixes, patches, corrections, releases, updates, and upgrades to the Keysight Vision ONE device.

Failure to acquire these brand name appliances would have an adverse effect on the existing Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) accredited National Institute of Standards and Technology security controls. If the brand name appliances and maintenance are not procured existing performance and capabilities limitations will void FISMA Enterprise Common Controls providing inheritance to

DevSecOps infrastructure and applications. Authority to Operate accreditations will be negatively impacted by missing controls, leaving VA without its countermeasures to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its information systems and Veteran data.

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 Keysight Technologies Vision ONE Network Tap appliances, as well as maintenance support. 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. Specifically, IO will continue to monitor market trends, new/emerging products and look for compatible and more advanced technologies to meet VA needs.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts performed market research as recently as January 2021 via online vendor materials, and researching other similar appliance hardware and software, to ascertain if these items could meet VA’s requirements. Specifically, the Government’s technical experts reviewed similar solutions from DataCom Systems, Gigamon, NetScout and Interface Masters. None of the other brand-name appliances could meet VA’s interoperability requirements.

Based on this market research, the Government’s technical experts have determined only Keysight Technologies Vision ONE brand name appliance and maintenance can meet all of the Government’s requirements.

Additionally, the Government conducted market research in April 2021 by using the NASA SEWP V GWAC Research and Provider Lookup tools to determine what multiple vendors are capable of meeting the requirement. Based on this market research, multiple Vendor Information Page (VIP) verified service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses are capable of meeting the full requirement.

9. Other Facts: None