Justification-Sole-Source-Cloud Computing Services signed Redacted.pdf

Justification and Approval for Sole Source – 75N97021C00003

“Source Selection Information – see FAR 2.101 and 3.104”

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity.

a. Federal agency and contracting activity. DHHS.

National Institutes of Health

Sponsoring organization.

National Library of Medicine

National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)

b. Project Officer information.

• Project Officer name. Dennis Benson

• Mailing address.

Bldg 38A Rm 8N801

8600 Rockville Pike, MSC 38327

Bethesda, MD 20894-3827

• E-mail address. Dennis.benson@nih.gov

• Telephone number. 301-435-5971

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

National Library of Medicine (NLM) Cloud Subscription and Administrative Support Services

Acquisition purpose and objectives. This is a bridge order to facilitate ongoing cloud support services for the NCBI. This order is initiated to prevent a lapse in service while the follow-on requirement is negotiated with the SBA.

Project background. The NCBI was established by Public Law 100-607 in November 1988 as a division of the NLM. The NCBI was given the following statutory responsibilities: (a) design, develop, implement and manage automated systems for the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis and dissemination of information about molecular biology and genetics; (b) perform research into advanced methods of computer-based information processing for analyzing the structure and function of biologically important molecules; and (c) coordinate the gathering of biomolecular information both nationally and internationally.

The NCBI is specifically charged with building and providing public access to databases and search services vital to the medical and molecular biology communities but of key interest to the public as well. Principal resources include databases of biomedical journal literature (PubMed and PubMed Central), clinical effectiveness research (PubMed Health), electronic books in life sciences and healthcare (Bookshelf), DNA and protein sequences (GenBank), sequence similarity search services (BLAST), annotated data on genes from completely sequenced genomes (Entrez Gene), protein structures and sequence/function relationships (MMDB and CDD), gene expression (GEO), genetic testing (GTR), clinical sequence variation (ClinVar), nucleotide polymorphisms (dbSNP), genome-wide association studies (dbGaP) and biological activity of small molecules (PubChem). A complete listing of the more than 40 databases can be found at the NCBI home page: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/. The NCBI joins with centers in Europe and Japan to collect, annotate and distribute all publicly available DNA sequences. It is a key repository for major large-scale sequencing projects and is actively involved in assembling and annotating the sequence data they produce. From the beginning of the Human Genome Project, the NCBI has assisted in defining and producing the consensus or ‘reference’ sequences.

Since the initial publication of a complete human genome in 2001, the cost and time required to sequence a complete human genome has declined substantially from almost $100,000,000 in 2001 to approximately $1,000 in 2016. This reduction in cost is derived from a new generation of DNA sequencing technology called “next generation DNA sequencing.” As these costs have declined, the share of the NIH’s grants and internal research programs that involve sequencing have risen from 6.4% in 2001-2005 to 15.2% from 2011- 2015. A single genome in a standard format can fill between 50 and 250 GB of data, meaning that the 100,000 genomes supported by just those two institutes require between 5 and 25 PB of disk or tape just to maintain a single copy. A major sequence resource that is currently maintained on the cloud at NIH for intramural and extramural researchers is the Sequence Read Archive (SRA).

SRA is a comprehensive collection of next generation sequencing data from human, non-human and microbial sources.

Every new submitted sample adds to the aggregate, and as the SRA grows, so does the value to biomedical research. Currently, SRA contains over 40 petabytes of storage, one of the largest and most comprehensive datasets for the genomics research community on the commercial cloud.

Cloud computing is a paradigm that provides on-demand IT capabilities such as storage, compute and networking, and potentially other categories of value-added services. Such environments are said to be ‘elastic’, expanding and contracting in scale from the user’s perspective based on the specific needs at any point in time. The functionality the cloud provides, in combination with HHS, OMB and US CIO guidance to ‘go cloud first’ have led the NCBI to conclude that it will move significant portions of its infrastructure to cloud platform(s).

To support the operations and management of data that the NCBI makes available to the NIH and the broader scientif ic community, the NCBI has been acquiring cloud computing services since September 2016 from Solution Guidance Corporation (SGC), an SBA-certif ied 8(a) small disadvantage business, under the following three contracts:

1. Contract Number: HHSN276201600013C $3,827,050 09-08-16 through 10-

15-19

2. Contract Number: 75N97019C00003 $3,978,576 03-01-19 through 03-07-

3. Contract Number: 75N97020C00004 $3,976,408 05-15-20 through 04-30-21

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

a. Project title. Cloud Computing and Cloud Support Services

b. Project description.

• Requirement type.

Research & development (R&D) R & D support services Support services (non-R&D) Supplies/equipment Information technology (IT) Construction Architect-engineer (A & E) services Design-build Other (specify): ____________________

• Type of action.

New requirement

Follow-on Other (specify): ______________________

• Proposed contract/order type.

Firm-fixed-price Other fixed-price (specify, e.g., f ixed-price award-fee, fixed-price incentive-fee): __________ Cost-plus-fixed-fee Other cost reimbursement (specify, e.g., cost-plus-award-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee): ___________ Time and materials Indefinite delivery (specify whether indefinite quantity, definite quantity, or requirements): ___________ Other (specify): ___________ Completion Form Term form

• Acquisition identification number 75N97021C00003

c. Total estimated dollar value and performance/delivery period.

$558,000, 04/13/2021-05/12/2021

4. Identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

X This acquisition is conducted under the authority of 41 United States Code (U.S.C.) 1901 as set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.5

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor(s) unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

a. Name and address of the proposed contractor(s). Solution Guidance Corporation 14291 Park Meadow Drive Suite 150 Chantilly VA 20151

b. Nature of the acquisition and proposed unique qualifications of the contractor(s). As part of the contracted services it provides, SGC has been able to pass along to the NCBI significant GCP access subscription services discounts that it has negotiated with Google’s reseller, Carahsoft. This represents a significant savings to the program of approximately $500K per 12-month period. In addition to the discounts provided by SGC, a considerable amount of technical support is provided in the area of account management support to operate and maintain a user account and billing services system which itemizes data usage for each account on a daily, per user basis.

6. Description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable. Indicate whether a Beta Sam notice was or will be publicized as required by FAR Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under FAR 5.202 applies.

Urgent and compelling reasons existed to prevent posting a notice in advance in order to avoid harm to the Government. The need to execute an emergency order to prevent shutdown of these critical services prevented advanced notice.

Because data usage varies, funds expired sooner than concurrence by the SBA could be obtained.

Sources are not being solicited at this time. Current support for NCBI for cloud services is being satisfied by partnership agreement between HHS and SBA.

NCBI has procured Cloud support services from Solution Guidance under the 8(a) program since 2016. Due to the increase in data requirements, available funds on the existing contract expires much sooner than the original 8(a) approval anticipated. The lack of available funding would force an immediate shutdown of services which would negatively impact the access to data by institutes, researchers, and programs that NCBI supports. NLM has been working with the SBA over the past month to secure a new agreement on the heels of the expiration of the existing contract.

7. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost/price to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

Prices will be evaluated against previous purchase history to ensure pricing is fair and reasonable.

8. Description of the market research conducted (see FAR Part 10) and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

NLM is currently working with the SBA to either identify sources cable of continuing the cloud support and accounting support services identified by the SOW in the future or dissolving the existing agreement in accordance with the

FAR. Until such time that a strategy is finalized and an approach for follow-on services is negotiated, NCBI is required to maintain the existing arrangement with the 8(a) program. Timing and lack of approval from an available Business Development Specialist has resulted in a critical need to execute a short-term bridge to continue operations until authorization is granted to either dissolve the current arrangement or initiate a new agreement on a competitive basis. Some market research has been conducted, but until the determination is made as to continuing under the 8(a) program or dissolving the current agreement, no additional market research is being conducted at this time.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition.

The NCBI has experienced significant increase in user access across its entire suite of genomic resources which constitute the major utilization of cloud resources. The growth is partly due to the explosive growth in DNA sequence data as the instrumentation costs of sequencing decrease. Moreover, more intense use of analytic software on the cloud-based storage of genomic data further drives increases in cloud compute costs. The rapid increases in cloud storage and computing costs have been the result of sequencing projects done by the academic and commercial sector who deposit sequencing results in public sequence databases operated by NCBI such as Sequence Read Archive (SRA).

The cloud services are also used for the PubMed database of the biomedical literature, one of the most frequently accessed databases in the U.S., government or commercial, with over 3 million users daily. The pattern of usage over the past five years demonstrates constant, year over year increases of up to 25% due to increased demand by both the general public and research community. With the onset of the pandemic these resources have seen an even greater surge in usage since they track both the underlying genomic data (sequences) of the virus and virus variants responsible for COVID as well as scientif ic papers published on the basic research of COVID as well as medical and public health measures for diagnosis and treatment.

It is critical that there be no lapse in these critical services which support both NLM and NIH OD-funded projects and are unique data services unavailable from any alternate sources. PubMed, for example, is designated as a service that cannot be shut down during any lapse of funding.

10. Listing of sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition. Because this requirement has never been published outside of the 8(a) program, there are no other sources expressing interest at this time.

11. Statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the required supplies or services.