JA_Redacted.pdf

CONTROL NUMBER VA-24-00076535

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs 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-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 Centrify software maintenance support for 12,147 currently installed Centrify perpetual software licenses on deployed Linux/Unix systems VA Enterprise-wide.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology, Office of Information Security has a requirement for software maintenance support for currently installed Centrify software throughout VA.

Centrify software is used to manage access for VA users to VA systems running Linux based on the Active Directory (AD) credentials of the user and manage access and elevated privileges for VA administrators to VA systems running Linux based on the AD credentials of the administrator. AD administrators communicate with AD and manage the VA systems running Linux by configuring the users that can access each system, as well as the elevated privileges each user requires. The maintenance support includes downloads, upgrades, troubleshooting, and 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year technical support for the currently installed Centrify software. These services will ensure the Software remains operational. The period of performance shall be 12-months from date of award. The total estimated price of the proposed action 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 extensive market research as described in Section 8 of this document, it has been determined that limited competition is available among resellers of the required Centrify brand name software maintenance support. The existing Centrify perpetual software licenses provide the underlying core functionality necessary for AD administrators to manage the VA systems running Linux/Unix within AD. Specifically, the existing solution includes managed agent software which is installed on each of the VA systems running Linux/Unix and a proprietary management interface to AD. This is a critical VA requirement, and no alternate software would provide the same functionality as Centrify including synchronization for integration into Active Directory. The agent software

Centrify Software Maintenance Control Number VA-24-00076535 provides communications with AD for user authentication and authorization. VA requires brand name Centrify maintenance to work with the existing VA owned brand name Centrify perpetual software licenses. Use of any other brand software would result in critical interoperability and compatibility issues with the current infrastructure due to the proprietary relationship between the management interface and the agent software.

Existing Centrify brand name software requires upgrades over time as well as maintenance support. Centrify has proprietary rights to the software and associated maintenance services. Any source that provided these services must have access to Centrify proprietary code. Access to this code is required to ensure all services provided are properly configured. Therefore, the required maintenance services must be compatible with the existing software. Only Centrify, or an authorized Centrify reseller, has the rights to perform these maintenance services. Only Centrify brand name software licenses and maintenance can meet all of VA’s requirements, specifically compatibility and interoperability with VA’s existing AD infrastructure integrated with critical business systems running Linux/Unix operating systems. Centrify has proprietary rights to the software licenses currently being used by VA throughout the virtual infrastructure. Given that Centrify has proprietary rights, there are no other authorized vendors that can provide the maintenance services without voiding the licenses currently in use. Due to Centrify copyrights, proprietary database structures, and proprietary software application programming interfaces, no other source can provide the software and support required for maintaining these high availability information systems.

Use of any other brand name item would require a complete replacement of the existing Centrify software licenses and management interface resulting in estimated delays of 1 year and 6 months and duplicative costs of a minimum of $4.7M. These estimated duplicative costs and timeframe is based on previous acquisition history for the current licensing implementation and would not be recovered through competition. Additionally, any alternative software would have to be stood up in parallel to the existing Centrify infrastructure further increasing duplication of costs.

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 Centrify software maintenance and 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 Contract 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: The Government technical experts conducted web-based market research in April 2024 by reviewing similar software and maintenance products and services from alternative vendors. Specifically, the Government technical experts reviewed alternative software from BeyondTrust Privilege Management for UNIX and Linux (PMUL) and Red Hat Identity Management. Beyond Trust does not seamlessly integrate with Active Directory for delegating machine credentials and multi-factor authentication. Red Hat Identity Manager requires the stand up of an additional domain in Active Directory which counter-acts the current project that VA has of consolidating domains. No source other than Centrify, or its authorized resellers, can access the proprietary source code to provide the required maintenance. Only Centrify has proprietary rights to the software and associated maintenance services including downloads, upgrades, troubleshooting, and 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year technical support. After review, the Government technical experts determined that no other products can meet all of VA’s functional requirements including synchronization for integration into Active Directory. Additionally, no other products or services would be compatible or interoperable with VA’s existing application management consisting of Centrify software. Further, due to proprietary constraints, the use of any alternative product would require a complete replacement of the existing Centrify infrastructure and extensive duplication of effort by the VA Platforms and Operating System teams to deploy to be stood up in parallel to the existing Centrify infrastructure. As such, no alternative product can avoid the duplicative time and effort as detailed in Section 5 of this justification.

Further market research was conducted by the Contract Specialist in May 2024 utilizing the Provider Look Up Tool on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website, which identified multiple Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) Reseller GWAC holders that provide brand name Centrify products. Therefore, limited competition is expected among SDVOSB’s for this proposed action.

9. Other Facts: None

10. Technical/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 anticipated competition and discounts among multiple value added resellers of the required brand name Centrify software maintenance support. Additionally, further price analysis of quotes received will be conducted to determine fair and reasonable price. Finally, pricing of products awarded under NASA SEWP V GWAC have already been determined to be fair and reasonable.

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

Approval

In my role as the procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of Centrify software maintenance support on an other than full and open competition 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.