Data Management Platform Draft RFI 20 April 2021 V2.pdf

Army Enterprise Data Management Platform Services Provider

Request for Information (RFI)

Army Enterprise Cloud Management Agency (ECMA)

20 April 2021

THIS RFI IS ISSUED FOR INFORMATION AND PLANNING PURPOSES – IT DOES NOT

CONSTITUTE A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) OR A PROMISE TO ISSUE AN RFP IN

THE FUTURE. THIS RFI DOES NOT COMMIT THE ARMY TO CONTRACT FOR ANY

SUPPLY OR SERVICE WHATSOEVER.

1. Background

1.1. Problem Statement

The Army lacks an enterprise, cloud-native platform with integrated data standards, harmonized data governance and common services across the complete Data Lifecycle to support Army Readiness, tactical and operational needs, and to enable advanced analytics, Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning (AI/ML) and data-driven decision-making across all mission areas.

1.2. Army’s Need

To gain the competitive advantage needed to win on the battlefield in the Information Age, the Army must operationalize its data and invest in resilient information ecosystems designed to provide and protect critical information for the Joint Forces. Today, the Army’s systems and services apply different data governance practices and services to source, store, catalogue and condition data specific to their mission and domain. As a result, it is extraordinarily difficult to discover, condition, and use data as an on-demand asset seamlessly across all data domains, such as cyber, logistics, weapon systems and intelligence. The pace of the evolving threat landscape mandates a change in the culture and operational construct for how the Army manages data across all mission areas given their natural convergence. Therefore, the Army must fundamentally transform its approach to data governance and data management, which requires a standardized, secure, trusted, agile and resilient set of data management services and a data platform to serve all common data governance needs across all data domains.

1.3. Scope

The Army’s Enterprise Data Management Platform is managed by Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA)/Office of the Chief Information Office (OCIO) Enterprise Cloud Management Agency (ECMA). The Platform will provide a common environment and tools to help data analysts source raw data, store and tag it, catalog datasets and attributes and condition and prepare data to enable advanced analytics, AI/ML, visualization and data enhancements. The Platform serves as the Army contribution to the Department of Defense (DoD) Data Strategy and hub of services enabling the Army Data Plan to converge the disparate data efforts across all mission areas. The Platform will provide a common data fabric and standardization of services across the Public, Unclassified, Secret and Coalition networks and will be integrated with the Army global cloud strategy leveraging cARMY common shared cloud services. The ECMA requires an Enterprise Data Management Platform Provider to accomplish the following:

• Take over current data management assets that are delivering the Army Enterprise Data Services Catalog (EDSC) and Army Application Program Interface (API) Management services

• Expand services to incorporate a complete ecosystem of data lifecycle management services

• Operate and continuously improve upon these services in order to reduce complexity, increase security, eliminate duplication of effort, and increase Army-wide adoption of AI/ML and data-driven decision-making

This Enterprise Data Platform will be the implementation platform of the Army Chief Data Officer (CDO)-led data governance process improvement plan and will provide real time feedback for its continuous enhancement.

The Platform will provide the secure, foundational environment where data can be collected, conditioned, and stored for the Army Enterprise. This common data platform will also be an authoritative broker for operational systems that cannot support the real time access and analysis of data in their current design because they are serving an operational mission.

1.4. Army Enterprise Data Management Platform Potential Usage Scenarios Please use the two scenarios below as examples of how the Army may use this Enterprise Data Platform. Please note they are NOT all encompassing of all potential usage situations.

Scenario 1: Enterprise Data Platform users and administrators source data from Army applications and authoritative data sources and store data in the Data Platform with cloud-native data life cycle management and governance capabilities

1.1 Enterprise Data Platform ingests various types and formats of data from different sources automated by predefined events, schedules or on demand.

1.2 Data intake leverages cloud-native data pipelines and the API management service supporting data exchanges with other Army Commercial off the Shelf (COTS)/ Government off the Shelf (GOTS) tools and applications like Army EDSC.

1.3 The Enterprise Data Platform provides user/machine interfaces for automated or on demand data conditioning operations with feedback loop for data quality, monitoring and notifications and supports self-service data preparation capability in a cloud-native way.

1.4 The platform transforms data as required supporting numerous formats ensuring Army data related standards.

1.5 Once the data is conditioned and transformed, diverse data sets are loaded, stored, managed, and cataloged leveraging EDSC in cloud-native data stores for different time periods with appropriate redundancy and failover options as configured for different types of data sets.

1.6 Platform customers use stored data, interoperable with core components of the other Army platforms via open APIs, sharing and accessing data, using cARMY common cloud services and existing data governance frameworks like Army Data Plan and the Army Data Board’s identified Authorities and responsibilities of Data Stewards and Data Managers.

Scenario 2: Enterprise Data Platform users analyze, visualize stored data and collaborate over a cloud-native data development environment for data discovery and sharing data insights within Army data analytics communities with right access control and audit traceability

2.1 Data Platform users search and discover available datatypes, datasets and associated history and metadata of all data available in the Platform leveraging EDSC and develop required taxonomy, business rules, and workflows. The Platform enables analytical work products, perform advanced data analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) and data visualization at an enterprise level.

2.2 Data Platform users leverage development resources provided by the Army Coding Resources and Transformation Environment (CReATE), cloud-native services and any other Army COTS/GOTS products along with API management for collaborative analysis and data product development and visualization assets.

2.3 Data Platform users create appropriate communities for handling of sensitive information and cataloging analytical products, register created data assets and leverage EDSC.

2.4 Data Platform users collaborate on the platform and share different data products adoption across numerous data analysis and visualization communities.

Capability Statement

2.0 Company Information (1 page maximum)

Please provide the following information:

1. Company Name:

2. Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code:

3. Address (Including Telephone Number and Email Address):

4. Points of contact:

5. Size of business pursuant to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes:

NAICS Code NAICS Code Description Size Standard 518210 Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services $35M 541511 Custom Computer Programming Services $30M 541512 Computer Systems Design Services $30M 541519 Other Computer Related Services $30M

6. Based on the above NAICS Codes, state whether your company is:

a. Small Business (YES/NO)

b. Woman Owned Small Business (YES/NO)

c. Small Disadvantaged Business (YES/NO)

d. 8(a) Certified (YES/NO)

e. HUBZone Certified (YES/NO)

f. Veteran Owned Small Business (YES/NO)

g. Service-Disabled Veteran Small Business (YES/NO)

7. Describe your company’s primary business product / service line.

8. Detail any existing DoD or GWAC contract: (a)in which your company is currently a prime vendor, (b) that you believe would be relevant to this requirement, and (c) includes adequate labor categories to execute this requirement.

3.0 Army Enterprise Data Management Platform Provider Capability (4 Page Maximum) Possible NAICS Codes:

a. 518210 - Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services

b. 541511 - Custom Computer Programming Services

c. 541512 - Computer Systems Design Services

d. 541519 – Other Computer Related Services

Potential Labor Categories: Data Scientist, Platform Engineer, Cybersecurity Engineer

The government seeks industry feedback on several questions/topics related to a potential solicitation for an Army Enterprise Data Platform and Data Management Common Services Provider. For context, a DRAFT scope and examples of Data Platform services are also provided with this RFI. Please note that the government is still determining the acquisition strategy and best path forward, therefore, this RFI is solely for market research and market intelligence. Please limit your response to these questions to no more than 4 pages, single spaced, using no smaller than Arial 12-point font, not including the title page.

1. Please describe your organization’s ability and approach to provide a data management platform at the scope/scale required of this Army enterprise-wide effort as described in this RFI. Please provide examples, where possible, of your organization’s successful management of similar data management efforts of this scope/scale.

2. Please describe your organization’s ability and approach to reduce Data Platform Help

Desk tickets using Tier 0 support (e.g., chat bots, self-service articles and content) or other means. Please provide demonstratable examples, where possible, of your organization’s success in Help Desk ticket reduction.

3. Please describe your organization’s use of industry practices/strategies/options to develop and meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs) appropriate for the acquisition as based on the background and potential usage scenarios of Army Enterprise Data Management Platform services in this RFI.

4. Please describe your data security approach for addressing overall data platform security requirements and controls, handling of aggregation of data, access control and auditability of resources.

5. Please describe your preferred contract type for the effort described in this RFI (e.g., Firm-Fixed Price, Time and Materials, etc.) and rationale for each type.

6. Please describe your organization’s experience and available industry practices to employ continuous outreach to customers and continuous integration of feedback to ensure customer satisfaction with services offered.

7. What information will industry need about the existing Data Platform assets (e.g., EDSC and API management) in order to effectively bid on this requirement?

8. Please identify any risks and potential mitigations, or concerns with the background and potential use case examples of the Enterprise Data Platform in this RFI. Additionally, please identify relevant metrics that align with risk surveillance and continuous mitigation.

9. Describe how your company can recruit, hire, and retain the necessary talent to meet ECMA’s mission. Include any specific certifications, skillsets, and unique roles. State the average time it takes your company to staff similar requirements given your resource pool. Additionally, describe an optimal and minimal staffing plan, clearly identifying key/critical staff positions (with associated labor categories) to meet mission requirements.

10. Do you have a facility clearance for DoD Impact Level (IL) 6 work and Functional Secret Internet Protocol Router (SIPR) Workspace where you could execute all Data Platform work that requires a cleared space?

11. What are the key components of the data management platform if the Army intends to deliver an all-domain, all mission area data lake/warehouse capability? Please submit your cloud native data platform architecture along with considerations of scalability, performance, reliability and maintainability of the data management platform.

12. What are the pros and cons of the Army delivering a unified data lake across all mission areas? Please consider the factors of scalability, performance, reliability and maintainability of the data management platform.

13. Where is the return on investment (ROI) for investing in a unified data warehouse strategy? Provide demonstrable experience or examples for where this type of platform generates positive return on investment. Provide examples of customers’ return on investment applicable to a not-for-profit entity such as the US Government.

14. Describe the value proposition of an integrated or non-integrated approach to API management as part of the data platform.

4. Follow-on Discussions Respondents are advised that the U.S. Government is under no obligation to provide feedback with respect to any information submitted. Army representatives may or may not choose to meet virtually with interested vendors. Such discussions would only be intended to get further clarification of potential technical capability to meet the requirements and any risks.

5. Response Guidelines Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI with a capability statement. Submissions cannot exceed 5 pages (1 page for company information plus 4 pages to answer the RFI questions in Section 3.0), single-spaced, no smaller than Arial 12-point type with at least one-inch margins on 8 1/2” X 11” page size. The capability statement and any other items associated with the RFI response should not exceed a 5 MB email limit. Responses must specifically answer the questions set forth in Section 2 and describe the contractor’s capability to meet the requirements outlined and problems set forth in this RFI. No “sales pitch-like” white papers will be accepted or read. The Government highly encourages any interested vendor to utilize the capability statements to capitalize on its company’s capabilities and strengths.

An industry day will be conducted via MS Teams on 5 May 2021 from 1100 A.M EST to 1:00 P.M. EST. You may access the Industry day at the following link:

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NWY0YzllZTAtNWYzNi00NTI3LWE0ODEtNjk1M2RhZmJlYjJh%40thr ead.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2221acfbb3-32be-4715-9025- 1e2f015cbbe9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%224d1e1dc0-2451-4626-91c9-7f73f9e0822a%22%7d or by dialing in 1-571-388-3094 Conference ID 852 723 977#. Questions to be answered on Industry Day must be submitted by 12:00 P.M. CST on 3 May 2021.

Companies who wish to respond to this RFI should send responses via email no later than 5 May 2021 to Ms. Lindsay Weindruch, email: lindsay.a.weindruch.civ@mail.mil and Mr. John P.

Fury, email: john.p.fury2.civ@mail.mil https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NWY0YzllZTAtNWYzNi00NTI3LWE0ODEtNjk1M2RhZmJlYjJh%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2221acfbb3-32be-4715-9025-1e2f015cbbe9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%224d1e1dc0-2451-4626-91c9-7f73f9e0822a%22%7d https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NWY0YzllZTAtNWYzNi00NTI3LWE0ODEtNjk1M2RhZmJlYjJh%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2221acfbb3-32be-4715-9025-1e2f015cbbe9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%224d1e1dc0-2451-4626-91c9-7f73f9e0822a%22%7d https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NWY0YzllZTAtNWYzNi00NTI3LWE0ODEtNjk1M2RhZmJlYjJh%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2221acfbb3-32be-4715-9025-1e2f015cbbe9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%224d1e1dc0-2451-4626-91c9-7f73f9e0822a%22%7d https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NWY0YzllZTAtNWYzNi00NTI3LWE0ODEtNjk1M2RhZmJlYjJh%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2221acfbb3-32be-4715-9025-1e2f015cbbe9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%224d1e1dc0-2451-4626-91c9-7f73f9e0822a%22%7d

2.1 Data Platform users search and discover available datatypes, datasets and associated history and metadata of all data available in the Platform leveraging EDSC and develop required taxonomy, business rules, and workflows. The Platform enables ana...