(P03)_JA_Velocity_SoleSourceFINAL3_Redacted.pdf

Velocity Software and Maintenance Control Number: VA-20-00052721

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

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: The proposed sole source action is for the issuance of a firm-fixed-price contract for Velocity Software, Inc. (Velocity) zPRO Cloud Management Software, zVPS performance product suite, zTune performance subscription services and associated maintenance and support with Velocity Software, 196-D Castro St. Mountain View, CA 94041.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Information Technology (IT) Operations and Services (ITOPS), Infrastructure Operations has a requirement for the procurement of brand name Velocity zPRO Cloud Management software, zVPS performance product suite and zTune Performance subscription services that can provision Red Hat virtual servers in minutes to run under the z/VM hypervisor and on an IBM mainframe. Velocity’s Software zPRO, zVPS, and zTune performance subscription will allow ITOPS to provide customer service to its VA customers by replacing existing non-reliable and error prone provisioning software and performance monitoring software. The brand name software also provides ITOPS with a state-of-the-art virtual server environment for all VA customers and Veterans. Velocity software zPRO, zVPS and zTune will allow ITOPS to quickly and consistently build and manage new virtual Red Hat Linux servers in the z/VM environment for VA. The zTune performance subscription service shall include the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) software maintenance support subscription service that includes professional assistance with detecting, analyzing and resolving both z/VM and Linux performance issues on the mainframe, 24/7 365 days a year, and response time within 2 hours during business hours, and 4 hours after business hours. Software maintenance for the performance and provisioning software shall include product version upgrades, service packs, access to comprehensive solution library, unlimited web and online service request management, and authorized technical support by pool of support technicians addressing issues based on severity and impact of the issue. The period of performance shall consist of a one-year base period, and four, one-year option periods. All software licenses will be procured within the one-year base period. As ITOPS anticipates utilizing the software for at least five years, the four, one-year option periods will be utilized for maintenance and support to ensure the continuity of support.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-1 entitled, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

Velocity Software and Maintenance Control Number: VA-20-0005271

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Velocity Software owns zPRO Cloud Management software and zVPS performance product suite which will replace existing provisioning and performance monitoring software and will provide ITOPS with a virtual server environment for all VA customers and Veterans. Since zLinux virtual servers are hosted on IBM mainframe hardware and software, no other brand other than IBM or Velocity can be utilized in the infrastructure without jeopardizing ITOPS VA’s mission critical support. Only provisioning software compatible with IBM mainframes in a z/VM hypervisor environment can be fully interoperable into the current proprietary z/VM hypervisor environment. Based on the market research conducted only IBM and Velocity have provisioning software that is interoperable with VA’s existing infrastructure.

VA currently uses a brand name IBM provisioning software (IBM WAVE); however, it is not capable of meeting all of the Governments functional requirements.

Specifically, IBM WAVE does not meet the following key functional requirements:

function without the use of SMAPI, JAVA or additional Linux server, automatically assign internet protocol (IP) addresses, or allocate additional DASD storage after the server has been built as requested by the customer. Velocity’s brand name software is the only provision software that meets all of the Government’s technical requirements and is compatible with existing IBM Hardware and IBM’s z/VM hypervisor.

Currently, VA has had to resolve many provisioning issues because of IBM WAVE’s complex dependency on SMAPI, Java, and Linux servers to function. This has caused VA many z/VM administrative and Linux administrative hours of lost productivity, major delays, and poor customer service trying to provision virtual Red Hat Linux servers for VA customers. Additionally, the extra IBM WAVE service machines and Linux servers required to run WAVE add more complexity and overhead to using WAVE. Furthermore, IBM WAVE is written in Java and as such Java is required on your desktop run it. This results in additional and unnecessary changes to VA’s current infrastructure which further complicates critical functions such as disaster recovery. For example, during a 9-month period, VA opened 10 IBM WAVE issues with IBM WAVE tech support; one clone issue took VA 34 days to resolve and another installation failure took 59 days to resolve. Velocity’ software is the only software capable of meeting all of the Government’s functional and interoperability/compatibility requirements and provisioning, modifying and decommissioning servers without presenting added risk, complexity and unnecessary expenses.

Only Velocity software can provide the necessary software maintenance support because of the propriety source code required to develop and implement software version upgrades, service packs and access to comprehensive solution library. No other source is capable of providing the required software maintenance. Velocity Software maintenance is the only software maintenance that meets the Government's requirements. Failure to obtain the necessary Velocity software and associated maintenance to support the z/VM environment will prohibit ITOPS from operating successfully and result in lost productivity, delays and poor customer services. On July 13, 2020 Velocity Software provided a letter stating there are no agents or re-sellers authorized or involved in providing its products or services.

Accordingly, Velocity is the sole provider of zPRO Cloud Management Software, zVPS performance product suite, zTune performance subscription services and associated maintenance and support.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section 8 of this justification. Currently, no other company other than Velocity Software, Inc. can provide the required software maintenance and technical support for the subscription services and associated maintenance and support. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among resellers for brand name Velocity software and support. 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: VA will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace and/or VA development environments that would enable future requirements to be executed utilizing salient characteristics and not limited to a particular brand name.

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted by VA Subject Matter Experts

(SME) in May 2020 utilizing the internet to find potential provisioning software that could potentially meet the Government’s requirements. Two products were found; zPRO from Velocity Software, Inc. and IBM WAVE. Additional Market Research was conducted through issuance of a Request for Information (RFI) on Feb 04, 2020 to both the NASA SEWP and the General Services Administration (GSA) websites. Both RFI closed on Feb 10, 2020. For the RFI posted to the GSA website, only one response, from Velocity, was received. For the RFI posted to the NASA SEWP website, two responses were received. One from Velocity and one from IBM. After the responses were reviewed by the VA SMEs, it was confirmed that only brand name Velocity zPRO, zVPS and zTune Software meets all of the aforementioned Government functional requirements, is interoperable with the current infrastructure, and is able to replace the existing provisioning software. Though in their RFI response, IBM clearly stated that its product had limitations and could not meet the requirements, the Government followed up with IBM on June 25, 2020 regarding the RFI response. The Government attempted to discuss the inability of the IBM product to meet all requirements however no response was received.

Additional market research was conducted by the Contract Specialist in May 2020 via the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup Tool. The Contract Specialist identified several NASA SEWP V GWAC holders who are Velocity Software resellers. Of those none were Vendor Information Pages (VIP)-verified Service- Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB). A Request for Information (RFI) was posted on July 7, 2020 via NASA SEWP V GWAC and no quotes were received. On July 13, 2020 Velocity Software communicated via letter stating there are no agents or re-sellers authorized or involved in providing their products or services.

9. Other Facts: None.

Approval

In my role as Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition a brand name Velocity software zPRO, zVPS and zTune, on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority cited in section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date: 7/16/2020

Signature:

PHILIP J WECKESSER

169809

Philip Weckesser

Digitally signed by PHILIP J

WECKESSER 169809

Date: 2020.07.16 16:29:03 -04'00'

Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Acquisition Operations