NNG15SD30B-069.pdf

Control Number VA-20-00042121

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, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: This proposed action is for a firm-fixed price (FFP) task 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 brand name Hitachi hardware and software maintenance coverage.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), Information Technology Operations and Services (ITOPS), Infrastructure Operations (IO), requires hardware and software maintenance for brand name Hitachi products currently in use at the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC), the Philadelphia Information Technology Center (PITC) and the Hines Information Technology Center (HITC) data centers identified, as specified in Attachment A. The Hitachi hardware and software maintenance shall consist of technical support via telephone, e-mail, or internet to troubleshoot malfunctioning hardware and software that restores full operation and accessibility to the original redundant configuration. In addition, Hitachi hardware and software maintenance shall consist of firmware upgrades and updates to include major releases, point releases, service releases and security releases of applicable firmware on a quarterly basis, and/or within 48 hours in cases where a high-risk vulnerability fix becomes available.

The Contractor shall provide one (1) telephone number for VA to contact and open a maintenance support call. The Contractor shall provide support services 24 hours per day x 7 days per week x 4 hours from the time the ticket is submitted to call back to start the resolution 365/366 days per year. All VA support calls shall be initiated by the VA designated point of contact. When applicable, the Contractor shall provide secure connection capabilities for the downloading of software updates and/or the uploading of diagnostic information. The preferred protocol for transfer is Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). The period of performance (PoP) for maintenance support shall be a three (3)-month Base Period and three (3) three (3)-month Option Periods. The total estimated value of the proposed action, including Option Periods, is $.

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”.

FY20 Hitachi Hardware and Software Maintenance Control Number VA-20-00042121 Renewal

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on extensive market research, as described in section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the brand name Hitachi hardware and software maintenance as described in section 3 of this justification. The current IO infrastructure is based on existing Hitachi hardware and software and VA requires support compatible with the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. VA requires hardware and software updates to firmware upgrades and updates, to include major releases, point releases, service releases and security releases of applicable firmware on a quarterly basis, and/or within 48-hours in cases where a high-risk vulnerability fix becomes available.

Only Hitachi, through an authorized reseller, can provide the necessary hardware coverage because of the propriety source code required to develop and implement hardware updates. Implementation is needed to address failed or non-performing hardware, hard drives, controllers and cache modules. In addition, no other brand name replacement parts can meet VA’s form, fit, and function requirements.

Specifically, use of other brand name replacement parts would not fit into currently fielded Hitachi items and would not function. In addition, a prior implementation of Hitachi hardware and software already exists in IO. The current infrastructure is based on existing hardware which requires Hitachi proprietary software, and VA requires support compatible with the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. The software maintenance is required to ensure the software remains operational and IO can continue to operate successfully. Specifically, the current infrastructure communicates through source code that is based on Hitachi proprietary data and any source providing the aforementioned maintenance must have access to this proprietary code in order to ensure all the services provided are properly configured. Access to this code is also needed to develop updates and push them to the existing software. There are no other products that are currently compatible and interoperable with the existing VA hardware and software.

Acquisition of a different product, even if another one existed with qualifications that met VA’s stated functional needs, would require duplicated costs of approximately $2 million if the Hitachi hardware were abandoned in favor of a different product. IO would need to re-purchase the initial hardware previously purchased, in addition to ongoing maintenance and support of the new hardware. No other maintenance is compatible with, or interoperable with, the existing Hitachi hardware. The brand name Hitachi hardware maintenance is the only hardware maintenance coverage that meets the Government’s requirements. Should a hardware/software failure occur our customers/users currently using the Legacy Hitachi storage systems would experience degraded performance and with subsequent failures a full outage. These arrays (as most array) do have redundancy built into their architecture. However, the number of spare/duplicate parts is finite. If not replaced in a timely manner will cause a disruption in service. The likelihood of a hardware failure is greater on an older array. The applications that are still using these arrays are mission critical and essential production applications that support health and financial services provided to our veterans.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. It was determined, however, that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for this brand name Hitachi hardware and software maintenance. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page (FBO) and the justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: There is a migration plan in place. In the interim, the legacy environment needs to remain functional. Once the migration is complete, and VA no longer requires use of the Hitachi hardware and software, VA will not exercise the remaining options.

8. Market Research: Hitachi is commercially available off-the-shelf maintenance package currently in use in VA. Market research was conducted in December 2019 to ascertain if any other products could meet VA’s requirements for hardware and software maintenance. VA released a Request for Information (RFI), resulting in responses from two (2) resellers of Hitachi products and services. The RFI did not yield any additional sources other than Hitachi. An online search for similar maintenance products provided by other manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell, and International Business Machines (IBM) did not provide any sources who could meet VA’s requirements. While these manufacturers provide similar hardware and software maintenance, it is for its own brand proprietary hardware and software. As a result of the market research, the technical experts confirmed that the source code required to issue the updates is proprietary. No other firm has the capability of developing and issuing hardware and software maintenance support coverage for Hitachi necessary to support the existing IO requirements. Additionally, no other hardware of software product could meet VA’s interoperability and compatibility requirements as outlined in section 5 of this justification. Based on the above, only brand name Hitachi hardware and software maintenance meets all of the Government’s requirements.

9. Other Facts: N/A

10. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Date: ________________________________

Signature: ____________________________

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on the Independent Government Cost Estimate. Pricing for products awarded on NASA SEWP V GWAC have already been determined to be fair and reasonable and more competitive pricing may result from competition.

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of the Hitachi Hardware and Software Maintenance on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in paragraph 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date: ____________ Signature: _________________________________