P03 JnA TIC Gateway_Redacted.pdf

Control Number: VA-21-00032401

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 1701 Directors Blvd.

Austin, TX 78744

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price delivery order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Cisco Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) 9500 Series hardware.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Information and Technology Solutions Delivery, Security Engineering (SDSE) has a requirement for brand name Cisco TIC 9500 Series hardware.

Specifically, due to recent End-of-Sale/End-of-Life product announcements published by Cisco, SDSE has a requirement to replace existing switch components on the Cisco 9508 core switches for switch solutions deployed at all four VA TIC locations. The replacement will consist of 120 Cisco Nexus 9500 series modular switches and ten (10) Nexus 9300 Series Top of Rack (TOR) solutions. In addition, an upgrade of ten (10) Business Partner Extranet (BPE) routers is necessary due to increased demands that cannot be met by current hardware. The VA TIC gateways provide secure gateways between VA’s networks and external network connections including the internet and business partners. The TIC gateways provide VA’s first line of defense to secure its networks, and VA’s current TIC gateway is compliant with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) guidelines. The TIC locations have core switches that are the central point where all connections are maintained, and the core switch routes network traffic to the intended network of interest. This acquisition is for hardware only. All hardware shall be delivered within 120 days from contract award. The total estimated value of the proposed action 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”.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Cisco brand name components are the only technology that can continue to build upon VA’s existing brand name Cisco TIC core solution in production at all the VA TIC locations. The VA has invested approximately on its existing Cisco TIC LAN core infrastructure. Specifically, the use of any other brand TIC hardware would require the replacement of all existing brand name Cisco TIC Lan infrastructure, to include core chassis switches, spine switches, TIC Gateway Refresh Control Number: VA-21-00032401 leaf switches and line cards. Additionally, as Cisco core switching protocols are proprietary in nature, preventing a heterogeneous environment. A change in vendor equipment would also require additional time to allow for training and operational learning curve. Lastly, a change in vendor equipment would require substantial outages at each TIC location during the transition. Any other brand name components are unable to integrate with the currently fielded Cisco Nexus (NX) solution. Additionally, no other brand name modular line cards will be interoperable or compatible with the currently fielded Cisco solution. Specifically, the current system communicates through a source code that is based on Cisco NX operating system’s proprietary data and the physical layout of the line card bus connections are unique to Cisco brand chassis. No other components can provide this communication capability without this source code.

Existing Cisco branded components include ownership of Cisco solutions spread over all the VA TIC locations. In addition, the VA’s current TIC core architecture, based on Cisco infrastructure, ensures the VA meets the DHS-mandated functions of the TIC. If VA were to purchase other than Cisco brand name items, it would pose a potentially devasting impact, i.e., network outage, on the VA’s systems and operations that support our Veterans.

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 Cisco Nexus line card modules. 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 SAM.gov 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 market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research by reviewing other modular switches. This market research is an ongoing process starting in 2017 as part of the VA Enterprise Technology Strategic Plan FY17-21 and continuously being conducted and revalidated, as recently as July 2020. The other similar modular switch solutions reviewed included Juniper Networks EX9208, HPE/Aruba CX6400, and Arista 7308X3. Based on technical reviews of these products, the Government’s technical experts determined that none of these products can meet the Government’s interoperability and compatibility requirements previously discussed. Review of these products is based on actual VA experience using the competing modular switches and tools. Additionally, VA networking Subject Matter Experts regularly review industry trade publications and conduct internet research to ascertain if any other brand name modular switches and solutions are available. Based on all of these market research efforts, the Government’s technical experts have

TIC Gateway Refresh Control Number: VA-21-00032401 determined that only brand name Cisco modular line cards can meet all of VA’s requirements. In addition, the contract specialist (CS) conducted market research in February 2021 by using the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup Tool to determine what vendors are capable of providing the full requirement. Based on this market research, the CS identified multiple resellers within NASA SEWP able to provide the required brand name products.

9. Other Facts: None.