CONTROL NUMBER VA-26-00024221

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: 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 (GWAC) for annual renewal of brand name JumpMind Symmetric DS Enterprise (JumpMind) Software licenses and three optional tasks for 40 hours of professional consulting support in support of Veterans Affairs - Department of Defense Identity Repository (VADIR) database hosted in an Amazon (AWS) Cloud environment.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a requirement for JumpMind SymmetricDS Enterprise software subscription and maintenance. In addition, an optional task is required in each contract period for 40 hours of consulting support for the migration of JumpMind SymmetricDS Enterprise software from the Austin Data Center to the AWS Cloud in support of the VADIR database.

VADIR is an electronic repository that is the authoritative data source for military service records. it stores payroll and dependent information on Veterans and their families. The Department of Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) provides all source data to the VA. VADIR functions as the primary data source for reporting and analytics across VA offices and systems. It supports the creation of a consolidated view of eligibility and benefits utilization, including: compensation and benefits, registration, homeless care, loan guarantees, separations, 9/11 services, automated eligibility checks, outreach education and the GI Bill.

JumpMind software provides the interface to enable critical data sharing between VA and the DMDC. JumpMind is an open-source software for database and file synchronization, with support for multi-master replication, filtered synchronization, and transformation. It uses web and database technologies to replicate data changes on a schedule or near real-time. JumpMind includes an “initial load” feature for full data loads. The software scales for a large number of nodes , works across low-bandwidth connections, and withstands periods of network outage across VA. This commercial off-the-shelf product enables replication of Department of Defense (DoD) military service records from DoD to VADIR for over 25 million records. It also manages all data copying, accuracy, data integrity, and tracking between the authoritative data source at DoD and VADIR.

The Period of Performance (PoP) shall be a 12-month base period of August 25, 2026 to August 24, 2027, two 12-month option periods, and three optional tasks. The total estimated value of the proposed action, inclusive of all option periods and all optional tasks, is $122,595.06.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to the Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation Overhaul (RFO FAR) 16.507(b)(2), the following brand name requirements is being justified and approved as an exception to fair opportunity under the statutory authority of is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by RFO FAR 16.507-6(b)(2), 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 justification, it was determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name JumpMind. JumpMind SymmetricDS is required because both VA and DMDC must operate on the same software platform to maintain seamless data interoperability. VADIR relies on JumpMind SymmetricDS software to provide real-time notification of critical events via web services, extracting and transmitting, across multiple VA care and benefits service lines.

As a result, VA and DMDC must exchange data through a shared, compatible interface using “like” software; deviation from JumpMind on either side would break the established data exchange, where either system would be unable to communicate and would result in slower, costly, manual data exchanges. JumpMind is the only software that provides the Extensible Markup Language and Structured Query Language development suite necessary to support this bi-directional data exchange, including the custom product-specific interface required to connect VADIR with DMDC and other VA lines of business. Introducing any alternative software into either environment would disrupt the interoperability between VA and DMDC, causing downstream systems that rely on VADIR to fail and preventing VA from receiving critical military service data.VA would not be able to identify data related to registration, homeless care, loan guarantee, separations, 9/11, automated eligibility determination for care, veteran outreach, education, and compensation benefits. VADIR serves as a primary data source for enterprise data services for all military history and provides reporting & analysis capability to VA staff offices and multiple lines of businesses. No other software provides interoperability and compatibility with other databases and systems in the VA.

Therefore, brand name JumpMind SymmetricDS is the only software that can meet the Government’s requirements.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section 8 of this justification. It was determined that limited competition is viable among Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) authorized resellers on the NASA SEWP GWAC for brand name JumpMind. In accordance with RFO FAR 16.507-6(f)(1), this justification will not be synopsized, and the justification will not be made publicly available within the Federal Business Opportunities Page because the total estimated price is less than the simplified acquisition threshold, but the Justification will be posted on the NASA SEWP website to notify all interested parties.

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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: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research to ascertain the ability of any other source, other than JumpMind SymmetricDS, that could provide real-time notification of critical events via web services and extracts, sent across multiple VA care and benefits service lines. VA technical experts conducted web-based market research in March of 2026 by researching other similar brand name software, such as SnapLogic, NetApp SnapMirror, and HiT Software DBMoto. While these software products perform similar functions, JumpMind SymmetricDS is the only software that can provide the real-time notification of critical events via web services and extracts, sent across multiple VA care and benefits service lines. Additionally, no other software has the interoperability and compatibility necessary for VADIR to pass information from VADIR to other VA systems. Additionally, a Request for Information (RFI) was posted on NASA SEWP V on April 20, 2026, and closed on May 1, 2026. The RFI closed with one SDVOSB response: Architechture Solutions, LLC which was determined to meet the requirements as described in the Product Description. Further market research was conducted in May 2026 utilizing the Provider Lookup Tool on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website. Specifically, the search revealed three (3) SDVOSBs are authorized resellers of the required brand name JumpMind software subscription and maintenance. In addition, the NASA SEWP V GWAC is a dynamic IT contract in which products can be added to vendor catalogs based on customer requests on as frequently as a daily basis, if the required IT item is within scope of the NASA SEWP V

GWAC.

The contract specialist conducted additional market research in May 2026. A search was completed on the NASA SEWP GWAC which resulted in the same findings as the technical experts. Therefore, a request for quote will be issued as a total SDVOSB set-aside on the NASA SEWP V GWAC.

9. Other Facts: N/A

Technical/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.

Jill Gaspar Date IT Specialist

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 the fact that NASA SEWP V GWAC has already determined the prices on contract to be fair and reasonable. Finally, the successful quote will be compared with the Independent Government Cost Estimate, past government contracts, and all other proposal responses .

Stefanie Applegate Date

Contracting Officer, DIV I

Contracting Officer Certification/Approval

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Stefanie Applegate Date

Contracting Officer, DIV I