Limited Source Justification- IBM z OS Products 12 2 2024_Redacted.pdf

U.S. Department of Justice Justice Management Division Procurement Services Staff Washington, D.C. 20530

Limited Source Justification –IBM z/OS SW License Renewal Page 1

Limited Source Justification

Authority: FAR 8.405-6 and 40 U.S.C 501

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity.

The requiring organization is the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Justice Management Division (JMD), Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), Service Delivery Staff (SDS). The contracting activity is the JMD Procurement Services Staff

(PSS).

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

This is a Limited Source Justification to purchase software maintenance and support from International Business Machines (IBM) z/OS Mainframe installed at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shared Data Centers in Pocatello, Idaho and Clarksburg, West Virginia. This effort is being conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program and the proposed effort will be awarded under General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract number GS35F11ODA to IBM, 6710 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 208171834.

IBM is the sole source of the required software and support. This is a followon requirement of the following Delivery Order:

Contract Number: 15JPSS19F00000879 Contracting Office: 15JPSS, JMD/PSS Vendor: International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation Total Contract Value: $2,688,942.02 Contract Type: FirmFixed Price Contract Term: October 1, 2018 – September 30, 2024 NAICS and PSC: 541511 and D319 Method of Procurement: IBM’s GSA IT MAS Limited Competition: Limited Competition (Brand Name)

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

The specific subscriptions and software maintenance required by SDS are detailed in the chart below. The estimated value of this Delivery Order for a full year of performance is $441,431.99. SDS operates two (2) Data Centers in a secure and stable environment located in Pocatello, Idaho (PITC) and Clarksburg, West Virginia (CJIS). These Data Center provide a highly available IT infrastructure that enables information sharing and

Limited Sources Justification –IBM z/OS SW License Renewal Page 2 fulfills program needs throughout the DOJ. IBM products are used by the SDS to provide and manage aroundtheclock enterprise class mainframes supporting the Z Operating System (z/OS), zLinux and z/Virtual Machine (z/VM). The z/OS services have an extensive set of system facilities and unique attributes that are well suited for processing large, complex workloads that require many I/O operations, access to large amounts of data and comprehensive security in open and virtualized platform.

4. Authority and supporting rationale including, if applicable, demonstration of the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

FAR 8.4056(a)(1)(i)B Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

Limited Sources Justification –IBM z/OS SW License Renewal Page 3

The Department initially acquired the IBM z/OS products more than 35 years ago. IBM products are currently used by the SDS to support BOP customers. The Sentry application system that manages BOP prisoners’ information can only run on an IBM mainframe due to technological constraints that could only be removed by rewriting the application to run on a different Operating System (OS) or a different platform. In addition, IBM Mainframe Software can only be procured directly from IBM via IBM’s GSA Schedule. IBM’s Mainframe licenses and maintenance are proprietary to IBM and IBM will not provide them through Value Added Resellers (VARs) because the original subscriptions were procured directly through IBM. This has been confirmed, via email, with the IBM Federal Software Client Leader on October 10, 2024. There are no other products currently available that provide similar functionality to what is provided with the IBM mainframerelated software. Due to the critical nature of these products, maintenance of the software and support must be purchased each year to ensure continuity of service from IBM.

Failure to procure the products identified herein would greatly affect the ability of the agency to continue with necessary business functions. For the time being, the risk and the potential negative consequences to the Government in not utilizing the correct OS software on their mainframe must be avoided to ensure SDS’s Data Centers continue to operate properly. The mainframe that runs this software would be nonfunctional without these software licenses and BOP would be unable to access prisoners’ information.

5. Determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

The IBM Mainframe software maintenance and support under this Delivery Order will be quoted as FirmFixedPrice. The PSS Contracting Officer (CO) will determine the price is fair and reasonable via the use of an indepth price analysis comparing the pricing against current IBM General Services Administration (GSA) rates, a comparison to the Independent Government Estimate (IGE) provided by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) and based on a comparison with historical pricing for this software maintenance.

Based on these comparisons it is anticipated the Delivery Order’s price will represent a best value to the Government.

6. Description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results, or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

While National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) V GovernmentWide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) is typically the recommended source for this type of software or maintenance, the competition in May 2018 determined that based on the quantity of mainframe software maintenance

Limited Sources Justification –IBM z/OS SW License Renewal Page 4 and support required, only IBM can fulfill this requirement and the requirement must be fulfilled via IBM’s GSA Information Technology (IT) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS).

Recent market research, conducted from October through November 2024, indicate that no IBM resellers currently provide the required support.

The IBM Federal Software Client Leader, confirmed on October 10, 2024, that the required software maintenance would still need to be procured through IBM’s GSA IT MAS and is not available through VARs. IBM no longer provides mainframe related software or maintenance through VARs due to its complexity. Therefore, based on the information above, the IBM Mainframe software maintenance required by SDS is only available via IBM and must be procured directly from IBM through their GSA IT MAS Schedule.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

None

8. Statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

This requirement will continue to be a sole source award to IBM for IBM Mainframe software maintenance and support unless IBM opens up the product for resale by its VARs or the cloudbased solution is implemented. The Government will make maximum efforts to enhance competition for future acquisitions, if similar requirements allow;

however, as these servers currently support the BOP System, it is still imperative to procure this software maintenance to support SDS’s mission.

Limited Sources Justification –IBM z/OS SW License Renewal Page 5

9. Certifications, Concurrences and Approval.

Technical/Requirements Personnel Certification:

I certify that the information contained in this document for which I am responsible is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Date

Contracting Officer Certification:

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

Date