Nutanix JA Redacted.pdf

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 delivery order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for Renewal of brand name Nutanix software licenses, software maintenance and support services for the existing Nutanix Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) environment at the Minneapolis, Iowa City, Des Moines, and Omaha VA Medical Centers.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN) 23 has a requirement to renew brand name Nutanix software licenses, software maintenance and support services.

The Contractor shall provide brand-name Nutanix software licenses and software maintenance and support services, which consists of 24x7x365 complete solution maintenance and support, including updates and patches as well as technical support available via telephone, email, and web during all hours (24 hours per day, 365 days per year). The Contractor shall provide support with a dedicated 24/7 support line.

The period of performance shall be 12 months from date of award. The total estimated value of the proposed brand name only Nutanix software licenses, software maintenance and support services requirement 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)( providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in paragraph 8 of this justification, it was determined that only brand name Nutanix software licenses, software maintenance and support services can meet the

. No other brand software requirements due to the proprietary software licensing and maintenance. This solution allows the creation of

. With the VM is hosted on (data locality) for maximum performance and have a minimum redundancy factor of 2 in order to avoid hardware failures and single points of failure. The solution also shall have a S3 REST compatible API object storage solution that is native to the hyper converged operating system and support native erasure coding, compression, and deduplication to maximize space savings for data. The solution shall also be

VISN 23 Nutanix Node Replacement and Expansion Control Number VA-24-00062836 two or more flash drives in combination with traditional spinning disks per server node with all of the flash disks being utilized for storage.

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 limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Nutanix software licenses, maintenance and support services.

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 Contract Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: VISN 23 Biomedical Engineering staff conducted market research by reviewing other similar software. This market research was conducted in the fall of 2023. Based on reviews of other Cloud infrastructure Software, no other software publisher requirements. During market research, VMWare vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Hewlett Packard Enterprise SimpliVity were researched. Review of these companies is based on technical presentations that were provided to the team. These other companies similar products would not be able to integrate with what the VA had previously purchased and currently has in place. These Solutions do not meet the data locality requirements or redundancy factor needed.

Additionally, VA subject matter experts reviewed industry trade publications and conducted internet research to ascertain if any other brand name software solution is available. No alternate solution was found that did not need to replace the full solution currently installed. In addition, a Request for Information (RFI) was issued on May 7, 2024 via the NASA SEWP V GWAC website to ascertain if there were additional sources that could meet the hardware and software for the existing Nutanix HCI environment. The RFI closed on May 10, 2024 with four responses as follows: two from large businesses (Dell and Red River); one from a Women owned Small Business Software Information Resource Corp (SIRC); and one from a Service-Disabled Veteran owned Small Business (SDVOSB) (Met Green). VA technical experts reviewed the results of the RFI and determined that three of the four respons . Additional market research was conducted in May 2024 by utilizing the NASA SEWP V Provider Lookup Tool to determine whether the brand name Nutanix software, licensing, support services is available from NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. The search revealed a total of 104 possible vendors, which included 19 SDVOSB resellers capable of supplying the requested hardware, software and services. Furthermore, the NASA SEWP V GWAC has a dynamic catalog where line items can be added based on customer requests;

therefore, as long as the required item or service is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC, items and services can be added to the catalog on a daily basis. Based on the above, there is a reasonable expectation that limited competition exists on the NASA SEWP V GWAC. As a result of the aforementioned market research, VA intends to issue a Request for Quotation to all SDVOSB contract holders on the NASA SEWP V

GWAC.

determined that Nutanix Brand Software, Support and Maintenance is the only solution

9. Other Facts: None

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.

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 anticipated competition and discounts among NASA SEWP V GWAC holders.

reasonable. Additional price analysis may be performed in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(b).

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification and Approval: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. The brand name only requirement on this contract action exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold, but does not exceed $750,000, therefore, the certification required by FAR