S02 JA Redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-24-00083935

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, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: VA Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office (EHRM-IO) has a requirement for maintenance and support renewal for existing Commvault annual subscriptions and software maintenance the Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Test Center, in Bay Pines, FL.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: This Commvault software subscription renewal is in support of an solution that is already in place and serves the purpose of disaster recovery. This renewal provides standardized backup, file replication, disaster preparedness and recovery time objectives of server-based data and applications in the Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Test Center.

The license subscription and technical support must be provided by an authorized Commvault partner. Such licensing shall be good for an initial term of one year starting when the software has been installed.

Software maintenance support shall consist of periodic updates, access to all upgrade releases (both minor and major), bug fix releases, enhancements and corrections to the software, and technical support. This level of support provides 24x7x365 coverage, plus holidays, support to resolve issues.

The supplier shall promptly notify all Authorized Users of any defects or malfunctions in the software or Documentation of which it learns from any source other than an Authorized User and provide to all Authorized Users a correction of any such defects or malfunctions, or a work around until a correction is available, within 5 days of Supplier’s knowledge of such defect or malfunction.

Upon release of the upgrades or new releases, the supplier shall provide documentation to reflect any enhancements, including all new releases, upgrades, and access modes, to the software made by Supplier, including, without limitation, modifications to the software which can increase the speed, efficiency or base of operation of the software or add additional capabilities to or otherwise improve the functionality of the software.

Supplier shall provide all reasonably necessary telephone or written consultation requested by any Authorized Users in connection with use, problems, and operation of the software.

Commvault Subscription for Bay Pines

The specific software description, manufacture part number and period of performance for each Period of Performance is in the following table:

BASE PERIOD

Period of Performance- August 31, 2024 through August 30, 2025

Item # Description Part Number

Months/Year Qty Unit of Measure

Price

0001 Base Period:

Commvault Cloud Autonomous Recovery Software for Virtual Machines, Per VM (10-Pack) Upfront Payment Subscription -

CV-DP-

VM10-11

1 Year 50 Each

0002 Base Period:

Commvault Cloud HyperScale X Reference Architecture Software 24-Drive Node

CV-HSRA-

24-1N-11

1 Year 3 Each

0003 Base Period:

Commvault Travel Expenses

FXTRVL-

CONS

1 Year 2 Each

0004 Base Period:

Commvault Consulting Services.

REQUIRES

CORRESPONDING

quantity of ‘FXTRVL-CONS’ for service to be delivered onsite.

IC-

CONSDEP

1 Year 2 Each

0005 Base Period:

Commvault Project Management Services -

IC-

CONSPM

1 Year 4 Each

Base Period Total:

Option Period One

August 31, 2025 through August 30, 2026

Months/Year Qty Unit of Measure

Price

1001 Option Period One:

Commvault Cloud Autonomous Recovery Software for Virtual Machines, Per VM (10-Pack) Upfront Payment Subscription -

CV-DP-

VM10-11

1 Year 50 Each

1002 Option Period One:

Commvault Cloud HyperScale X Reference Architecture Software 24-Drive Node

CV-HSRA-

24-1N-11

1 Year 3 Each

1003 Option Period One:

Commvault Travel Expenses

FXTRVL-

CONS

1 Year 2 Each

1004 Option Period One:

Commvault Consulting Services.

REQUIRES

CORRESPONDING

quantity of ‘FXTRVL-CONS’ for service to be delivered onsite.

IC-

CONSDEP

1 Year 2 Each

1005 Option Period One:

Commvault Project Management Services -

IC-

CONSPM

1 Year 4 Each

Option Period One Total:

Option Period Two

August 31, 2026 through August 30, 2027

Months/Year Qty Unit of Measure

Price

2001 Option Period Two:

Commvault Cloud Autonomous Recovery Software for Virtual Machines, Per VM (10-Pack) Upfront Payment Subscription -

CV-DP-

VM10-11

1 Year 50 Each

2002 Option Period Two:

Commvault Cloud HyperScale X Reference Architecture Software 24-Drive Node

CV-HSRA-

24-1N-11

1 Year 3 Each

2003 Option Period Two:

Commvault Travel Expenses

FXTRVL-

CONS

1 Year 2 Each

2004 Option Period Two:

Commvault Consulting Services.

REQUIRES

CORRESPONDING

quantity of ‘FXTRVL-CONS’ for service to be delivered onsite.

IC-

CONSDEP

1 Year 2 Each

2005 Option Period Two:

Commvault Project Management Services -

IC-

CONSPM

1 Year 4 Each

Option Period Two Total:

Option Period Three

August 31, 2027 through August 30, 2028

Months/Year Qty Unit of Measure

Price

3001 Option Period Three:

Commvault Cloud Autonomous Recovery Software for Virtual Machines, Per VM (10-Pack) Upfront Payment Subscription -

CV-DP-

VM10-11

1 Year 50 Each

3002 Option Period Three:

Commvault Cloud HyperScale X Reference Architecture Software 24-Drive Node

CV-HSRA-

24-1N-11

1 Year 3 Each

3003 Option Period Three:

Commvault Travel Expenses

FXTRVL-

CONS

1 Year 2 Each

3004 Option Period Three:

Commvault Consulting Services.

REQUIRES

CORRESPONDING

quantity of ‘FXTRVL-CONS’ for service to be delivered onsite.

IC-

CONSDEP

1 Year 2 Each

3005 Option Period Three:

Commvault Project Management Services -

IC-

CONSPM

1 Year 4 Each

Option Period Three Total:

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 market research, as described in paragraph 8 of this justification, it was determined that competition is available for this procurement among Commvault NASA SEWP value added resellers. If another brand of software is introduced the governmemt will not received Commvault software updates, bug fixes and security partches. Specifically, due to proprietary technical data constraints of the current software, any other brand name software will not be able to communicate and interoperate with the software protocols and functionality necessary for the continued operational availability of the platform. Only Commvault licenses can maintain the existing backup environment to allow for the increasing amount of data stored by EHRM-IO, and only Commvault can provide the necessary software maintenance plan because of the proprietary software source code required to develop and implement updates.

Failure to renew these Commvault subscriptions/licenses will put the data currently being backed up in the EHRM-IO testing environment at risk, thereby jeopardizing the work of testers, researchers, and IT (information technology) technical engineers engaged in testing, data management and research and operations to improve healthcare for Veterans and ultimately impact patient care. Procuring an alternate software, rather than continuing to use the Commvault brand would result in substantial duplication of costs that would not be recovered through a new competitive acquisition.

Replacing this software appliocation would take will take a minimum of 1 month to transition to a new data management software product. This effort would require approximately 50 man hours user coordination and vendor support to minimize business impact. Additionally, the IV&V Test Center currently leverages Commvault capabilities. These organizations would require additional technical assistance to migrate to a new solution. To date VA has invested $1.0M in our current Commvault software subscriptions which includes training, labor and installation.

If VA is unable to procure the required Commvault licence maintenance and support, it will have a substantial negative impact on testing activities or result in risk to scheduled support requirements. If the IV&V Test Center data is not properly maintained, it could become unstable and the center could experience performance failures. A performance failure would render test environments unusable. If testing is delayed or halted, it would have an adverse effect on the testing schedule which could result in fielding delays of the new Electronic Health Record, resulting in a negative impact on 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, it was determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers of the required brand-name

CommVault Subscriptions. 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.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to perform market research to ascertain if there are changes in VA requirements and the marketplace that would enable increased competition.

8. Market Research: Market Research was conducted by Government technical experts in May 2024 by researching internet sites of alternate software suites.

Market research revealed the following alternate brands that offer similar services/software (data management and protection services) to that of Commvault:

1. Veritas Technologies: Known for its NetBackup and Backup Exec products. 2. Dell EMC: Offers a range of data protection solutions including Data Domain and Avamar. 3.

IBM Spectrum Protect: A comprehensive suite for data protection and recovery. 4.

Veeam: Specializes in backup solutions, particularly for virtualized environments. 5.

Rubrik: Provides cloud data management and backup solutions. 6. Druva: Offers cloud-native data protection and management services. And 7. Cohesity: Focuses on hyperconverged secondary storage for data protection and management.

None of these alternate brands can provide CommVault software subscriptions because the CommVault software is proprietary software patches and updates for our current Commvault solution which is implemented within the the IV&V Test Center. Replacing this software would require the organization of numerous data sets. Based on previous deployment experience it will take a minimum 1 month to transition to a new data management software product.

Government technical experts conducted additional market research by releasing a Request for Information (RFI) on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website (via RFI# 307800) to determine sources that could provide the maintenance and support. Responses were received from seven (7) resellers of the required software maintenance support (data management and protection services), all of which are Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) verified by the Small Business Administration’s Veteran Small Business Certification.

The Contract Specialist conducted additional market research, in July 2024, and identified 133 (133) contract holders that are resellers of the required brand name Commvault software and support by utilizing the NASA SEWP V Market Research Tool.

Of these 133 resellers, 34 are verified (Small Disadvantaged Veteran-Owned Businesses) SDVOSBs.

Therefore, based on the results of the market research, there is reasonable expectation that limited competition exists within CommVault authorized resellers. These SDVOSBs are contract holders under NASA SEWP V GWAC, and this action will be set-aside to all SDVOSBs who are authorized Commvault software resellers.

9. Other Facts: None