Netscout JA Final - Redacted.pdf

NETSCOUT Maintenance Renewal Control Number: VA-21-00066974

VVVVAV0000XXXXX00000000XXXXX00

0XXXXX000XXXXX000XXXXX7311

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, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price Delivery Order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government- Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the renewal of brand name NETSCOUT hardware and software maintenance.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Information Technology Operations and Services, Solution Delivery, requires the renewal of its existing brand name NETSCOUT hardware and software maintenance. The NETSCOUT maintenance support consists of 24/7 telephone and email support, hardware updates, patches, and defect support, including maintenance coverage to repair or replace system equipment components that restore full operation and accessibility within 48 hours. NETSCOUT products cannot receive new software patches and essential vulnerability updates without maintenance support, which poses significant operational and security risks to enterprise systems. This action is for hardware and software maintenance only. No additional hardware or software will be procured as a result of this action. The period of performance is a base period of 12 months from July 1, 2021 through June

30, 2022 and shall include two 12-month option periods for continued maintenance.

The total estimated price of the proposed action is $6,361,131.00, inclusive of all option periods.

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 eight of this justification, it was determined that competition is available among resellers of the required brand name NETSCOUT hardware and software maintenance on the NASA SEWP V GWAC. VA currently utilizes NETSCOUT brand hardware and software to meet VA’s requirements for real-time visibility and security services to include network detection, prevention, and analytics. VA requires maintenance support on its existing NETSCOUT hardware and software and only NETSCOUT, or a reseller, can provide the necessary hardware firmware updates, patches and defect support, because of the proprietary source code. No other hardware and software developer have the intellectual property rights to access and modify the NETSCOUT source code, which is required in order to execute the needed hardware updates, patches and defect support. Only NETSCOUT or its resellers can access the proprietary software source code needed to provide the required hardware and software maintenance. Access to this source code is also required to develop and push updates and upgrades to the existing software. Additionally, any alternate solution from any other vendor would require VA to completely replace the existing NETSCOUT hardware and software in place and re-develop a proprietary data packet capture infrastructure working through the cradle-to-grave system development life cycle for the enterprise data packet capture efforts at the programs this procurement supports. VA technical experts estimate that the cost to re-engineer and switch to an alternate solution would exceed $7M. These duplicated costs, which are based on previous acquisition history/ documentation, and do not include the cost of training and annual maintenance support subscription, would not be recovered through competition. If VA were to choose another OEM, a delivery delay of a minimum of one (1) year is anticipated due to solution re-design, re-implementation, re-testing and re-network certification.

Failure to renew this maintenance will result in an extensive and complex redesign, development and integration of a new VA enterprise-wide data packet capture, application performance and network monitoring solution. This, in turn, will negatively impact and significantly compromise VA’s ability to perform its mission of detecting threats, and network performance issues to effectively secure critical Veteran-centric data necessary to provide medical care and benefits.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government's requirements. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that competition is available among resellers of the required NETSCOUT hardware and software maintenance. In accordance with

FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301, 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for the requirements described herein, the Government’s technical experts will continue to perform market research to determine if there are any products which become available that will enable future requirements to be competed. VA anticipates the existing NETSCOUT environment will reach end-of-life in approximately three years. VA anticipates, and is planning for, a competitive award for a complete replacement solution at that time.

8. Market Research: VA technical experts conducted market research in December 2020 via online web searches which consisted of a review of similar products from alternative manufacturers to include Riverbed, ViaVi, Broadcom, Kemp, and Logic Monitor. While other hardware and software solutions from alternative manufacturers exist, no other brand name hardware and software components from those manufacturers can interoperate and be compatible with the existing NETSCOUT hardware and software due to the proprietary source code. Based on the market research, only NETSCOUT or its resellers can access NETSCOUT’s proprietary source code which is required to maintain the existing hardware and software.

Furthermore, the market research confirmed that no other maintenance support providers have access to the proprietary data required to provide the necessary maintenance support.

In addition, a Request for Information (RFI) was issued on April 14, 2021 via the NASA SEWP V website to ascertain if there were sources that could meet the Government’s requirements for brand name NETSCOUT hardware and software maintenance. The RFI closed on April 23, 2021 and there were four valid responses received to include two responses from Vendor Information Pages Verified Service Disable Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs), all of which were found to technically conform to the Product Description. Based on the information provided, the Government Program Manager determined there are multiple resellers under the

NASA SEWP V GWAC capable of meeting the Government’s requirements.

9. Other Facts: None