REDACTED Brand Name.docx

J&A Number:

J&A Number:

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER

CARDEROCK DIVISION

9500 MACARTHUR BOULEVARD

WEST BETHESDA MD 20817-5700

J&A Number: CMTS# Code:

PR Number:

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

JUSTIFICATION

1. Contracting Activity

The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD), Contracting & Acquisitions Department (Code 02).

2. Description of the Action Being Approved

This proposed request is for the acquisition of two HP Nimble SAN. The Nimble SAN will replace the old Dell Equalogic SAN, and expand the storage capacity of our existing virtual environment to accommodate the rapid increase of data size on the RDT&E network.

The enterprise server infrastructure in West Bethesda is a virtual platform for many core severs and services. It is also the home for many tech code’s applications servers. As the virtual infrastructure expands its services, the data size grows rapidly. The Nimble SAN will be used to expand the storage capacity of our existing virtual environment to accommodate the rapid increase of data size on the RDT&E network so we can continue to meet our technical departments’ wide range of RDT&E capabilities and mission requirements. The HPE Nimble SAN is the only brand we intend to purchase since it has been confirmed by HPE that it is fully compatible with the HPE Simplivity clusters, the solution we have already implemented in the recent years. Integration of other components would not be possible as it would result in the loss of service or warrantee from HP.

The total estimated value of the acquisition is approximately $

3. Description of Supplies/Services

The proposed acquisition is for the purchase of two HPE Nimble SAN below:

HPE Nimble

HF40 SAN

Hardware and Software

- Q8H39A HPE Nimble

Each Nimble Includes:

· 100 TB Usable Storage

· 11 TB Adaptive Flash Cache

· 8x 25Gb iSCSI Connections

· Support = 3YR 4HR Onsite w/DMR

The estimated cost is approximately $

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition

10 U.S.C. §2304(c)(1), “The property or services needed by the agency are available from only one responsible source or only from a limited number of responsible sources and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the agency.” (FAR 13.106-1(b)(2))

This justification document is in accordance with FAR 13.501(a).

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Statutory Authority

The supplies and services involved with this procurement consists of hardware, software, installation, and technical support services necessary to integrate HPE Nimble SAN with our existing Virtual Infrastructure that featured with HPE Simplivity hyper-converged clusters.

In the past, we purchased Dell Equalogic SANS for the virtual Infrastructure we had at that time. As time passed Dell terminated the Dell Equalogic product line. As a result of it, we have transitioned the technology for our virtual infrastructure and implemented HPE Simplivity systems two years ago. HPE Simplivity is a hyper converged solution, and it has its own software that support this functionality. Nimble SAN is a product of HPE, and has been fully tested and proved by the manufacture that it is fully compatible with HPE Simplivity.

Going with a different brand of SAN might involve the replacement of the existing Simplivity host servers , the foundation of our virtual infrastructure. The cost would be more than $1 million, considering all the cost involved in servers, storages, software, trainings, and supports.

HPE Nimble SAN is the only brand that meets all our requirements:

· Compatible with our existing Virtual Infrastructure that featured with HPE Simplivity hyper-converged clusters.

· have Triple Parity - Highest Parity Protection in the Industry (xD + 3P) with 3rd parity being independent calculation.

· have Variable Block - Allows application specific tuning.

· be able to pin volumes to cache (Keep important data pinned to SSD).

· be able to replaceable and/or upgrade controllers without an outage.

· be able to do array federation up to 4 arrays.

· be able to encrypt on a volume-by-volume basis.

· be able to do inline compression and deduplication.

· Data coalescing prior to being written to spinning disks

· be able to cyclic redundancy check to reduce or eliminate data corruption

· System must come standard with InfoSight software

6. Description of Efforts Made to Solicit Offers from as Many Offers as Practicable

The Government conducted market research in accordance with FAR 10.002(b)(2)(vii), focusing on storage solutions that are compatible with HPE Simplivity, and also has the features we required.

Although there are many other vendors out in the market have their product lines of SAN storage, they might result in the revamp of our existing virtual infrastructure due to the lack of compatibility. In addition, building a completely new system would involve downtime for data migration. NSWCCD (Code 10411) did an engineering and risk assessment and determined that the increased cost by abandoning the existing Simplivity system (which is only one year old) and investing time and effort setting up a new system, would not be cost effective and would result in a replication of costs already incurred. In addition, there is high potential for operational downtime when changing out the entire storage system to a different brand, which would prevent the Government from fulfilling its mission requirements.

Pursuant to FAR 13.501(a)(1)(iii), the Government will make this Justification available on the Government point of entry (SAM.gov), the Government will ensure that the contract file will be documented as to any responses received from making the Justification available.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Costs

In accordance with FAR 13.106-3(a) the Procuring Contracting Officer (PCO) shall ensure that all supplies and services provided under the anticipated contract are procured at a fair and reasonable price. The Government will require the contractor to submit a formal price proposal and sufficient information to support the accuracy and reliability of the estimate. The PCO shall determine that the proposed order represents the best value (as defined in FAR 2.101) to meet the Government’s needs. The PCO will also rely on experienced technical experts, as well as information from prior procurements conducted by the Navy where the same (or comparable) devices were procured, when conducting the price analysis. This information will form the basis for a fair and reasonable price.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Competition

NSWCCD will assess whether competition for future requirements associated with HPE Nimble SAN is feasible. However, NSWCCD’s requirement is a unique case, because we just upgraded our virtual infrastructure to HPE Simplivity, a hyper-converged technology two years ago.

Although market research does suggest that other vendors offer their lines of storage solutions, we have yet to find an independent testing proving that they would be compatible with our existing Simplivity virtual environment.

In conclusion, at this point, we, Code 1041 have not found a different brand storage solution that would meet our requirements specified above in section 5.

CERTIFICATIONS AND APPROVAL

TECHNICAL/REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION (FAR 6.303-2(c))

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this justification and its supporting data, except as noted herein, are complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief. TECHNICAL AND REQUIREMENTS COGNIZANCE:

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