Justification - Brand Name Cohesity HCI Maintenance Renewal -Redacted_Redacted.pdf

CONTROL NUMBER VA-25-00097266

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: 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 a renewal of brand name software subscription, support and hardware maintenance for its previously acquired Cohesity Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) Backup, Archival and Ransomware Protection Appliances in Sterling, VA and Chicago, IL datacenters. The maintenance will cover all the hardware and software of the HCI platform. The period of performance (POP) will be for a period of one (1) Base Period of 12 months, with three (3) additional 12-month Option Periods for a

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The VA Office of Information Security (OIS) has a requirement to renew software subscription, support and hardware maintenance for its previously acquired Cohesity Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) Backup, Archival and Ransomware Protection Appliances. The maintenance services will include support services available by phone 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, an OEM-certified technician shall arrive onsite for any incident requiring an onsite response within four (4) hours of incident notification, replacements for failed hardware shall be delivered within four hours of incident notification. The OEM shall provide current versions of all software included in the requirements. The VA requires annual renewal of maintenance and support for the software licenses in order to keep the software patched, fully functional and operational.

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 Above: Based on the market research, as described in Section 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available for the Brand Name Cohesity Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) Clusters Maintenance Renewal among several authorized resellers. The warranty and maintenance support for the Cohesity servers can only be provided by the vendor or its resellers as these servers are in place and currently providing critical continuity of operations (COOP) and disaster recovery (e.g., local backups, inter-site backup synchronization between Gateway East and Gateway North, archival management, cold vaulting storage for critical datastores, and active protection against ransomware) services to the VA. If the specific maintenance and

CONTROL NUMBER VA-25-00097266

Based on this market research it has been concluded that no other software maintenance and support providers meet the Government's requirements while being compatible with VA’s existing Cohesity software proprietary source code. Only Cohesity or its authorized resellers have access to the required source code and can provide the necessary maintenance and support services. All other options would require new and far more costly hardware and software purchases, long acquisition, implementation, retooling and retraining times. Similar solutions identified include; Veeam with additional hardware (HPE Nibble, Cisco UCS, or Dell EMC PowerProtect), Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery with additional hardware (NetApp, HPE, or Cisco UCS), Rubrik CDM on Rubrik branded appliances or Cisco UCS hardware, Veritas NetBackup plus additional hardware (NetBackup or HPE Proliant), Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager plus PowerProtect DD Series Appliance or Dell EMC PowerProtect + ECS/Object Storage, and Acronis Cyber Backup with additional hardware (HPE or Dell EMC PowerEdge servers). However, none of these solutions offer a fully integrated platform that combines all functions into a single unified interface optimized for the hardware, particularly at a lower cost and without lengthy implementation times. This feature substantially simplifies management and operations, thereby reducing support costs through operational efficiencies and provides the quickest path to reduce critical program risk as the existing platform operates without maintenance in a high-risk “run until it breaks” fashion.

With the current IT infrastructure in place in Sterling, VA and Chicago, IL, Cohesity HCI maintenance ensures VA a functional data management platform reducing complexity, lowering costs, and enhancing data protection and recovery capabilities while providing immediate risk reduction upon award.

Further market research has determined that the requirement can be met through the NASA SEWP V GWAC. The NASA SEWP V GWAC lists eleven (11) Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) approved resellers for Cohesity HCI. This research confirms that there are sufficient SDVOSB providers within the market to meet the Government’s needs.

Market research determined that the requirement can be fulfilled through NASA SEWP.

The NASA SEWP V GWAC has support for that service’s NAICS 541519. Market research determined that there are sufficient services within the market to meet the Government’s needs. Additionally, it has been determined that at least two SDVOSB resellers are able to deliver the required solution to the VA.

9. Other Facts: N/A