Redacted_M67854-15-Q-4439__Exception_to_Fair_Opportunity.pdf

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

MARINE CORPS SYSTEMS COMMAND

2200 LESTER STREET

QUANTICO, VIRGINIA 22134-6050

Code: CT-2.4

J&A Number: 15,133

Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity

1. Contracting Activity

Marine Corps Systems Command

Information Systems and Infrastructure (ISI), Contracts

Marine Corps Network and Infrastructure Services (MCNIS) Product

Management Office (PdMO)

2200 Lester Street

Quantico, VA 22134-6050

2. Nature and/or Description of the Action Being Approved

This is a Brand Name acquisition to procure Dell hardware/software warranty and support services required to upgrade two (2) suites of compute/storage equipment used within the Marine Corps Network and Infrastructure Services (MCNIS) environment at Headquarters, Marine Corps Forces, Central

Command (MARCENT). This Brand Name procurement will be conducted using the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement

(SEWP) contracts as a limited exception to the fair opportunity procedures contained in FAR 16.505.

3. Description of Supplies/Services

The proposed contract action is to procure an upgrade solution to the existing compute/storage with included management software that integrates physically and logically into the existing Dell

M1000e blade chassis providing a combination of flash and spinning hard-drives with capacity between 30 and 100TB.

Product Manager (PdM), MCNIS currently uses Dell and VMWare equipment within the MCNIS enclaves located at MARCENT. The requested product support includes hardware warranty and associated software and support services. The period of performance required is one (1) base year with a three (3) year extended warranty.

4. Identification of the Justification Rationale

While the enumerated exceptions in Federal Acquisition

Regulation (FAR) 16.505(b)(2) do not specifically apply to brand name limitations, in order to maximize fair opportunity this brand name justification has been prepared in accordance with

FAR 16.505(a)(4) and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B). Although this is a

Brand Name procurement, there are numerous resellers available on the NASA SEWP contracts thereby providing sufficient competition.

The Project Officer’s intent is to maintain existing business solutions implemented within the MCNIS environment Information

Assurance (IA) configurations and support the MCNIS user base.

5. Fair and Reasonable Determination

The Government will ensure that quoted prices are consistent with or lower than prices already listed on existing SEWP contracts. Quoted prices provided by authorized resellers will be compared to other price quotes received in response to the solicitation and all quotes will be compared against an

Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE). Further, the

Contracting Officer will seek additional discounts where possible.

Orders placed against NASA SEWP, using procedures under FAR part

16, are considered to be issued using full and open competition because the listed prices have been competed. Pursuant to FAR

5.202 and 16.505(a), a synopsis is not required, however, this justification will be posted in accordance with FAR

16.505(a)(4)(iii).

6. Description of Market Research Conducted

In accordance with the Better Buying Power 3.0 memo, “Promote

Effective Competition,” market research was conducted by the

MCNIS Project Officer using FedBizOpps. Market research was conducted via Request For Information (RFI) on FedBizOpps. The

RFI explicitly laid out specific criteria including key solution requirements including:

A. Fit – Must fit into Dell M1000E chassis with integrated connections and management

B. Minimum storage capacity requirement of 30TB

C. Compliance with 10GB, 1GB and 10 MB network connectivity requirement.

D. Single purchase and support, not separate licensing for hardware/software requirement.

At least three (3) of the vendors who responded stated that the compute/storage equipment is available under the existing SEWP contract. Though three (3) of the six (6) responding vendors provided potential solutions, only one vendor’s solution satisfactorily met all the RFI stated criteria. The other two

(2) vendor solutions have potential but would require further development and testing to prove viability and interoperability with the existing infrastructure. Therefore, market research has indicated the required hardware and associated software/warranty services for this Data/Compute solution are available on the

NASA SEWP. Additional market research was performed by sending an email directly to NASA SEWP to confirm that the compute/storage solution could be procured via NASA SEWP, and on

5 February 2015 NASA SEWP stated that this requirement is within scope on SEWP and is available from a number of contract holders. Therefore this solicitation will be competed through

NASA SEWP amongst the compute/storage equipment resellers.

7. Other Facts Supporting the Justification

Currently, MARCENT is fulfilling this Compute/Storage requirement using Dell equipment to facilitate the maintenance of the MARCENT presence in both the local and remote sites.

This will be done by increasing the local drive space available to the Dell servers in use. With that the Department of Defense

(DoD) and the Department of the Navy (DoN) have imposed directives which require long-term e-mail and document archiving. The existing IT storage capacity is insufficient to meet these mandates. Specifically, DoDD 3020.26, "Defense

Continuity Program," dated September 8, 2004, DoDI 3020.42, "Defense Continuity Plan Development," dated February 17, 2006, require that DoD components establish and implement policies and procedures designed to ensure that Component Mission Essential

Functions (MEFs) continue under all circumstances across the spectrum of potential threats.

For MARCENT, the procurement authorized by this brand name procurement ensures the infrastructure it manages, will have the necessary capability to perform the mandated requirements by ensuring the proper storage of data within the host data facility as well as for providing for data transfer between the host and a remote data facility. Thus, the back-up capability provided by these systems must operate both independently, by providing local archiving capability at that site's main/host data facility, and interdependently, by transferring the archived and stored data from the local facility to a separate, remote facility, in order to provide for redundancy and survivability of the data.

In order to meet the requirements in these directives, MARCENT will need to procure additional equipment and services. MARCENT owns and operates exclusively Dell M1000e Blade Server Chassis, so any storage capability must be fully capable of being integrated into the existing blade chassis.

This procurement will allow MARCENT to meet mandated directives and maintain like equipment thus reducing network instability.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Future Competition

Recurring market research will continue to be conducted throughout the lifecycle to examine suitability of emerging hardware and associated software technologies and products. If new hardware and associated software is capable and compatible, full and open competition will be sought to the maximum extent possible.

Additionally, under Better Buying Power 3.0, the Marine Corps is seeking to incentivize productivity and innovation in Industry and Government by thoroughly defining technically acceptable requirements that ensure needed quality while using the Lowest

Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) selection method.