JA25-017_NIWC Atlantic Cloud_Redacted.pdf

CUI

Controlled By: DISA Controlled By: PS8511 CUI Category: PROCURE Distribution/Dissemination Control: FEDCON POC: disa.scott.ditco.mbx.ditco-jwcc@mail.mil

JUSTIFICATION & APPROVAL FOR FEDERAL ACQUISITION

REGULATION SUBPART 16.5 ACQUISITIONS

EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Multiple Award Contract

Orders under Fair Opportunity Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505, Defense FAR Supplement 216.505-70, Procedures, Guidance, and Information 216.505-70

Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request Number: N6523625MP00013 Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) Contract Number: HC105023D0005 Task Order (TO) Number: To be determined Procurement Title: Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) ATLANTIC Cloud Estimated Value:

Statutory and Regulatory Authority: 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1) and FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B)

EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Number: JA25-017

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as the Procuring Activity Competition Advocate (PACA), hereby approve this exception to fair opportunity pursuant to the Statutory Authority of 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1) and Regulatory Authority of FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B).

1. REQUESTING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE:

Requesting Agency:

U.S. Navy (NAVY) / NIWC ATLANTIC

PO BOX 190022

North Charleston, SC 29419-9022 United States of America

Contracting Activity:

Defense Information Systems Agency/Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization/PS8511

2300 East Drive Scott Air Force Base, IL 62225-5406

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S):

This action is to issue a firm-fixed-price TO against the JWCC Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Contract for NIWC ATLANTIC Cloud. This TO will be issued directly to Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS). The anticipated period of performance is for a base period of 12 months with, one 12-month option period. The total estimated value is which will be funded by Operations & Maintenance and Procurement funds.

JA25-017 Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) ATLANTIC Cloud

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3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

This requirement is for NIWC to host a mix of Windows and Linux clients in the Higher Than Secret Enclave. We will run web-based applications to support the fleet along with sustainment pieces to support the Navy.

Collaborative Development Environment (CDE) is a secure development environment that was designed using infrastructure as code (via Ansible) to leverage all applicable resources available and relevant to the regions in which it is deployed. CDE is a multi-Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) deployment that hosts a variety of development and operations (DevOps) applications such as Atlassian offerings (Jira/Confluence/Bitbucket), Jenkins, and JFrog's Artifactory and Xray offerings, among others.

4. SUPPORTING RATIONALE, INCLUDING A DEMONSTRATION THAT THE

PROPOSED CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS OR THE NATURE OF THE

ACQUISITION REQUIRES USE OF AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY:

(a) Exception to Fair Opportunity.

FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) - 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.

(b) Description of the Justification.

• Infrastructure, systems, and applications must be “like in kind” across Non-Classified

Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPR), Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPR), and Top Secret (TS) networks. Develop once / deploy to all network domains (technology/capability parity across all network domains).

• Re-building to a different cloud service provider (CSP) would take multiple years of effort and cost over in labor and infrastructure costs.

• NIPR Synchro and TS CDE have an Authority to Operate (ATO). Because systems have already been built and secured, it would take over two years to transition applications. A new CSP would require restarting the Risk Management Framework effort in its entirety.

This drives the Government’s need for compatibility with the existing infrastructure.

(c) Justification.

(1) Minimum Government requirements.

CDE provides an environment that hosts a suite of tools supporting software development and agile methodologies supporting cross-agency sharing of code, documentation, and project management artifacts. The projects hosted on CDE are research and development projects intended for Department of Navy (DoN) users.

CDE resides in a logical isolated section within AWS - General Support System -

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Sensitive (AWS-GSS-S) VPC and hosts authentication services for DoN users.

The cloud service offerings must continue at their current level in order to support multiple transient VPCs supporting both production and development environments for personnel supporting Ship's Signal Exploitation Equipment Increment software development.

(2) Proposed sole source contractor.

AWS

(3) Discussion regarding the cause of the sole source situation.

CDE hosts a suite of tools supporting software development and agile methodologies supporting cross-agency sharing of code, documentation, and project management artifacts. The projects hosted on CDE are research and development projects intended for DoN users.

The CDE Infrastructure is a collection of AWS CloudFormation stacks containing Base, Compliance, and Deployment VPCs. The Base VPC contains Identity Managers, Applications, AWS Relational Databases, Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) access, and the Bastion Gateway instance for access into and out of the Deployment VPCs. The Compliance VPC contains Applications, AWS Relational Databases, and DMZ access.

The Deployment VPC contains Peered and Private subnets.

Navy Intelligence Community (IC) customers have engineered, architected, and operationalized their cloud environments using resources and software proprietary to AWS. Migration from the current cloud environment to another CSP would present portability, interoperability, and cost challenges as the services AWS provides are specialized and unique to their CSP environment. Additionally, Navy IC customers would need to maintain operations in current AWS cloud environment while the required technical and security standards in the new environment are developed, tested, and approved. Navy IC customers collectively spent approximately since 2016 to develop and operationalize their cloud computing capability using AWS. This drive’s the Government’s current need of compatibility with the existing environment. The ability of the CSP to seamlessly integrate into the existing infrastructure is essential to meeting the Government’s current need. Customers estimate that changing their CSP from AWS to another vendor would likely cost over for fiscal years 2025 and 2026 due to the following unplanned expenses: dual cloud operations, program application reengineering, program data migration, and staffing efforts required to secure the ATO in a new environment. Moreover, application development efforts would be halted until a new CSP environment is fully developed, tested, and approved.

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(4) Demonstration of unique source.

AWS is the only CSP that can meet the Government’s requirement since no other CSP can seamlessly integrate into the existing environment. Currently, the CDE and Synchro TS ATOs are on the Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) side and were approved by Office of Naval Intelligence. This Harmonized Tariff Schedule instance is a copy of the lower enclaves purposed, which allows for all unclassified and up through SCI material to be loaded and collaborated on. The CDE leverages AWS’s unique capabilities (as laid out in Paragraph 4(c)(3) above) necessary to perform the required work, as starting over would have a significant and immediate impact on the fleet's operations and thus would not meet the Government’s current need.

(5) Procurement discussion.

AWS is the only CSP that meets all the Government’s requirements and whose environment is compatible with the current CDE Cloud Environment. Market research indicates the other JWCC cloud service providers similar products, or products lacking particular features, do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet, the Agency’s needs.

Other products cannot be extended into the AWS environment and, thus, do not meet the Government’s minimum requirements.

(6) Impact.

Significant compatibility issues would be incurred by switching off AWS cloud environments. These tools have been heavily embedded and invested into the CDE and Synchro. These components within the infrastructure involves the necessary pipeline and suite of tools that encompass and involve configuration management, infrastructure as code, the advanced virtual and cloud environments, and the brokered support relationships to obtain critical resources. Failure to patch the fleet's systems would pose a critical cybersecurity risk, leaving the fleet highly vulnerable to threats.

5. COST/PRICE FAIR AND REASONABLE DETERMINATION:

A determination that the price is fair and reasonable will be based on a comparison of the contractor’s proposal to the independent government cost estimate and the JWCC Catalog pricing, including any discounts, which was previously found to be fair and reasonable and based on the contractor’s commercial pricing.

6. MARKET RESEARCH:

Market research for the basic JWCC Contracts was conducted and resulted in a signed market research report on 9 Nov 2021, that was revalidated and recertified on July 29, 2024. After a survey of the market, it was concluded that the JWCC Contract is in the Government’s best interest due to technical feasibility and cost to the Government.

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Additional Research was conducted October 3, 2024 by reviewing the specific capabilities in the JWCC Contracts and it was determined that AWS is the only source capable of fulfilling the Government’s minimum needs in the manner and time frame required. NIWC conducted the Additional Research by reaching out to Oracle, Google, Microsoft, and AWS to see how they can meet our needs to Higher Than Secret cloud. Everyone responded except Google. We would not be able to transfer from our AWS IL6 environment to a TS environment in Microsoft or Oracle. Based on the responses, none of the other CSPs are able to meet the Government’s need as they are not able to seamlessly integrate into the existing environment.

7. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS: None.

8. ACTIONS THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME BARRIERS

THAT LED TO THE EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY:

(a) Procurement History:

Contract Number: Not applicable (N/A) Task Order Number: N/A Period of Performance: N/A Competitive Status: N/A Business Size: N/A

(b) Over the next two years we will look to introduce competition among other CSPs. We will talk to people who use the other CSPs and discuss lessons learned and how they migrated to that CSP. We will look to set up development environments to test out ways we can benefit from another CSP.

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TECHNICAL CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the J&A are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: Mr. William Wheeler SIGNATURE: See signature page

TITLE/AGENCY/ORGANIZATION: Scientist, U.S. Navy

(NAVY)

PHONE:

DATE:

REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the J&A are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: Mr. William Wheeler SIGNATURE: See signature page

TITLE/AGENCY/ORGANIZATION: Scientist, U.S. Navy

(NAVY)

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: Jacob Benhoff SIGNATURE: See signature page

TITLE/AGENCY/ORGANIZATION: JWCC Contracting Officer, DISA/DITCO/PS85

PROCURING ACTIVITY COMPETITION ADVOCATE APPROVAL: I have reviewed this justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Since this justification does not exceed $15M, this review serves as approval and my written determination that the aforementioned FAR circumstances apply.

NAME: Gay Arnold SIGNATURE: See signature page

TITLE/AGENCY/ORGANIZATION: Procuring Activity Competition Advocate

ALL QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS JUSTIFICATION ARE TO BE REFERRED TO

Darryl Boswell, Contract Specialist, darryl.boswell2.civ@mail.mil.