JA Oracle SuperCluster redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-20-00071126

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: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed priced delivery 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 brand name Oracle hardware, associated software, maintenance and technical support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), Service Delivery and Engineering (SDE), Infrastructure Operations (IO) has a requirement for six (6) brand name Oracle Exadata Storage servers, associated software, maintenance and technical support services to augment the ongoing technical refresh which began in 2016. VA’s existing infrastructure consists of the Oracle SuperCluster M8 Platform which has an Internal ZFS clustered disk array as well as Exadata storage servers. The Government requires High Input/Output (I/O) Exadata storage servers, three (3) for the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) and three (3) for the Disaster Recovery (DR) site located at the Hines Information Technology Center (HITC). The Exadata storage servers will be used to increase the total available storage for project databases which is necessary to meet the growing data storage needs for stored applications. The Exadata Storage servers shall be factory configured with one (1) static Physical Domain at each location and consist of the following: Six (6) X8-2 High-Capacity (HC) with rail kits for field installation; Two (2) Exadata database Machine X8: Oracle’s Enterprise Linux Software Image for Storage Server Upgrades; and 12 Sun Rack Jumper, Straight, 3 Meter, C14 plug, C13 Connector, 15 Amp power cord for factory installation. VA also requires vendor installation and configuration services, as well as 24 hours a day x 7 days a week x 365 days a year hardware and software maintenance and technical support. Maintenance shall include all new fixes, patches, releases, updates, versions and upgrades, for the Firmware and OS, as well as hardware replacement. Technical Support includes data and device retention, and hardware and software troubleshooting support via the telephone, email, website, or otherwise. The period of performance is 12 months, with all hardware to be delivered within 30 days of award.

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”.

FY20 Oracle SuperCluster Hardware Control Number VA-20-00071126

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in Section 8 of this document, it has been determined that limited competition is available among resellers for the required Oracle hardware, associated software, maintenance and technical support. Only brand name Oracle hardware, software and services meet all of VA’s requirements, specifically compatibility and interoperability with VA’s existing data storage infrastructure. The existing Solaris Virtual System (SVS) is comprised of Oracle SuperCluster hardware which runs on Oracle’s proprietary operating system (OS), Solaris. The existing Solaris-based Oracle SuperCluster stores data for the following applications: Administrative Data Repository (ADR), Health Data Repository (HDR) ((Clinical Data Repository/Health Data Repository) CHD was part of HDR), Veterans Benefits (VBACorp), and Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW/VD2). No other brand hardware is compatible with the existing Solaris OS. Only Oracle SuperCluster hardware will operate within this integrated environment and provide the required hardware/OS compatibility, allowing VA to continue its ongoing infrastructure hardware technical refresh, while also meeting the growing data storage needs for the stored applications. In addition, no other brand hardware can be integrated into the existing supercluster chassis due to Oracle’s proprietary design. The Oracle Supercluster is binarily hardcoded making the Supercluster proprietary in nature within the Supercluster chassis rack. Consideration of alternate brands would require replacing the existing hardware and then require development efforts to migrate the applications to new platforms and transition data’s endianness. VA has invested over 20-man-years of effort integrating Oracle into deployment, monitoring. and reporting systems. To move to a replacement system is estimated to cost VA over $10M in new hardware, training, and system down time, representing a substantial duplication of cost which is not expected to be recovered through competition. This estimate is based on previous acquisition history. Failure to procure this hardware would negatively impact growth capability for the databases currently stored which would have a detrimental impact on Veterans benefits.

The Oracle brand name Solaris OS and Oracle storage hardware require technical support, including installation, initial configuration and hardware maintenance. Oracle has proprietary rights to the OS and associated technical support. Therefore, the required associated technical support must be compatible with the existing OS. Only Oracle, or an Oracle reseller, has the rights to perform the associated technical support.

Any other source must have access to the proprietary rights to ensure all the associated technical support provided is properly configured to both the OS and storage infrastructure. Without access to the proprietary rights, another source would not be able to push through updates.

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 Oracle hardware, software and associated support services. 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

FY20 Oracle SuperCluster Hardware Control Number VA-20-00071126 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 System for Award Management 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: The Government technical experts conducted market research in May 2020 to ascertain the ability of any other source besides Oracle or a reseller to provide the aforementioned hardware, associated software, maintenance and technical support services. Market research consisted of web-based research of similar brands including offerings from NetApp and Dell EMC. While other brands offered similar solutions, the existing Oracle SuperCluster infrastructure is designed with an underlying proprietary OS and will only integrate with other brand name Oracle hardware components with the same proprietary OS. No other manufacturer has the capability of providing the required hardware, associated software, maintenance and technical support that can integrate into the Oracle SuperCluster M8 Platform to support existing EO requirements. Based on the above, only Oracle hardware, associated software, maintenance and technical support services meets all of the Government’s requirements.

Additional market research was conducted by Government representatives in July 2020 by using the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider LookUp which resulted in the identification of multiple resellers of the required brand name Oracle storage equipment, associated software and technical support services. As a result, there is reasonable expectation that limited competition exists on the NASA SEWP V GWAC for the Oracle hardware maintenance support and integrated equipment. As a result, there is reasonable expectation that limited competition exists on the NASA SEWP V GWAC for the brand name Oracle hardware.

9. Other Facts: None.