NACS_Pre-Proposal_Conference_at_ARC_Q&A_Set_1_03142017.pdf

NNA17554082R

NASA Advanced Computing Services (NACS)

Pre-Proposal Conference

Ames Research Center

Question & Answer Set 1

March 14, 2017

Questions and answers posted after issuance of the draft RFP and prior to issuance of the final

RFP are for guidance only. The final RFP will supersede and replace the draft RFP and all related documentation, including Pres-Proposal Conference/Industry day communications and these questions and answers.

1Q. When will the cost template be posted on FBO?

1A. We anticipate posting the cost template mid-March and we welcome additional questions/feedback at that time.

2Q. Is the Cover Letter to be considered a standalone document? If not, should bidders place the cover letter with the Price Volume?

2A. Yes, the Cover Letter is a standalone document. Refer to Section L.5, Proposal Preparation

– General Instruction, paragraph (b).

3Q. The table identifies SOW paragraphs starting with “5” such as

“5.1” or “5.3- 5.16” should these start with “4”? Reference Section B, page B-1.

3A. Yes.

4Q. Will the requirement allow or will the Government consider for Fixed Firm Price and Fixed

Price?

4A. The Government is not considering Firm Fixed Price.

5Q. For each option period there are line items C and D (i.e. 01C & 01D) for IDIQ task orders for technical services. Since IDIQ task orders are not priced/bid as part of the submission

(essentially CLINs C & D are $0), how will the Government determine the option year value of the Base and Option periods? Will the Government apply a "Plug" number to each C and D line items for evaluation?

Q&A Set 1

5A. The price for the IDIQ (CLINs C and D) will be evaluated for selection purposes. The

Government will provide plug numbers for ODCs and the NASA standard category descriptions and labor hours.

6Q. Where will "work for others" (entities outside of NASA) be accounted for within the CLIN structure?

6A. ARC and/or GSFC will issue Task Orders under the IDIQ CLINs.

7Q. Will the Sample Tasks be awarded?

7A. No.

8Q. Will the IDIQ task orders be awarded at the time of the contract award?

8A. No. The Core will begin at contract award. We will award the first task order(s) within the phase‐in period.

9Q. Is it allowable for a Contractor to use Independent Contractor?

9A. Yes.

10Q. Will the Government-furnished Task Management System for the NACS contract to be used by both ARC and GSFC? Will the Government provide additional details regarding system functionality and the Contractor’s role when using the Task Management system?

10A. The Government is looking into a Government-Furnished Task Management System that can support more than one NASA Center. The Government will provide additional details regarding the system’s functionality and the Contractor’s role.

11Q. Regarding existing data and transactional analytics tools used by the NAS and NCCS, will the Government provide a list of tools used by ARC and GSFC? Do these tools share data currently?

11A. The tools used at each site are listed under Government Furnished Software. Each site utilizes the tools and resulting data independently.

12Q. Will the Government consider a Phase-In period longer than 30 days, perhaps 45 or 60 days? Reference Section F.2, Period of Performance.

12A. The Government believes 30 days is sufficient time for Phase-In.

13Q. Is the Government expecting ARC and GSFC each to employ a Site Manager? Reference

Section H.2, Key Personnel and Facilities.

13A. The management structure, including makeup, location, and other relevant details, is up to the Offeror and should be addressed in the proposal.

14Q. Will the Government provide two Contracting Officers (COs) and Contracting Officer

Representatives (CORs)? If so, will one be a lead and responsible for the administration of the overall contract?

14A. There will be a CO and COR at NASA ARC and GSFC. Both Centers will work together on the administration of the contract.

15Q. Why is requirement for Reports of Contractor Acquired Government Property limited to

Goddard? Reference G.9, Reports of Contractor Acquired Government Property (GSFC 52.245-

93), page G-9.

15A. This is a Goddard Center-specific clause and additional requirement in accordance with subparagraph (b)(1)(i) of NFS 1852.245-71, Installation Accountable Government—Alt I.

Refer to Section G.5, Installation-Accountable Government Property (NFS 1852.245-71) and

NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR) 4200.1, NASA Equipment Management Procedural

Requirements, supports the policy outlined in the NASA Policy Directive (NPD) 4200.1, Equipment Management. It contains procedures to use for the acquisition, management, assigning responsibility, identifying the points of contact, and use of NASA-owned equipment.

16Q. Does the Government intend to fully fund for equipment and software essential to meet requirements under this contract?

16A. Yes.

17Q. Does the Government intend to spread out costs for Hardware and Software over Base and

Option Periods for Hardware and Software to meet its mission Via Payment Schedules, Payment

Plans, Lease Plans (Ownership or Non-Ownership Options)?

17A. At the NACS sites, the Government will have requirements for hardware, software, maintenance, and other support services throughout each fiscal year. The NACS contract may be used to procure any of these types of items throughout the contract year (base period and each of the option periods). If the Contractor is given permission to procure for the Government, the terms and conditions, type of purchase (or lease), and payment schedule will be agreed upon prior to purchasing the item.

18Q. Draft RFP H.15, Contractor Purchasing, states, “As such, the contractor is prohibited from purchasing items for direct use by the government as these items should be procured by the

Government. The contractor shall not perform purchasing functions or act in any other way as an agent for the government. Examples of prohibited purchases that are typical for most support service contracts include the purchase, for government use, of the following: office supplies, hardware, personal computers and other peripheral devices and related supplies, vehicles, personal and convenience items.” Sample Task #2 states: “To operate and maintain the operational environments for both the HECC at Ames Research Center (ARC) and NCCS at

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the contractor shall operate as the procurement agent for both new functionality and operational costs. This task supports both the NAS and the NCCS in procuring essential hardware, software, maintenance, and support services to enable scientific discover and engineering excellence throughout the Agency.” These two statements seem to be in conflict. Please clarify this apparent contradiction.

18A. The contractor may determine a need to procure supplies and services from outside vendors which are incidental to performing this SOW. H.15 Contractor Purchasing clause is used to prevent the purchase items that do not support the requirements of the contract. The language in the Sample Task B will be revised for the Final RFP.

19Q. Please provide additional details on the security requirements including specific SOW areas and labor categories requiring security clearances. When will the security, clearances be required? Could you please clarify requirements for the management and handling of classified information and when such clearances will be required? Reference Section I.7, Security

Classification Requirement.

19A. There is no requirement to access classified information at this time. See Federal

Acquisition Regulation clause 52.204-2.

20Q. Please consider in establishing a Technical Library as soon as possible, ideally before the final RFP, for the acquisition to provide technical documents and copies of task orders, associated SOWs, and deliverables etc., from the current NS3 and CISTO contracts.

20A. The Government will consider the recommendation.

Sections L and M:

21Q. Section L.6(c) lists blank dividers, tabs, and glossary of abbreviations and acronyms as being excluded from the page count restrictions. Please confirm that the title page, cover letter, table of contents, and list of figures are not included in the page count limitation.

21A. The Government will revise Section L.6 (c) to indicate that the title pages/slides, tables of contents, cross-referencing matrix, lists of acronyms, lists of figures and lists of tables, blank dividers, tabs, and glossaries are excluded from the page/slide counts.

22Q. The requirements for H.12(c) Data Rights and Subcontracting is included in the Section L of the Draft RFP however, it is not included in Section M. Will the Government include H.12(c) in the evaluation of the OCI Plan? Reference L.8 (a)(A)(5) and M.2 (c)(5).

22A. The Government will review and revise Sections L and M for the Final RFP.

23Q. Please consider adding to Section L.8(a)A. for a written Phase-In Approach. This would allow NASA to assess Offerors’ approach to delivering the expeditious, low-risk phase-in required by SOW Section 4.1, Phase-In but not accommodated in current L or M requirements.

The addition of a Phase-In approach section under the Management Approach would necessitate an adjustment to M.2 (c) to include a 6th section for evaluation consideration.

23A. The Government believes the current evaluation subfactors for Mission Suitability is appropriate.

24Q. Section M states, "The compatibility between the proposed technical approach and proposed total compensation to accomplish the work will be an important consideration.” How will the Government determine compatibility, and how will the impact to Mission Suitability be quantified/applied? Reference, Section M.2 (b)(1), page M-4

24A. Potential Offerors should review the requirements and evaluation of the Total

Compensation Plan in Sections L and M.

Oral Presentation:

25Q. Draft RFP Section L.5 requires Offeror’s to submit complete paper copies of Volume I

(which includes both oral presentation and written material). Draft RFP section L.7(a) requires

Offeror’s to submit a sealed package containing presentation materials.

The written/paper copies of Volume I should combine the oral presentation slides and the written sections into one complete volume.

25A. Yes.

26Q. Will a separate set of oral presentation slides be required to be delivered in a sealed package for use during the presentation?

26A. Yes, the Offeror must submit their oral presentation materials with their offers. Refer to

Section L.7(a).

27Q. Paragraph L.7 (c) states: "The Offeror shall have the proposed Site Manager and up to four

(4) of the Offeror's Key Personnel present the oral presentation (limit five (5) presenters).

Does the Government intend to direct offerors to propose only one site manager? If so, is there a desired location for this site manager? If the Government is directing a site manager, what are the position requirements for this role? Is the Government directing that one (1) site manager be designated as Key? If so, and the Government desires more than one site manager, where should the Key site manager be located?

27A. The Offeror will be responsible for proposing their Management Structure. The

Government will revise the language in paragraph (c) of Section L.7 for the Final RFP.

28Q. The schedule in L.7(m) shows 120 total minutes for the management and technical slides.

When will the past performance slides be presented? How much time will be allotted?

28A. The Government will revise the language and footnote in Section L.7(m) for the Final

RFP.

29Q. Please consider extending oral presentation length to 180 minutes at a minimum.

29A. The Government will consider allowing more time for the oral presentation.

30Q. If a slide is not shown and addressed during oral presentation, but is submitted on time, will it be evaluated?

30A. All slides submitted must be presented during oral presentation. L.7, paragraph (k), Slides are considered as part of the Mission Suitability proposal and will be incorporated into the contract.

31Q. The oral presentation scheduled referenced in Section L.7, paragraph (m) identifies that

Offeror’s will be given 5 minutes per clarification response. Consider adding an additional 5 minutes per clarification to allow presenters to collaboratively prepare their answer.

31A. The Government believes 5 minutes per clarification response is sufficient time. The purpose of clarification is opportunity for the Offerors to clarify, and will not constitute discussion within the meaning of FAR 15.306(d). Reference Section L.7(j), page L-8.

32Q. Can the Government clarify what version of Microsoft Power Point and/or Adobe Acrobat we can use for the presentation slides we submit? Reference Section L.7, page L-7.

32A. Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 and Adobe Acrobat 11.

33Q. Please provide details on the Government-provided presentation equipment (computer, software, projector, and screen) to ensure that Offeror’s prepare compatible slides.

33A. The Government will provide details for the Final RFP.

Responses to Sample Tasks (Oral):

34Q. The Offeror shall provide a detailed response to each sample task. In addition, the Offeror shall address the following for each sample task: Would the Government update this requirement by removing the words “In addition,” to match the evaluation criteria specified in

Section M.2 (c), B.3 Responses to Sample Tasks (Oral) RFP: L.8 (a) B.3.

34A. The Government will review and revise the language for clarity in the Final RFP, if necessary.

35Q. Can the Government clarify whether they are asking us to develop a plan that evaluates disruptive technologies in the near term (technologies which exist but not yet used by NASA) versus evaluation of technologies that maybe 10 years or longer before available? Reference

Section L.8, (B) Technical Approach, Case Study A Disruptive Technologies, page L-13.

35A. The Government will review and revise the language for clarity in the Final RFP, if necessary.

36Q. Can the government clarify if the “Compute Expansion” line in the provided table includes the procurement of major HPC system resources (i.e. Pleiades or Electra from SGI) or is this procurement of these systems at this level handled by a government procurement? Reference

Attachment J.1(b) Attachment 12 Sample Task B, page 1.

36A. This would be a major HPC system expansion procured through the Contractor for either existing systems or for a new system.

37Q. Reference Attachment J.1(b) Attachment 12 Sample Task B, page 1.

Section 1 (Description of Work), paragraph 3, states " The contractor shall provide an adequate basis of estimate and full estimated cost to complete all procurements for the contract year based on the budget provided below."

Section 3 (Labor Profile), states "No labor resources are expected for this task. All labor resources necessary to carry out this procurement task are covered in other task orders."

Please clarify what is required in the basis of estimate?

37A. The basis of estimate should include all contractor costs associated with the representative purchases, including, but not limited to, any proposed fees, material and handling, etc. No labor should be included in the overall cost.

Small Business Utilization:

38Q. If the Prime Offeror is a Small Business and is not required to submit a Small Business

Subcontracting Plan, will the evaluation and associated points be based solely on the

"Commitment to the Small Business Program" requirement in Section L?

38A. Yes.

39Q. Will Small Business Prime Offerors be evaluated on their “Commitment to Small Business

Program” based on meeting Small Business Socioeconomic Goals even though they are not required to submit a Small Business Subcontracting Plan?

39A. For Small Business Offerors, NASA will evaluate this only if subcontracting opportunities exist.

Past Performance:

40Q. How will the Past Performance confidence level be utilized and get factored into an overall evaluation?

40A. Refer to M.2(b)(2) Past Performance Factor on page M-4. Of the evaluation factors, Mission Suitability is the most important and Cost is more important than Past Performance.

Mission Suitability and Past Performance, when combined, are significantly more important than

Cost.

41Q. Will the Government consider making all Past Performance (Volume II) submission requirements written-only allowing Offerors to use the given oral presentation timeframe to focus on the Mission Suitability requirements?

41A. The Government believes that the oral presentation format is adequate to completely, accurately, and effectively present past performance information, focusing on key points.

42Q. Is the requirement for the Past Performance and Relevant Contracts Table to reflect Full

Time Equivalent (FTE) or Work Year Equivalent (WYE) Employees? Reference the Past

Performance and Relevant Contracts Table on page L-20.

42A. Work Year Equivalent (WYE) Employees.

43Q. Can Offerors combine two contracts into one past performance reference, provided that both contracts are for the same scope of work and same customer (i.e., follow-on contracts) within the last 5 years?

43A. Each individual contract submitted in the Past Performance volume must meet the dollar value and period of performance threshold.

44Q. NASA defines “Major Subcontractors”, as subcontracting dollars of $25,000,000 or more covering a performance period of up to 5 years. Given that this contract covers a 10-year period of performance should this be a period up to 10 years?

44A. The goal of the Past Performance factor is to obtain information regarding the relevant past performance of the Offeror and its Major Subcontractors therefore, five (5) years is correct.

45Q. Does the Government expect each of the three Prime past performance citations and any

Major Subcontractor past performance citations to include all SOW elements and be of essentially the same size, content, and complexity, or will citations containing most but not all

SOW elements be given equal weight and relevance as long as, in total, the Offeror’s team past performance covers ALL SOW elements to similar (not the same) size, content, and complexity?

45A. No, the Government does not expect for each relevant contract to cover all of the SOW areas.

46Q. Section L.8(b)(C) Past Performance Questionnaires states, “This information shall concern only work performed by the Offeror’s or Major Subcontractors’ business unit that will perform the work under this contract, if awarded.”

Will the Government consider including the following alternative language for the final RFP, “This information shall concern work performed by the Offeror’s or Major Subcontractors’ business unit that will perform the work under this contract, or if the Offeror or Major

Subcontractors wish to submit information concerning worked performed by another business unit or an affiliate outside of the Offeror’s or Major Subcontractors’ business unit, then the

Offeror or Major Subcontractor(s) must demonstrate that the resources (e.g. workforce, management, facilities, or other resources) of the affiliate will affect the performance of work under this contract, if awarded.”

If not, will the Government consider adding language to this clause that will more specifically address how it will credit Offerors and Major Subcontractors with the past performance of another business unit or affiliated company outside the Offeror’s or Major Subcontractor’s business unit which will contribute to contract performance?

46A. The Government will review the Past Performance Questionnaire language for the Final

RFP.

Statement of Work (SOW):

47Q. The SOW does not mention Capital Planning and Investment Reporting for HPC assets specifically. Will support for Capital Planning and Investment Controls and Reporting be in scope of the NACS contract?

47A. No.

48Q. The SOW, Section 3, Paragraph 3, Bullet 4 states: "All of GSFC Technical Services (SOW

Sections 4.3 through 4.15) will be part of the ID/IQ component. Please confirm that ARC "Core

Technical Services (SOW Section 4.3 through 4.9)" will be supported by the CPFF/CPAF component, and all of the Core Technical Services at GSFC will be supported by the ID/IQ component for "Core Technical Services (Section 4.3 through 4.15)" as described.

48A. Yes.

49Q. Can the government clarify for purposes of development of the phase-in plan where in the system lifecycle each NACS system will be at the time of transition? For example, identify if any of the NACS systems (i.e. Electra or Pleiades or Discover) are in the procurement phase. Can the government clarify if this information will be included in the incumbent’s phase-out plan?

Reference J.1(a) Attachment 1 SOW, paragraph 4.4, page 9

49A. It is expected that work will not be interrupted during phase-in and phase-out. The

Government and current Contractor will provide adequate information about the status of any ongoing integration efforts at the time of the phase-in.

50Q. Will the following documents, listed in Section 6 of the SOW be provided with the Final

RFP or be release before the Final RFP? (NCCS IT Security Plan, GSFC Code 600 IT Security

Plan, NAS Security Model)

50A. No, the documents identified above are sensitive documents and will not be publicly released.

51Q. Can the government add to the tables the specific sites (GSFC, ARC, or both) for each software item? Reference Attachment J.1(b) Attachment 4 Government Furnished Computer

Software.

51A. The Government will consider the recommendation.

52Q. Can the Government breakdown the 2,000/month user generated support tickets count by category, type and item (CTI) where they come NAS and NCCS. Reference J.1(a) Attachment

1, SOW, Section 4.8 Information Technology Security

52A. The trouble ticket estimate is for the NAS site. The NAS systems users generate approximately 2,000 support tickets per month. The tickets are handled by the SOW Section 4.6, User Services and not by SOW Section 4.8, Information Technology Security. The tickets range from automated notifications about undeliverable email or down computer nodes to users requesting assistance with improving code performance, information about compiler flags, or special processing priority.

53Q. How is Splunk currently used in the NACS/NCCS? What is the licensed capacity of the

Splunk solution (xGB daily ingestion)?

53A. Splunk is used for data analytics and as a front end at the NAS site. The exact specifics can be considered sensitive. Suffice to say that the license size is sufficient for NAS needs.

54Q. Under General Server and Desktop Support on page 20 of the SOW it states “Specific activities include providing Lead System Administrator (LSA)-certified system…”

54A. The requirement will be updated for the Final RFP/SOW.

Total Compensation Plan:

55Q. How will the Government evaluate the “completeness, appropriateness and reasonableness of the Offeror’s overall Total Compensation Plan"?

55A. Potential Offerors should review the requirements and evaluation of the Total

Compensation Plan in Sections L and M.

56Q. Will the Government accept separate sealed package total compensation plan submissions for each Major and Non-Major Subcontractor?

56A. Yes.

Section J/Attachments:

57Q. Can the Government provide the following software details to Attachment 4?

This information is currently only held by the incumbent and could represent a disadvantage to other competitors. Some items are vague (e.g. Oracle software from developer/owner Oracle does not clearly identify the specific product being referenced), inaccurate (e.g. Firefox software from developer/owner Redhat instead of Mozilla) and/or feature sets available to do work are unknown without versioning data.

a) Full Product Name

b) Product version

Maintenance data if the Government expects contractor to maintain license and maintenance currency

57A. Oracle Database (commonly referred to as Oracle RDBMS or simply as Oracle) is an object-relational database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation.

The Government usually upgrades to the latest stable release of the software. All software maintenance is provided by the software vendors and purchased under the contract.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-relational_database_management_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation

58Q. The Government Property List, J.1(a), Attachment 3 can the Government clarify if property starting at the second header row (7th row from the top) on page 9 of 25 is the start of

Goddard property or does Goddard property start at the top of page 10 of 25?

58A. The Goddard property starts at the top of page 10.

59Q. Can the Government provide maintenance data for J.1(a), Attachment 3, Government

Property List, if the Government expects contractor to maintain license and maintenance currency?

59A. The Government is responsible for maintaining the equipment according to its operational requirements. Maintenance is procured either through the Government or through the Contractor.

The Government does not deem it necessary to provide the current status of the maintenance of the equipment for this procurement.

60Q. A number of software tools in J.1(a), Government Furnished Computer Software, Attachment 4 are developed/owned by the Government. Can documentation relative to the software's purpose, architecture and features be provided?

60A. The Contractor will be a user of the Government Furnished Computer Software and tools.

Each software application has its own developer for enhancements and maintenance.

Documentation for the NASA-owned furnished software is publicly available on the web, from the developer or at https://software.nasa.gov.

Equipment and Software:

61Q. Does ARC have Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS)?

61A. Yes, ARC has three 2MW Rotary UPS (RUPS). Distribution Switch 1 (DS1) is under

RUPS protecting the storage systems in N258, critical network and security infrastructure, and the quantum computer. DS2 (including about half of the compute gear) is not under RUPS.

62Q. How does the quantum computing partnership work? Does the contract run that?

62A. Quantum computing project is a collaborative effort among NASA, Google, and

Universities Space Research Association (USRA). Facility engineers work closely with partner teams and D-Wave to plan and design the power, cooling, and network infrastructure required to maintain the D-Wave system at its near-absolute-zero operating temperature and protect it from vibration and electromagnetic noise. For details see https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/tech/dash/physics/quail/ https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/tech/dash/physics/quail/

NACS provides Facilities infrastructure support, Tier 1 user support, and IT security infrastructure for two factor authentication and access to the quantum computer. There are no modeling and simulation software development or support envisioned under NACS for the quantum computer at this time.

63Q. What is entailed in the upcoming update/upgrade to the D-Wave quantum computer?

63A. The quantum computer upgrade is provided by the manufacturer with minimal support by the Contractor.

64Q. What are the Mazda pieces of equipment?

64A. Heavy duty scientific workstations.

Help Desk/Control Room:

65Q. NAS Control Room is staffed 24/7, does the NAS staff provide help desk support for the

NCCS?

65A. No. NCCS provides their own help desk support which is staffed from 8:00 A.M. to 6:00

P.M. Eastern Time (U.S.) Monday through Friday.

Security:

66Q. What are the cybersecurity concerns?

66A. Both Centers are constantly threatened or under attack. Each site has security teams that tend to lead NASA in identifying threat occurrences. We also have foreign nationals and users of ITAR data, so we need to balance security and serving the technical users. This is a critical area which we are constantly improving.

67Q. Facility Compliance?

67A. NACS shall comply with all federal laws, regulations, and requirements including FISMA, DHS CDM, and NASA requirements and shall stay in compliance.

68Q. Where is the security monitoring based?

68A. Each Center has a dedicated security team onsite that monitors NASA’s IT resources used by NACS and interfaces with NASA SOC.

69Q. What is the demarcation between the NAS Security Activity and the Security Operations

Center (SOC)?

69A. Each system has its own IT Security Plan. The NAS Security team is dedicated to securing and monitoring NAS IT resources and therefore able to provide a greater level of security support than SOC. NAS Security works with SOC to ensure the NASA IT resources are secure and in compliance.

70Q. IT Security – is that part of the contract? Is the contractor part of the security team?

70A. It is an internal function comprised of the Government and contractor.

71Q. Have you had any problems with breaches?

71A. Both Centers are constantly under attack and use various technologies to protect NASA IT resources.

72Q. Have you looked at any other security applications, such as InsiderThreat?

72A. Government’s security posture is prescribed at the Government and Agency level; and systems have a security plan to ensure compliance and security requirements are met. Each center uses various technologies to ensure compliance, monitor risk, and detect threats.