ClouderaNiFi Software and Maintenance VA-26-00059562

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, 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 Cloudera-NiFi software annual subscriptions and maintenance.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA Infrastructure Operations (IO) requires the current production Cloudera Nifi software infrastructure to be supported in support of IO accreditation applications. Nifi is dedicated software, which provides a way to move data through flow logic within Nifi across cybersecurity and operations systems and applications across IO. The current production software needs immediate maintenance vendor support to existing automated data collection flows into automated data movement, automated procedure and configurations. The proposed action will provide a brand name Cloudera software and maintenance.

The expansion of the current IO Information Technology (IT) solution is needed to continue IO�s Cybersecurity Management Network Security Cyber data orchestration. The Cloudera vendor support of Nifi architecture will continue to meet the centralized need of all existing Nifi system flows. This requirement is for six Cloudera Nifi software and maintenance.

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 control evidence collection in support of the CIO�s Material Weakness 68 critical systems. Software maintenance support will allow for remedying current open-source software defects as well as enhancing and optimizing the software; it includes all new fixes, patches, corrections, releases, updates, and upgrades to the Cloudera Nifi software. Vendor maintenance providing 24x7x7 for the software via telephone, e-mail, Website, or otherwise. The base period of performance shall be 12-months, plus two (2) 12-month option periods for the annual subscriptions and software maintenance. All software shall be delivered within 30 days after receipt of order.

The total estimated amount of this action is , inclusive of options.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Overhaul (RFO) FAR VA Deviation Subpart 16.507-7(a), entitled �Items peculiar to one manufacturer.��

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 brand name software and maintenance support.

Only brand name Cloudera Nifi software is interoperable and compatible with the current IO Nifi architecture in production. The current VA cybersecurity infrastructure utilizes Nifi software for data movement, orchestration and cybersecurity data visibility. Use of any other brand name software would require an extensive redevelopment effort on the existing data automated orchestration across at least seven (7) cybersecurity products, including but not limited to RedSeal, Tenable, Armis, Netskope, Microsoft Sentinel and Splunk. 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 Nifi solution would require additional administration, installation, training, and maintenance costs to the infrastructure to accommodate the new non-Cloudera Nifi. The estimated cost for the duplication of effort required to redevelop the existing cybersecurity is estimated to be over $1 million. This duplicative cost, which is based on previous efforts, would not be recovered through competition.

Furthermore, only Cloudera can provide the maintenance for the current production Nifi software as only Cloudera has the proprietary rights to the data required to provide fixes, patches, corrections, releases, updates, and upgrades to the Cloudera software.

Failure to acquire this brand name software 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 provided 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 evidence collection 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 Cloudera software, as well as maintenance support. In accordance with FAR 16.507-7(c)(1)(i), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. In accordance with RFO 5.301 and RFO 16.507-6(f)(1), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on Contract Opportunities and the 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 have performed ongoing market research as recently as January 2026 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 lAWS Step Functions and Control-M BMC Software. 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 Cloudera brand name software and maintenance can meet all the Government�s requirements.

Additional market research was conducted on May 22, 2026 by utilizing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) Provider Lookup Tool to determine whether the required brand name software and maintenance are available via NASA SEWP contracts. Using keyword �Cloudera�, the tool revealed 67 contract holders of Cloudera Licenses. Of the 67 contract holders, 32 of which are approved resellers, 9 are Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs), 1 is a Veteran-Owned Small Business, 7 are Women- Owned Small Businesses, 11 are Small Businesses, and 4 are Large Businesses.

Therefore, based on the results of the market research, there is reasonable expectation that competition exists among verified SDVOSB contract holders on the NASA SEWP GWAC. Furthermore, the NASA SEWP V GWAC has a dynamic catalog where line items can be added based on customer requests; therefore, as long as the required item or service is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC, items and services can be added to the catalog on a daily basis.

9. Other Facts: None