DOC026_Redacted.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER

CARDEROCK DIVISION

9500 MACARTHUR BOULEVARD

WEST BETHESDA, MD 20817-510 0

IW UJLY Nftlt TO

J&A Number: 0233-18-004-00 Code: 10411 Requisition Number: N0016718Q0055

BRAND NAME JUSTIFICATION

1. Contracting Activity

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD), Contracting & Acquisitions Department (Code 02).

2. Description of the Action Being Approved

This is a Brand Name Justification to be awarded on a lowest price technically-acceptable basis. The proposed action is for the acquisition of Penguin Computing, Inc. {Penguin) components for a tech refresh of the oldest portions of the existing classified and unclassified High Performance Computing (HPC) Clusters using authorized resellers of Penguin products. The tech refresh will include the following components, detailed in the attached Requirements for Penguin Computing Cluster Update:

• Tundra ES Computational Nodes, including Qty. 101 Relion X01132g CFD Compute Nodes with 128GB RAM and dual Intel Xeon Gold 5115 CPUs and Qty. 15 Relion X01132g FEA Compute Nodes with 256GB RAM and dual Intel Xeon Gold 6134 CPUs;

• EDR Infrastructure, with Mellanox EDR InfiniBand Fabric, including Mellanox SB7890 switches, to connect the nodes to the existing Inf iniBand fabric;

• Administrative Network Infrastructure, including Arctica 4804ip GigE Network switches, Netgear FS750T2 IPMI Network switches, Arctica 4806xt lOGe Network switches;

• Rack Infrastructure Open Bridge Rack (Dual Zone 400U);

• Cluster Management Software Scyld Support Extension, ClusterWare HPC, Moab (License and Support); and

• Integration Services, including installation and configuration.

This justification document is in accordance with FAR 6.302-l(c) ( 1) .

The anticipated value of the acquisition is $

Re quired delivery date is 1 August 2018 .

This action is a new firm-fixed price (FFP) contract using FY18 Se rvice Cost Center (SCC) funding .

3. Descrip tion of Supplies/Services

NSWCCD, Code 1041, Ship Engineering and Analysis Technology Ce nter (SEATech) is seeking to acquire a tech refresh of some of the oldest compute nodes of the existing Penguin HPC computational clusters. This acquisition will replace some of the compute nodes that have the Harpertown chip microarchitecture, introduced in 2007. This will bring a needed improvement in the InfiniBand fabric. The updated compute nodes will reside in a leading-edge, Open Bridge Rac k configurati on, which i s more power e f ficient and makes the nodes easier to maintain and service.

Wi thout this purchase, the classified and unclassified HPC computational clusters will be insufficient to meet the needs of the NSWCCD Engineers and Naval Architects . Current hardware is tax ed by large model sizes and user demand~ and is quickly becoming obsolete. The computational models run on these systems support, among others, the CREATE, Columbia Class, Virginia Class, and DDG-1000 Programs.

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition

10 u.s.c. 2304(c) (1), "The property or services needed by the agency are available from only one responsible source or only from a limited number of responsible sources and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the agency."

Wh i le only one source is capable of manufacturing the required supplies, that source has authorized sellers who may also compete for the contract.

5 . Identification of Limited Justification Rationale

The hardware and software being acquired must be compatible with the existing Penguin Class i fied HPC clusters, as the new hardware and software will be fully integrated with the existing Scyld ClusterWare Clusters. Scyld ClusterWare is not compatible with non-certified software and hardware. Due to the extensive libraries and use of this system across NSWCCD, any effort to change to a different manufacturer's system would not be cost effective and would negatively impact NSWCCD's fleet support operations. Also, no other hardware is compatible with the current Penguin hardware and attempts to integrate non-certified hardware will invalidate the warranty on the cluster.

If a different brand of compute node were selected, both the classified and unclassified HPC clusters would have to be completely replaced with hardware from the alternate vendor.

This would require an expenditure of approximately $ for this purchase, plus an additional cost of approximately $ to replace the existing nodes, Ethernet Network infrastructure, cluster management suite software, and integration services, making the total purchase approximately $ This would require a Capital Investment Program {CIP) purchase, which would not be available until at least Fiscal Year (FY) 25 or later due to the financial demands on the limited budget of that program. Additionally, $ exceeds the annual budget of the CIP program, so these items would have to be purchased in multiple FYs. The acquisition and support fees for the CIP purchases would amount to approximately $ During this extended delay, the existing hardware would quickly become insufficient for the needs of approximately 200 engineers, imposing delays, additional costs, and the probability of work stoppages on the programs that SEATech supports. These include the CREATE, Columbia Class, Virginia Class, and DDG-1000 Programs, for Sponsors such as the NAVSEA, Office of Naval Research {ONR), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Outside training would be required for the Administrators, followed by an unknown amount of on-the-job training. The time required for the NSWCCD Engineers and Naval Architects to learn a new system is widely variable and thus incalculable. Completely new hardware would also require the Tech Codes to reevaluate and revalidate the licensed Technical Software the NSWCCD Engineers rely upon, leading to delays and potential additional costs of up to $ The remaining technical software, both in-house and commercial, would have to be recompiled, debugged, and revalidated, imposing further delays of approximately three months for the best case to a year for the worst case, depending upon the particular software, and additional costs for the Government labor. This would obligate the Technical Codes, not Code 104, to complete this work.

6. Description of Efforts Made to Solicit Offers from as Many Offerers as Practicable

A Sources Sought was posted to FBO on 20 April 2018 for a period of seven days, in accordance with DFARS PGI 206.302-l(d) . There were two responses received from the Sources Sought, which indicates that at least two vendors are likely to submit quotes.

The requirement was synopsized and publicly posted to the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOps) website on 1 May 2018 and there have been two responses to date.

Penguin is the sole manufacturer of Penguin brand name servers and Scyld ClusterWare clusters. However, Penguin is not the sole distributor of its products; there are a limited number of resellers authorized to sell Penguin ' s products to the Federal Government.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Costs

The Procuring Contracting Officer (PCO) will determine that the proposed order represents the best value (as defined in FAR 2.101) and results in the lowest overall cost alternative (considering price, special features, administrative costs, etc.)

to meet the Government's minimum requirement.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Competition

NSWCCD will likely have reason to solicit similar supplies/services in the future. If other vendors are identified by Penguin as authorized resellers of Penguin supplies, these vendors may be considered in future solicitations . If barriers to compatibility among non-Penguin hardware/software manufacturers can be eliminated at little or no additional cost, non-Penguin supplies may be considered for acquisition in future solicitations.

The circumstances surrounding the need to obtain the required supplies/services without providing full and open competition will be reviewed annually by the PCO.

TECHNICAL AND REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION - (FAR 6.303-2(b))

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, except as noted herein, are complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

TECHNICAL COGNIZANCE:

WHITNEY GARY D 1161562382 DigitallysignedbyWHITNEY.GARY.D.1161562382

• • · Date: 2018.07.20 13:00:23 -04'00'

Signature Gary Whitney, Code 0225 (301) 227-3451 Date

ADVOCATE FOR COMPETITION- FAR 6.304(a) (2)