Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Center for Environmental Predictions (NCEP), Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System II (WCOSS II)

NOTICE OF AMENDMENT 0002 RELEASE - AUGUST 8, 2019.

The purpose of Amendment 0002 is to correct the proposal submission due date in FBO.gov to August 28, 2019 at 3:00PM EST.

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NOTICE OF AMENDMENT 0001 RELEASE - AUGUST 8, 2019.

The proposal submission due date is hereby extended to August 28, 2019 at 3:00PM EST.

The Government appreciates the Industry's continued interest in this procurement, and the comments and suggestions were carefully reviewed and were taken into consideration. The Government response to Industry questions/comments received through July 22, 2019 were posted to "Special Notice - 1305M4-19-R-NWWX001" on August 1, 2019. In light of this, Amendment 0001 is hereby issued August 8, 2019 which incorporates revisions to the RFP in response to the questions/comments.

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NOTICE OF FINAL SOLICITATION RELEASE - JUNE 28, 2019.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS) Program, which functions out of the National Weather Service (NWS), National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) - NCEP Central Operations (NCO), has a requirement for continued High Performance Computing (HPC) services and supplies to support NOAA's WCOSS capability.

The anticipated contract resulting from the solicitation will be a single-award, Indefinite-Delivery-Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract, with the ability to issue Firm-Fixed Price (FFP), Time-and-Material (T & M), and Cost-Reimbursable (CR) delivery and task orders thereunder. The contract is anticipated to have a ten (10) year period of performance, consisting of a base ordering period of eight (8) years, and an optional ordering period of two (2) years to support contract transition activities. The planned IDIQ ceiling value for the resultant contract is $505.2 million.

(See Notes #1 and #2 below for background details regarding the current contract and
acquisition history.)

The Final Request for Proposal (RFP) is hereby issued on June 28, 2019. This RFP is issued as a full-and-open competition under FAR Part 15 procedures. The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 541512 - Computer Systems Design Services, with a corresponding Small Business size standard of $27.5 million. The Product Service Code (PSC) for this acquisition is D318 - IT and Telecom - Integrated Hardware/Software/Services Solutions, Predominately Services.

Interested parties shall submit all questions regarding this solicitation in writing using Attachment J-8 - RFP Question and Comment Template, by electronic mail to the Contract Specialists, Mr. Michael Iszard at Michael.Iszard@noaa.gov, and Mr. Franklin Miles at Franklin.miles@noaa.gov, and copy the Contracting Officer, Mr. McKenzy Hunter, at McKenzy.Hunter@noaa.gov. All questions or comments submitted shall include the solicitation number in the subject line. Questions shall be submitted NLT 5:00PM EST on July 22, 2019. Please be advised that questions that do not have the appropriate reference information may not be answered. The Government will attempt, but does not guarantee, that it will answer questions submitted after the date specified above.

A Draft Solicitation and Request for Information (RFI) for this requirement was posted on Federal Business Opportunities under the Solicitation Number RFI-NCEP-WCOSS-2018(V2) with the latest update being posted June 28, 2019.

The Government anticipates awarding the resultant contract on the basis of initial offers. No proposal preparation costs will be provided for or reimbursed by the Government. The Government will not provide paper copies of the solicitation or any associated documents. Solicitation documents will be made available only through www.fbo.gov IAW FAR 5.102.

Interested vendors are responsible for visiting https://www.fbo.gov periodically for any changes or updates to this notice, as well as any notice of a future solicitation. All prospective offerors must be actively registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) in order to be eligible for award (https://www.sam.gov) IAW FAR 4.1102. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract, nor does it obligate the Government to pay and/or reimburse respondents and/or their associates for any cost incurred to submit the requested information and/or proposal. Responses to this notice will not be returned.

-Note #1:
NOAA currently receives WCOSS HPC services through Contract No. DG1330-12-CQ-0004 with IBM Corporation. The current contract ordering period expires November 22, 2019, with an additional two (2) year optional ordering period available for support from November 23, 2019 - November 22, 2021. Current Task Order performance under the existing contract is from February 15, 2017 - February 14, 2020, with a follow-on task order performance period planned to run from February 15, 2020 - February 14, 2022 to support transition activities. Similar to the anticipated follow-on contract, the current contract is a single-award IDIQ with FFP, T & M, and Labor Hour task and delivery ordering capabilities.

-Note #2:
In Spring 2016, on the basis of Market Research, NOAA engaged venders in the HPC industry to obtain feedback concerning the prospect of combining NOAA's follow-on Research and Development HPC System (R & D HPCS) and WCOSS acquisition requirements into a single contracting vehicle. Historically, NOAA has issued separate contracts to support these programs. NOAA hereby advises that a combined acquisition approach, wherein the R & D HPCS and the WCOSS Program are supported through one (1) contract vehicle, will not be pursued at this time. Therefore, unless otherwise stated, the R & D HPCS and the WCOSS Program will be supported via separate contracts for their respective follow-on efforts.

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