Part 8 over SAT JA FNA 12314422F0823 MOD 7_Redacted.pdf

This is a Justification to Restrict Competition (J&A) for a contract modification under FAR Part 8 over the Simplified Acquisition Threshold.

The Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks to issue a modification to an existing delivery order (12314422F0823) with Conviso Inc. for continued Cloud and Digital Modernization Support Services. The modification, valued at $745,705.00 for a 12-month period in Fiscal Year 2026, will support FNA's mission-critical cloud infrastructure modernization efforts. The services encompass close partnership with FNA program areas to migrate VMware-based workloads to Azure, implement Azure VMware Solution (AVS), establish operational support, and remediate aging Windows Server 2016 environments. Additional services include CI/CD pipeline modernization through migration to GitHub, implementing self-hosted Kubernetes runners, standardizing cloud operations, supporting Authority to Operation (ATO) readiness, security control implementation, enterprise hardening, and disaster recovery planning.

The acquisition is justified under GSAM 538.7104-3(b)(ii) as a sole-source procurement, asserting that only Conviso Inc. possesses the unique qualifications and specialized institutional knowledge of FNA's complex cloud environment necessary to maintain operational continuity without incurring unacceptable risk. The justification emphasizes that the incumbent contractor has developed irreplaceable expertise across AWS, Azure, and Azure VMware Solution environments over years of engagement with FNA's STARS and Alert applications (High Value Assets). The Contracting Officer determined the proposed price of $745,701.93 represents a fair and reasonable increase of approximately 5% from the prior option period, consistent with current labor and operating costs. The document notes that FNA intends to compete the follow-on procurement and will work to reduce reliance on incumbent-specific knowledge through market research and transition requirements in future solicitations.