HITS-UIII RFI_2025.04.18 Updated.pdf

RFI – HITS-UIII (Unrestricted)

Capabilities Statements from Industry

1. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers – High Performance Computing (HPC) Program is conducting preliminary market research to update/refine the Performance Work Statement (PWS) and identify potential acquisition solutions for continuation of contracted support covering the DoD Science and Technology, Research and Development, Test and Evaluation communities, all of which access the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) Supercomputer systems.

These systems support the Defense Research and Engineering Network/Secure Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN/SDREN) both classified and unclassified. The mission of HPCMP is to accelerate technology development and transition to superior defense capabilities, to provide DoD's scientists and engineers with the resources necessary to solve the most demanding warfighter problems through the strategic application of high-performance computing, networking, and computational expertise. The Program operates five (5) DoD Supercomputing Resource Centers (DSRCs) with associated Local Area Networks (LANs) / Wide Area Networks (WANs) and develops High Performance Computing (HPC) software applications and support environments.

2. Specific work requirements will be defined in the Performance Work Statements (PWS) however, major aspects of work will include, but are not limited to, high performance computing systems integration, systems administration, network administration, information assurance, facilities support, database administration, maintenance management and facility hardware and software. This market research does not convey an all or none requirement. Respondents are requested to respond to their abilities to support any or all of the services identified.

3. This Request for Information (RFI) is NOT a Request for Proposals and does not reflect a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or award contract/contracts supporting HPC. Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with replying to this notice and request for information. No Proposals are being requested or shall be accepted in response to this RFI.

4. RFI RESPONSES SHALL INCLUDE:

a. Name and address of responding company, CAGE code, business size and applicable small business sub-categories, company point of contact, telephone number, fax number and email addresses; and capability packages to include responses to the attached questions.

b. Responses are limited to 25 pages with no less than 1" margins, Arial 12-point font in MS Word or a searchable ".pdf" format and shall be submitted electronically to melissa.k.lynn@usace.army.mil. Please reference the Company Name & HITS-U III RFI in your response by 1400 CT, 22 April 2025. The noted POC shall not accept phone calls regarding this RFI. All inquiries or questions must be made through the method provided in paragraph 7 below. THERE WILL BE NO

EXCEPTION MADE.

c. The Government may choose to host an Industry Day at a later date. If conducted, notification of an Industry Day will be posted as a modification to this notice.

Interested parties are responsible for monitoring modifications to this notice.

mailto:melissa.k.lynn@usace.army.mil

d. At this time, the Government is considering the use of a SATOC type contract, using Cost Plus Fixed Fee or a hybrid using elements of Firm Fixed Priced and Cost type Contract Line Items (CLINs).

5. QUESTIONS FOR INDUSTRY

Respondents are requested to respond in each of the areas with their experience and capabilities, to include the size, scope, and complexity, to support any or all of the services identified. In your response indicate at what level the services provided:

enterprise, regional, and or local level(s).

a. Describe your capabilities and expertise in supporting the HPC resources at multiple classifications levels at the five DOD Supercomputing Resource Centers (DSRCs) or comparable DOD laboratories.

b. Describe your experience implementing advanced computing technologies such as AI/ML focused architectures or quantum computing into traditional high-performance computing (HPC) environments. In addition, describe if you have any experience with technical or organizational challenges while incorporating both traditional HPC and newer special purpose architectures, or shifting from the more traditional systems to the newer ones.

c. Describe your experience performing installation, upgrades and/or repairs of facility infrastructure (power, electrical, cooling, network connectivity, security, etc.) in support of Supercomputer systems. Demonstrate how this experience relates to supporting multiple HPC systems across multiple DoD sites operating at unclassified and classified levels.

d. Describe your capabilities and expertise in managing, securing and ensuring compliance of local DREN, SDREN and Above-Secret network enclaves to include addressing Federal / DOD cybersecurity requirements.

e. Describe your experience with assurance in complying with DoD 8570 and/or 8140.

f. Describe your capabilities and expertise in Network Administration to include hardware and software configuration, creating and maintaining network topology and dataflow diagrams, performing trend analysis and recommending solutions for network optimization.

g. Describe your company’s experience and capabilities with HPC application support such as computational modeling and simulation, data analytics and visualization, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

h. Describe your company’s experience and capabilities with implementing and testing complex supercomputer systems and high/low networks.

i. Describe your company’s experience and capabilities with configuration/change management of hardware and software for complex supercomputer systems.

j. Describe your company’s experience and capabilities with performing studies and analysis, performing engineering designs, preparing project proposals and effectively managing projects to completion both local and enterprise wide.

k. Describe your capabilities and expertise in managing and operating an enterprise service helpdesk capable of supporting more than 5,000 users during extended business hours (Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 8:00pm EST) utilizing a Tiered support approach.

l. Describe your capability in procurement and managing multiple procurements related to the operations of the DSRCs such as installation and integration support services, storage and network equipment, hardware and software, etc.

m. Describe your capability and expertise in operating a DoD Supercomputing Resource Center (DSRC) or comparable DoD laboratories in a 24x7x365 model to ensure high availability to the DoD HPCMP users. Include experience with implementing a continuity of operations and disaster recovery.

n. Describe your capabilities and experience with implementing a DoD DevSecOps pipeline for software development and management.

o. Describe your capability and expertise in implementation of an enterprise approach to a multi-site, multi-service program to improve performance while reducing costs.

p. Describe your capability for providing outreach services to include web page development and maintenance, hosting of documentation and production of videos.

q. Describe any applicable industry certifications your organization maintains.

r. List what strategic vehicles, if any, that your company is currently an eligible vendor

on. Please provide the specific contract number(s) and the title of the vehicle.

Please also signify your business size and any applicable NAICS on each vehicle.

s. Please describe your experience with contracts of this nature with similar periods of performance. What was the specific scope of the contract and contract type? Were you the sole vendor or one of several (i.e. SATOC, MATOC, Stand Alone Contract or task order against a strategic vehicle)?

t. What contract incentives have proven most effective for your company?

6. CONTRACTOR ARRANGEMENT

- Our firm anticipates proposing on this project as a:

Sole Contractor

Prime Contractor (if small business) self-performing at least 50% of the work, Prime contractor (if small business) performing at least 50% of the work with the following team member subcontractor(s) (Insert business name, business size, cage code, and work which will be subcontracted), or

Joint venture with (Insert business name, business size, and cage code). (See FAR subpart

9.6 for Government policy on teaming arrangements, as well as 8(a)Program regulations described in 13 CFR 124.513, HUBZone Program regulations described in 13 CFR 126.616, and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Program regulations described in FAR 19.1403(c) and 13 CFR 125.15(b).)

7. TECHNICAL INQUIRIES AND OTHER QUESTIONS

Any technical inquiries and questions relating to this RFI are to be submitted via Bidder Inquiry in ProjNet at (https://www.projnet.org) no later than (NLT) 1 calendar day prior to response due date. To submit and review inquiry items, prospective vendors will need to use the Bidder Inquiry Key presented below and follow the instructions listed below the key for access. A prospective vendor who submits a comment/question will receive an acknowledgement of their comment/question via email, followed by an answer to the comment/question after it has been processed by our technical team.

All timely questions and approved answers will be made available through ProjNet for all potential interested responders.

The Project ID: HITS-UIII RFI The Project Name: HITS-UIII RFI The Bidder Inquiry Key: GDKC6R-RCYVY6

Specific Instructions for ProjNet Bid Inquiry Access:

a. From the ProjNet home page linked above, click on Quick Add on the upper right side of the screen.

b. Identify the Agency. This should be marked as USACE.

c. Key. Enter the Bidder Inquiry Key listed above.

d. Email. Enter the email address you would like to use for communication.

e. Click Continue. A page will then open saying that a user account was not found and will ask you to create one using the provided form.

f. Enter your First Name, Last Name, Company, City, State, Phone, Email, Secret

Question, Secret Answer, and Time Zone. Make sure to remember your Secret Question and Answer as they will be used from this point on to access the ProjNet system.

g. Click Add User. Once this is completed you are now registered within ProjNet.

and are currently logged into the system.