REDACTEDJABISLNetAppSANStorage.pdf

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

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/task order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for a brand name NetApp AFF 300 SAN storage array and associated warranty support.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Business Intelligence Services Line (BISL), has a requirement for one brand name NetApp AFF 300 SAN storage array, equipped with 24 7.6TB solid state drives (SSDs), including associated cabling, components, software, installation, technical support, and extended warranty. The Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) Grid provides storage technologies to securely host suites of medical and clinical research databases, integrated from select national data sources. The brand name NetApp AFF 300 SAN storage array is an integral component of the BISL research and SAS Grid operations environments, supporting thousands of research and operations projects and utilizing over 100 terabytes (TB) of data daily. Without this procurement, VA cannot continue to support the crucial BISL SAS Grid infrastructure. The requirement also includes an optional line item for up to 8 hours of remote consulting. The consulting hours may also be used for unknown events that require contractor support outside of the general technical support. The total estimated price of the proposed action is $XXXXX, inclusive of optional task. The hardware shall be delivered and installed within 30 days of award.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 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 Subpart 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: Based on market research, as described in section 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available among resellers for the required brand name NetApp SAN storage array. The Government has a requirement to expand and strengthen the BISL SAS Grid storage infrastructure at the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC). The existing SAS Grid storage environment is designed entirely around NetApp SAN storage devices, connected to Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) servers. The existing NetApp SAN storage arrays are proprietary to NetApp and, due to the included proprietary NetApp code, no other brand of SAN storage array is compatible with the current infrastructure. Despite efforts to compress, archive, and delete

NetApp Control Number VA-21-00007773 data as much as possible, the SAS Grid is currently using 90% of its storage capacity, and it is projected to exceed its storage capacity by the end of 2020. The current NetApp storage environment, which supports both the research and the operations SAS Grid deployments, has an overall capacity of 103 TB. With deduplication and compression features enabled, this procurement will expand the storage capacity for the SAS Grid to 740 TB, which will allow the SAS Grid to remain solvent, assuming the current levels of usage and growth, for approximately 3-5 years. The new Netapp equipment will extend into the existing Netapp cluster. Once established, VA will be able to migrate data from the old equipment to the new equipment seamlessly and the old equipment will be decommissioned. Only NetApp SAN storage arrays can communicate within BISL’s existing SAS Grid storage infrastructure at the AITC to allow VA to migrate existing the data. Specifically, no other brand name SAN storage arrays will communicate and function within the current infrastructure due to the proprietary constraints. Due to technical compatibility requirements and the proprietary constraints of NetApp SAN storage arrays, upgrading and expanding the existing NetApp-based infrastructure to prevent the SAS Grid from exceeding its storage capacity and to support the environment going forward with an ever-growing volume of data requires the same storage hardware as what is currently in used in the BISL SAS Grid environment at the AITC. Failure to procure the brand name NetApp SAN storage arrays will create vulnerabilities within the BISL SAS Grid environment and cause the SAS Grid to archive massive amounts of data that are currently in use for thousands of research and operations projects. Without this array, research data would need to be moved to tape or slow storage (archive), which would add significant risk to VA’s ability to access the critical data. There is no “scratch” space available to house this data if a replacement is not procured. NetApp is unique in its file system support and ability to migratedata within the existing Netapp cluster, which will greatly reduce the chance of data corruption, or transfer failure if the data had to move through the network. VA cannot risk losing access to the current data for any amount of time. Even a temporary loss of this data would critically affect numerous ongoing projects concerning medical and clinical research databases, including COVID response data. In addition, NetApp is the only known array that has the ability to manage complex Active Director Control Lists using 65,000 maximum number of users and groups, which is a critical requirement for this procurement as VA requires a potential 65,000 users/group to access existing data. Therefore, NetApp is the only provider that can provide SAN storage arrays that are fully compatible within the NetApp-based BISL SAS Grid storage infrastructure at AITC.

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, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for these brand name items. 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 Federal Business Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

NetApp Control Number VA-21-00007773

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to learn if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted in June and July 2020 by Government technical experts who researched internet sites for vendors such as XXXXX, XXXXX, and XXXXX to ascertain the ability of any source other than NetApp to provide equipment that can meet the Government’s requirement to expand and strengthen the BISL SAS Grid storage infrastructure. The results of the market research confirmed that only NetApp or a reseller has the capability of providing SAN storage arrays that are compatible with the existing storage infrastructure. While similar solutions are available, these products did not meet the requirement to integrate with the current environment. Brand name NetApp equipment is required as it is the only brand name equipment that is compatible in the existing NetApp environment. Furthermore, the market research results indicate that only NetApp and resellers of NetApp products can provide warranty on the NetApp SAN storage arrays or the optional consulting services which can include configuration and setup of intricate parameters that only NetApp experts would know, as no other manufacturer has the required access to NetApp proprietary data and source code.

In addition, a Request for Information was posted on the NASA SEWP V GWAC in October 22, 2020, indicating that VA had a potential requirement for brand name NetApp products and requested vendors respond with information on alternative solutions. One response was received for the product, XXXXX. Technical evaluation of the XXXXX revealed the product lacked the ability to manage complex Access Control Lists and lacked the ability to extend the existing NetApp cluster. The Contract Specialist (CS) responded to the offeror on November 2, 2020, stating that VA does not believe the product meets the requirement and intended to proceed with a brand name requirement, and gave the offeror a chance to respond. No response was received. The CS conducted market research in October 2020 by using the SEWP market research tools. Based on this market research, the CS found resellers under SEWP capable of meeting the full requirement.

9. Other Facts: None.