Commvault Software maintenance

Added: Jun 20, 2018 1:28 pm 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 issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), for the renewal of brand name CommVault software maintenance.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), ESL Storage has a requirement to renew maintenance support for their current CommVault data protection & backup software in support of the National Tapeless Backup Encryption (TBE) project. The CommVault system is installed and operating VA wide in all respective medical centers, Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) Data Centers, and Non-Vista Data Centers performing centralized disaster recovery backup operations. This software is required to support Region 3 alternate site processing of its critical virtualization environment. The required CommVault software maintenance support shall include bug fixes, upgrade releases and enhancements, and periodic updates. This procurement is for the renewal of software maintenance; no new software licenses are being purchased and no licenses are being renewed. The period of performance is 10 months from August 1, 2018 through July 31, 2019 with one 12-month option period, along with an optional task to procure additional maintenance for licenses within each subscription period. The total estimated price of the proposed action inclusive of the option is .



4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting this exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 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 extensive market research, as described in paragraph 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the brand name CommVault Maintenance support. VA requires maintenance support on its existing CommVault software, and only CommVault, or an authorized reseller, can provide the necessary bug fixes, upgrade releases and enhancements, and periodic updates because of the proprietary source code. No other software developer has the intellectual property rights to access and modify the CommVault source code, which is required in order to execute the needed bug fixes, upgrades and updates. Only CommVault or its resellers have access to CommVault s proprietary software source code needed to provide the required software maintenance and ensure that the services provided are properly configured. This code is also required to develop and push updates and upgrades to the existing software. Failure to renew this maintenance will result in system failure which would result in harm to the Veteran.



6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government s requirements. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the resultant delivery order will be synopsized and the justification will be made publicly available on the Federal Business Opportunities Page within 14 days of award of the order. In addition prior to exercising the option periods, VA will perform market research to ensure market conditions have not changed.



7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the Government will continue to perform market research to determine if there are any new products or maintenance services available that will fulfill the Government s need.



8. Market Research: Market research was conducted by VA technical experts in February 2018 which included internet searches and reviews of published technical data for backup software available from NetBackup and Symantec Backup Exec. As a result of the market research, the technical experts confirmed that the source code required to issue the bug fixes, upgrades and updates is proprietary to CommVault. While other backup software manufacturers exist, no other manufacturers can access the CommVault source code in order to maintain the existing software. Based upon this research, the Government s technical experts have determined that only CommVault brand name software maintenance can meet all of VA s requirements.



In April 2018, the Contract Specialist conducted market research to ascertain the extent of limited competition among resellers. Through the use of the Provider Look-up tool on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website, 17 Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) were identified as resellers of the required CommVault maintenance support. Therefore, limited competition is anticipated.



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.



Date: ______________________



Storage Division Supervisor 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. Additionally, NASA SEWP V 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.



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.



Date: ______________________



Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ______________________





Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of CommVault software maintenance, on a limited competition basis pursuant to the statutory authority cited in paragraph 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.



Date: ____________ Signature: _________________________________



Advocate for Competition

Technology Acquisition Center

Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics





























































JUSTIFICATION





Justification For An Exception To Fair Opportunity

Coordination Matrix









Date Concur/Non-Concur

Director, Procurement Services E

Technology Acquisition Center

Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics

Department of Veterans Affairs