Cloud Utility and Product Technical Support to fulfill a requirement for the Department of Defense (DoD) Amendment 1

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE

Amendment 1 to the Sources Sought Notice is provided to include Oracle Infrastructure as a Cloud Service Provider and to extend the response due date to April 18, 2024.

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is seeking sources that can provide Cloud Utility and Product Technical Support.

CONTRACTING OFFICE ADDRESS:  2300 East Drive, Building 3600, Scott Air Force Base, IL 62225

INTRODUCTION:

This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE to determine the availability and technical capability of small businesses including the following subsets:  Small Disadvantaged Businesses, certified 8(a), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, HUBZone Small Businesses and Woman-Owned Small Businesses to provide the required products and/or services.

DISA’s Emerging Technology (EM) directorate is seeking potential sources that can provide Cloud Service Provider (CSP) utility as well as Product Technical Support from the following original equipment manufacturers:  Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Service, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Microsoft Azure, hereinafter referred to as the CSPs.

The anticipated Period of Performance is one year from date of award.

The anticipated Place of Performance is 6910 Cooper Avenue Fort Meade, MD 20755.

DISCLAIMER:

THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL.  IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION AND SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT.  RESPONSES IN ANY FORM ARE NOT OFFERS AND THE GOVERNMENT IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO AWARD A CONTRACT AS A RESULT OF THIS NOTICE.  NO FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE TO PAY FOR PREPARATION OF RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE.  ANY INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY RESPONDENTS IS STRICTLY VOLUNTARY.

CONTRACT BACKGROUND:  

Contract Number:  N/A

Contract Vehicle:  N/A

Incumbent and their size:  N/A

Method of previous acquisition:  N/A

Period of performance:  N/A

PROGRAM INFORMATION:

1. Shaping Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) for DISA and the DoD:  EM will test and evaluate AI/ML solutions that commercial CSPs are building and evolving each day.  The AI/ML testing and evaluation will occur at the beginning of the solutions development lifecycle, well before being a commercial or Department of Defense (DoD) offering.  EM will provide the CSPs guidance and direction to influence and shape the overall design of these comprehensive solutions to ensure DoD’s requirements are met upfront, not after the fact.  EM believes AI/ML can be a game changing technology for DISA in multiple areas to include operations, acquisitions, and defensive cyber ops.
2. Validation of AI/ML to meet mission requirements:  EM, working with operational stakeholders, has identified several areas that AI/ML may directly satisfy.   EM will setup small testing environments in these CSPs to prove out the technological concept.  This will ensure that we validate the core functional of the capability upfront for the operational stakeholder before spending time and resources to move into a Production environment.  Additional areas of concern during this phase will include the security, sustainability, and scalability of the complete solution.  This location will be used to as a gatekeeper before moving further with a project. 
3. Staying abreast of rapid changes in the technology:  EM will be an early adopter partnering with the CSPs to test and prove out new technology in this space.  This exposure to new capabilities being designed and developed will ensure EM has the understanding necessary to work with operational stakeholders to meet new and unforeseen mission requirements with new and emerging technology.  Specific areas include new and emerging Large Language Models, model training, and fine-tuning models based on DoD’s distinct corpus of data and unique mission.
4. Accelerate the AI/ML Mission:  While EM will focus on test and evaluation of AI/ML capabilities offered by the CSPs, deploying in cloud environments often requires initial infrastructure configuration.  EM will rely on the CSPs’ Product Technical Support to execute the initial cloud infrastructure configuration activities to accelerate test and evaluation of AI/ML capabilities.  The CSPs have exclusive accelerators, only accessible by their product services teams, to enable rapid deployment of new solutions.  With a streamlined deployment process in place, EM will focus on achieving AI/ML mission outcomes to support the warfighters. 

REQUIRED CAPABILITIES:

1. Describe your status as a reseller of CSP utility for all four CSPs.
2. Discuss your company’s experience in providing CSP utility for all four CSPs.
3. Provide your company’s existing contract vehicles the Government can procure CSP utility for all four CSPs. 

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:  

 None

SOURCES SOUGHT:   

The North American Industry Classification System Code (NAICS) for this requirement is 541519 (https://www.census.gov/naics/), with the corresponding size standard of 150 employees. (https://www.sba.gov/document/support--table-size-standards).  

In order to make a determination for a small business set-aside, two or more qualified and capable small businesses must submit responses that demonstrate their qualifications.  Responses must demonstrate the company’s ability to perform in accordance with FAR clause 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting.

To assist DISA in determining the level of participation by small business in any subsequent procurement that may result from this Sources Sought Notice, provide information regarding any plans to use joint ventures (JVs) or partnering.  Please outline the company's areas of expertise and those of any proposed JV/partner who combined can meet the specific requirements contained in this notice.

SUBMISSION DETAILS:

Responses should include:

1. Business name and address;
2. Name of company representative and their business title;
3. Small Business Socio-economic status (if small);
4. CAGE Code;
5. Prime contract vehicles; to include ENCORE III, SETI, NIH CIO-SP4, NASA SEWP V, General Service Administration (GSA): OASIS, ALLIANT II, VETS II, STARS III, MAS (including applicable SIN(s), groups or pools), or any other Government Agency contract vehicle that allows for decentralized ordering.  (This information is for market research only and businesses with a valid cage that lack prime contract vehicles are still encouraged to respond to this notice.)

Businesses who wish to respond must send a response via email NLT 4:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on April 18, 2024 to kristen.m.abbott2.civ@mail.mil and kimberly.s.snavely.civ@mail.mil.  Interested businesses should submit a brief capabilities statement package addressing the specific questions above (no more than five pages) demonstrating the ability to perform the services listed under Required Capabilities.      

Proprietary information and trade secrets, if any, must be clearly marked on all materials.  All information received that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly.  All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.  All government and contractor personnel reviewing submitted responses will have signed non-disclosure agreements and understand their responsibility for proper use and protection from unauthorized disclosure of proprietary information as pursuant to 41 USC 423.  The Government shall not be held liable for any damages incurred if proprietary information is not properly identified.