rfq_205996_2557777_ipam_ja_redacted.pdf

IP Address Management (IPAM) System Control Number: VA-21-00027311

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

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

Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price Delivery Order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for renewal of brand name Infoblox software and hardware maintenance, reporting and analytics software subscriptions, and on-site engineering architect services.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information & Technology, Information Technology Operations and Services, Solution Delivery, requires renewal of brand name Infoblox software and hardware maintenance, reporting and analytics software subscriptions, including eight new license subscriptions and renewal of three subscriptions, and on-site engineering architect services. This action will allow for the creation of a new Laboratory Development System which will be comprised of licensing and maintenance support;(for IP address Management (IPAM) Domain Name Services (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Integration (DDI) system, Echo-System and Reporting), and the renewal of its existing brand name Infoblox software and hardware maintenance. The Infoblox IPAM DNS and DHCP Integration (DDI) platform is comprised of software licensing, hardware maintenance, software maintenance and software license subscriptions.

Additionally, VA has a requirement for Infoblox on-site engineering architect services, which are needed as soon as possible. This IPAM system will be used as the IP system of record for the entire VA enterprise to fulfill the Office of Management and Budget (OBM) mandate requiring support for IPv6 in perpetuity.

The Period of Performance shall be 12 months from date of award for the emergent need for on-site engineering architect services with two 12-month option periods for engineering services, software license subscriptions, and hardware maintenance. In 2022 professional services shall be co-termed for purposes of standardized Option Period execution. The professional services are required upon award of the delivery order. The period of performance shall be broken out as follows: Date of award through 12 months for professional services; 9/28/2021 through 9/27/2022 for renewal of its existing brand name Infoblox software subscriptions and hardware maintenance; co-term option period for professional services from the end of the initial 12-month period through 9/27/2022; renewals for all requirements - 9/28/2022 through 9/27/2023; and 9/28/2023 through 9/27/2024. The total estimated price of the proposed action is $2,394,019.00inclusive of all options.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 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 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 the market research as described in section eight of this justification, it was determined that competition is available among resellers of the required brand name Infoblox software subscriptions and hardware maintenance on the NASA SEWP V GWAC.

VA currently utilizes an Infoblox IPAM DDI solution that is comprised of Infoblox IPAM DDI grid master and candidate appliances, regional scanner aggregation physical appliances, regional virtual appliances for Active Directory (AD) (DHCP) and DNS Integration, IPAM scanner aggregation appliance software package, multitenant views for cloud and private cloud environments, regional virtual IPAM scanners, AD integration for 5 regional appliances, reporting appliance, echo system integration with third party vendors, data reporting and three option years of the same maintenance for all associated platforms and subscription services. VA is adding an Infoblox Resident Engineer and complete LAB development platform that will support the Infoblox production platform development efforts. As described in Section 3, this action is for a Resident Engineer, new Laboratory development platform and to renew existing subscription services for three (3) subscription instances and maintenance services for twenty-four (24) Infoblox production devices in order to maintain current functionality.

Failure to renew the aforementioned quantities of subscription and maintenance services for VA’s Infoblox platform will reduce the functionality of the existing IPAM DDI solution and present significantly increased security risk to VA networks. It is not possible for another brand name software to manage these Infoblox proprietary devices already in use within VA. Specifically, the existing Infoblox appliances are proprietary to Infoblox and due to the proprietary code of Infoblox, no other brand is compatible and can interoperate within VA’s existing IPAM DDI system. Further, replacing any of the existing software and appliances with any other brand will require a complete replacement and reengineering of VA’s existing system, totaling over $3.33 million and taking over a year to complete. The use of any alternative solution would also involve addressing a new Authority To Operate (ATO) which would increase the timeframe necessary and would produce a sizeable gap to VA’s infrastructure operations disciplines. These estimates are based on previous acquisition history and these duplicative costs would not be recovered through competition. Additionally, only Infoblox can provide the necessary maintenance support on the existing appliances because of the propriety nature of the technology required to troubleshoot, diagnose, and configure the solution. Because of the proprietary nature of Infoblox, other manufacturers will not have access to the source code and databases required to provide the maintenance support.

VA's existing authoritative IP system of record currently tracks and manages over 3.5 million devices connected to the enterprise network. This device count is expected to grow and become significantly more complex as the agency moved to the mandated IPv6 standard - requiring Infoblox capabilities to pull scan lists using software automation calls.

Failure to continue maintenance of Infoblox IPAM will impact the agency's ability to manage and provision IPv6 network addresses. Likewise, Infoblox's automation functions provide critical and dynamically changing lists that support for VA security scanning and other security monitoring efforts. Further, failure to continue maintenance of VA's Infoblox IPAM system will severely jeopardize agency efforts to support VA security as well as operational and upcoming project requests, that in turn, directly support Veterans.

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, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among resellers of the required Infoblox software maintenance. 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 Contracting Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

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

8. Market Research: VA technical experts conducted market research in February 2021 which consisted of both a review of other IPAM original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) including Cisco, TCPwave and Solarwinds and the issuance of a Request for Information (RFI). The review of other IPAM OEMs confirmed that while there are similar solutions from alternative vendors, no other support vendors can provide the required maintenance and technical services required as only Infoblox has the access to technology resources needed to meet 100% of the Government’s support and maintenance criteria. While other hardware and software solutions from alternative manufacturers exist, no other brand name software can interoperate and be compatible with the existing VA Infoblox DDI solution offerings due to the proprietary source code of Infoblox systems software. Based on the market research, only Infoblox subscription and maintenance services was able to meet all of the technical requirements of the Government including the requirement of a Resident Engineer and new development LAB and to interoperate within VA’s current infrastructure. Furthermore, the market research confirmed that no other maintenance support providers have access to the proprietary data required to provide the necessary maintenance support. Due to the proprietary nature of the Infoblox platform only Infoblox can provide the new development environment necessary. In addition, a RFI was issued on February 2, 2021 via the NASA SEWP V website to ascertain if there were sources that could meet the Government’s requirements for brand name Infoblox software subscriptions and hardware maintenance. The RFI closed on February 9, 2021 and there were six (6) responses received to include two (2) responses from Vendor Information Pages (VIP) Verified SDVOSBs, all of which were found to technically conform to the product description. No alternative solutions were proposed.

Therefore, no other proposed solution can fully meet the Government’s requirements to support the existing Infoblox IPAM due to their lack of access to Infoblox proprietary source code which is used to create the software needed for system updates and bugfixes. Nor do offerings from other OEMs have access to Infoblox developmental and incident analysts needed to ensure continuity of operations.

Infoblox IPAM support offerings are essential for meeting the Government’s requirements for the aforementioned IPAM required services. Based on the above review of competing maintenance offerings, only Infoblox IPAM maintenance and Professional Services meets all of the Government’s requirements. Based on the information provided, the Government Program Manager determined that there are multiple authorized resellers under the NASA SEWP V GWAC capable of meeting the Government’s requirements. The VIP database verified that all resellers are SDVOSBs.

9. Other Facts: None

10. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Michael Seaman Date: ________________________________

Information Technology Specialist Signature: ____________________________

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on anticipated competition and discounts among NASA SEWP V GWAC holders.

Additionally, NASA SEWP determines that all catalog prices on its GWAC’s are fair and reasonable. Additional price analysis may be performed in accordance with FAR 15.404- 1(b).

Debra G. Clayton Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Debra G. Clayton Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________