Redacted Simplified Acquisition Sole Source Justification.pdf

Control No.: JA-23-Adel-078 Supply/Service: Oracle Licenses and Support

FAR PART 13 SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR

OTHER THAN

FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground, Adelphi Contracting Division, (ACC-APG), Adelphi Contracting Division, (CCAP-SCA), 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, MD 20783.

2. Description of Action: The Office of the Director (ODIR), Business Management Office (BMO) (FCDD-RLD-DCB) of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) requests a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract to purchase certain Oracle Corporation (Oracle) brand software licenses and support from an Oracle authorized reseller. The Government projects award for December 2022 and fiscal year 2023. RDT&E management support funds will be used.

_X_ An acquisition plan is not required because this procurement either does not meet the threshold at Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement 207.103(d)(i), or is an R&D acquisition and does not meet the definition of services in 10 U.S.C. 2330(c)(2).

3. Description of Supplies/Services: The Government requires the following Oracle brand software licenses and support available from an Oracle authorized reseller:

CLIN 0001: Ten (10) Oracle Advanced Security – Processor Perpetual (Oracle Part Number A90622)

CLIN 0002: Ten (10) Oracle Advanced Security – Processor Support – One (1) Year Subscription (Oracle Part Number A90622S)

CLIN 0003: Ten (10) Oracle Database Enterprise Edition – Processor Perpetual (Oracle Part Number A90611)

CLIN 0004: Ten (10) Oracle Database Enterprise Edition – Processor Support – One (1) Year Subscription (Oracle Part Number A90611S)

CLIN 0005: Six (6) Oracle Label Security – Processor Perpetual (Oracle Part Number A90623)

CLIN 0006: Six (6) Oracle Label Security – Processor Support – One (1) Year Subscription (Oracle Part Number A90623S)

Period of Performance: 30 days after receipt of order (ARO) Total Value: $

4. Authority Cited: 41 U.S.C. 1901(e)(2), implemented by FAR 13.501(a) -- Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

The Office of the Director (ODIR), Business Management Office (BMO) (FCDD-RLD- DCB) of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) requests a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract with an Oracle authorized reseller to procure certain Oracle brand software licenses and support.

ARL is currently undertaking a project to migrate all legacy applications into new application platforms. Some of those legacy applications are presently platformed in Oracle Database Enterprise Edition (ODEE). To ensure a successful migration of those applications currently platformed in ODEE, ARL must procure various Oracle software licenses and support. The migration process is scheduled to conclude at the end of the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2023.

ODEE provides ARL with a secure data storage solution for its legacy intranet applications. ARL has used ODEE since the 2000s and many of ARL’s legacy applications use Oracle’s unique Procedural Language extensions to the Structured Query Language (PL/SQL) feature to add functionality for the ARL user. Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 8500.01 requires that all Information Technology (IT) that receives, processes, stores, displays, or transmits Department of Defense (DoD) information will be configured consistent with applicable DoD cybersecurity policies, standards, and architectures. The combination of ODEE, Oracle Advanced Security and Oracle Label Security, all of which ARL intends to procure, meets or exceeds the requirements set forth in the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Database Security Requirements Guide (SRG). Oracle Advanced Security’s Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) feature provides secure data-at-rest encryption of sensitive ARL information on the database server, as well as in tape backups. Oracle Advanced Security also provides for public key infrastructure (PKI) authentication (i.e. Common Access Card (CAC) login) increasing the confidentiality and accountability of the data stored in ODEE. Oracle Label Security provides an additional layer of access control of sensitive data stored in ODEE, which is required by the SRG.

The proposed acquisition must be accomplished through other than full and open competition and consideration must be restricted solely to Oracle brand software licenses and support. Only Oracle brand licenses and support will meet the Government’s requirements due to the proprietary characteristics of the Oracle brand thus ensuring the successful migration of certain applications out of ODEE into other platforms. Furthermore, only Oracle brand items can prevent the potential loss of data.

The Digital Business Office (DBO) is migrating all enterprise applications that use and depend on Oracle to other platforms. Major enterprise-wide applications such as ServiceNow and SharePoint that are scheduled for migration would be at severe risk for data loss if the Oracle brand licenses are not acquired. Non-Oracle brand software licenses fail to meet the Government’s requirements, cannot be modified to meet the

Government’s requirements, and are not a viable alternative to Oracle brand licenses.

This is because non-Oracle licenses fail to allow access to ODEE and therefore the migration of some applications out of ODEE and into other platforms would be jeopardized. Therefore, only Oracle brand licenses and support, offered and sold through an Oracle authorized reseller, will meet the Government’s minimum requirements.

When the supplies or services required by an agency are available only from one responsible source, or for DoD, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Coast Guard, from only one or a limited number of responsible sources, and no other types of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for. Furthermore, an acquisition or portion of an acquisition that uses a brand-name description or other purchase description to specify a particular brand-name, product, or feature of a product, peculiar to one manufacturer does not provide for full and open competition, regardless of the number of sources solicited.

This is a brand name only type of procurement. Specifically, only Oracle brand software licenses and support, offered and sold through Oracle authorized resellers (but not through Oracle itself because Oracle does not sell these items directly to end users), will satisfy the Government’s minimum requirements. Market research, described in more detail in Section 8 below, located two (2) responsible Oracle brand authorized resellers that are able to meet the Government’s requirements. Software licenses and support offered by manufacturers other than Oracle or such manufacturers’ authorized resellers fail to meet the Government’s minimum requirements and are not a viable alternative to Oracle brand software licenses and support.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: As required by FAR 5.201, the Contracting Officer published a synopsis on SAM.gov on November 2, 2022, which closed on November 17, 2022. One (1) vendor responded to the synopsis and indicated that it intends to bid on the forthcoming solicitation:

CAGE:

UEI:

POC:

7. Actions to Increase Competition: Since this procurement is for brand name only supplies and only authorized resellers of Oracle brand software licenses and support are potential vendors, competition will depend on the number of Oracle brand software resellers that are able to meet the Government’s requirements and that submit bids in response to the forthcoming solicitation.

8. Market Research:

Market Research was conducted in August and September 2022 by an who has 16 years of experience. They searched the

Army’s Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) database;

however, the requirement is not available through CHESS. Nor was the requirement found through the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) website. An open market quote was obtained from an Oracle authorized reseller known to that has provided some of the same software licenses referenced in this Justification to other organizations within the U.S. Army. Thereafter, contacted Oracle directly for a quote but was told by an Oracle representative that Oracle’s software licenses and support are only offered through its authorized resellers. The Oracle representative suggested that contact a second Oracle authorized reseller and the representative provided the contact information for that reseller. proceeded to contact that reseller and obtained a second quote for the subject requirement. The requirement was discussed among ARL staff for ARL’s Oracle databases to migrate all enterprise applications that use Oracle to other platforms. They discussed how Oracle brand licenses and support will be needed throughout the migration process to ensure a smooth transition and to mitigate the potential for any data loss.

During market research, two (2) Oracle authorized resellers were located. Both vendors submitted market research quotations and indicated that they could fulfill the Government’s requirements:

9. Interested Sources: As required by FAR 5.201, the Contracting Officer published a synopsis on SAM.gov. The synopsis was posted on November 2, 2022 and closed on November 17, 2022. One (1) vendor responded to the synopsis and indicated that it intends to bid on the forthcoming solicitation:

POC: