NOAA - SSJ ITSS Sole Source_Redacted.pdf

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION FOR AN ORDER EXCEEDING

THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

(AUTHORITY: RFO 8.401(b), GSAM/R 538.7104-3)

Requisition Number: 144014-25-0043

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

1. Agency and contracting activity.

Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), Satellite and Information Acquisition Division (SIAD) and NOAA Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

This is a sole source justification for a follow-on to existing Task Order No. 1332KP20FNEEN0057 (Contract No. GS-35F-360GA). The planned order type is firm fixed price with a one-year period of performance from June 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027. The current task order period of performance ends May 31, 2026.

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

NESDIS' National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) requires services to support the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the NOAA5009 Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA)-moderate Local Area Network (LAN); NOAA5009 is the identifier that refers to the NCEI Archive, which is one of the most significant archives on Earth, with comprehensive oceanic, atmospheric, and geophysical data.

Many organizations and businesses use NCEI's environmental data to make informed decisions about their goods and services.

The services required to maintain the NOAA5009 are: operations support, configuration management, Help Desk operations, Data Center Infrastructure Management, cable management, network and security operations, Wide Area Network (WAN) and LAN support, security configuration management, continuity of operations, network and system administration, network faults management, networks account administration management, networks performance and security management, system administration and user support, system fault management, system administration performance management and security performance, database administration, IT System analysis, capacity planning, preventative maintenance on operational equipment including replacement parts modification and upgrades, obsolescence prevention and remediation, system hardware and software inventory, hardware procurement support, and software and software license procurement and maintenance support.

The estimated value of this task order is .

4. Authority and supporting rationale.

The following circumstance justifies limiting the source as supported below:

Logical Follow-on under the authority of RFO 8.401(b), GSAM/R 538.7104-3(b)(1)(iii) – In the interest of economy and efficiency, the new work is a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) order, Task Order No. 1332KP20FNEEN0057. The original order was placed in accordance with the applicable FSS ordering procedures. The original order was not previously issued under sole-source or limited sources procedures.

Alpha Omega Integration, LLC (AOI), located at 8150 Leesburg Pike, Suite #1010, Vienna, VA, was awarded Task Order No. 1332KP20FNEEN0057 on July 13, 2020, under FSS Contract GS35F360GA. The original Request for Quote (RFQ No. 1332KP20QNAAA0012) was released on April 9, 2020, and was 100% set-aside for SBA-certified 8(a) businesses under two federal supply schedules: Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) 54151S "Information Technology Professional Services" and Schedule 70, SIN 132-51 "Information Technology Professional Services." The solicitation closed on April 30, 2020. Eleven vendors submitted compliant quotes in response to the RFQ. The award was made in accordance with FAR 8.405-2 "Ordering procedures for services requiring a statement of work." The resulting hybrid Firm Fixed Price (FFP) and Time & Materials (T&M) task order had a period of performance of December 1, 2020 to November 30, 2025. The FAR 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services, which was exercised on September 10, 2025, with an effective date of December 01, 2025, extended the period of performance end date for this task order to May 31, 2026.

In accordance with Executive Order 14028, 'Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity' (May 12, 2021), the Administration and NOAA directed NCEI to rapidly migrate the NOAA5009 system, including all supporting algorithms and underlying platforms, to the Commercial Cloud by the end of FY26. This migration is a high-priority, non-severable phase of work that began in January 2026 and is scheduled for completion by October 2026. Because the current contract with AOI expires on May 31, 2026, the period of performance ends mid-migration. This bridge contract is essential to ensure that the incumbent, who possesses the specialized technical expertise of the legacy system, completes this mandated security transition without a lapse in mission availability or a violation of federal cybersecurity deadlines.

The ITSS bridge is required to maintain the current baseline of essential core IT services, including system administration, customer support, and critical security patching, while the NOAA5009 system undergoes a high-visibility migration to the NCCF cloud. While the baseline services are well-defined in the current FFP PWS, the steady-state post-migration requirements are dependent on the final cloud architecture and the decommission schedule of legacy hardware. A bridge with the incumbent is the only way to ensure seamless continuity because they possess the unique, specialized knowledge of the current system linkages required to manage this transition without a lapse in mission availability. By the end of FY26, the transition will reach a stability point allowing for a competitive PWS that reflects the new cloud-centric support model for award by June 1, 2027.

The migration process requires extensive specialized knowledge of system cybersecurity patching to maintain necessary system compliance to legally operate the NCEI FISMA system.

AOI provides mission-critical IT support services for the NOAA5009 and is responsible for providing network and system administration services for NCEl's FISMA system while actively preparing the system for the migration. AOI possesses over four years of essential institutional knowledge and the expertise required to provide uninterrupted support of ongoing migration activities. Having AOI's institutional knowledge of NCEI’s IT systems available while preparing for the system migration is critical to the success of the migration process. Introducing a new contractor in the middle of the cloud migration process would create unacceptable risks including failure to complete the cloud migration within the timeline set forth by the Administration and NOAA, as well as the loss of institutional knowledge which would jeopardize the project's overall success. AOI works closely with the NESDIS Common Cloud Framework (NCCF) contractor who is responsible for performing system testing and configuration and is currently NCEI’s only source of expertise with the Cloud platform.

Allowing for a one-year sole source award to the incumbent contractor will allow NOAA to capitalize on AOI's institutional experience and history with the NOAA5009 during the migration, providing for a seamless transition to the Commercial Cloud while NOAA develops an acquisition strategy for a competitive follow-on contract. This would also provide the necessary time for NESDIS/NCEI to better define the requirements for a follow-on contract.

The expected economies and efficiencies to be achieved by allowing this are:

1. Eliminating unnecessary costs and efforts on the part of industry and Government resources to conduct and participate in a source selection for a one-year requirement. The full scope of the new requirement has not yet been determined. A new contract awarded at this time would only encompass one year of the same service currently being provided by AOI and would be for the sole purpose of completing the migration process which AOI has already started.

2. The primary driver for this logical follow-on is the avoidance of substantial economic harm, technical risk, and mission failure associated with interrupting the NCEI Cloud migration mid-stream. A transition to a new contractor at this juncture would require an estimated 12-month 'discovery and stabilization' period, during which active migration activities would cease. This interruption would result in an estimated loss in redundant engineering labor and would guarantee the failure of a separate, approximately contract currently in solicitation that facilitates the migration. The Government would also incur approximately in unoptimized cloud consumption costs while a new team re-validates existing configurations. Additionally, any delay increases the risk of the archive becoming unusable by the public due to hardware failure, as much of the on-premise infrastructure is beyond its end-of-life. By maintaining continuity through the completion of the migration phase, the Government ensures a stable environment for the subsequent competitive award.

Awarding this follow-on task order to AOI ensures uninterrupted support for mission-critical operations during this non-severable phase of work and leverages the incumbent's institutional knowledge to achieve a seamless migration, satisfying the criteria for a logical follow-on. This action meets the criteria for a logical follow-on in accordance with RFO 8.401(b), GSAM/R 538.7104-3(b)(1)(iii).

5. Determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with RFO 8.401(b), GSAM/R 538.7102-2(b)(4).

The anticipated order will represent the best value consistent with RFO 8.401(b), GSAM/R 538.7102-2(b)(4). GSA has already determined the prices of supplies and fixed-price services, and rates for services offered at hourly rates, under schedule contracts to be fair and reasonable.

In accordance with RFO 8.401 and GSA Subpart 538.7102-2(b)(4), the Contracting Officer will seek additional discounts and price reductions from the incumbent's established Master Contract ceiling rates prior to award.

The Contracting Officer will determine the price to be fair and reasonable prior to award. Based on a comparison of the proposed pricing against the Government’s Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) and the pre-vetted GSA Schedule ceiling rates, the Government anticipates that the award to AOI will represent the best value to the Government, as set forth in GSAM/R 538.7102-2 and defined in FAR 2.101. This determination is further supported by the incumbent’s specialized technical knowledge, which minimizes transition risk and ensures the 'best use of taxpayer dollars' by avoiding the duplicative costs and mission delays associated with onboarding a new contractor during a critical migration phase.

6. Market research conducted among schedule holders (or reason market research was not conducted).

Market research was conducted and documented in the market research report (attached).

Market research methodologies included: searches of Ability One Services, mandatory sources, NOAA blanket purchase agreements, IT product GWACs (NASA SEWP, GSA Schedule IT 70, NITAAC CIO-CS), GSA/FSS (GSA Advantage!), and the internet.

AOI provides mission-critical IT support for the NOAA5009. Since January 2026, AOI has been actively executing the system's cloud migration, which is scheduled for completion by October 2026. The current period of performance for the task order awarded to AOI ends on May 31, 2026. Failing to award this follow-on to AOI would disrupt the essential continuity of services for the NOAA5009 and would eliminate the application of the specific institutional knowledge required to complete the migration—a non-severable phase of work. Market research confirms that a transition to a different contractor at this critical juncture would jeopardize the October 2026 completion date and result in unacceptable technical risk.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

All supporting facts have been documented herein

8. Actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for supplies and services is made.

This logical follow-on is limited in both duration (twelve months) and value, and is intended only to sustain continuity of Cloud migration operations while NOAA finalizes the specific requirements for its next contract for these services. After the award of this anticipated task order, NOAA intends to pursue a competitive procurement for the continued requirements of the NOAA5009 mission.

Per CAM 1319.70 and 13 CFR 124.504(d), a formal release is being coordinated with the SBA to facilitate this bridge. Following the completion of the migration and the expiration of this bridge, the requirement will be competed as an 8(a) set-aside under the GSA 8(a) STARS III Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). Because STARS III is a pre-accepted 8(a) vehicle, NOAA does not foresee any issues returning the requirement to the 8(a) program.

NOAA anticipates a competitive award for these continued requirements by May 31, 2027.