IAAS- Cloud Computing Services and Cloud Support Services

The purpose of this notice is to provide the Justification and Approval within 30 days to support a sole source puchase with Solution Guidance Corporation for cloud computing services in accordance with FAR 13.501.  This is not a request for quotes or proposals and a solicitation is not being provided. 

The National Center for Biotechology Informtion has an urgent need to procure cloud computing services on a sole source basis with Solution Guidance Corporation of Chantilly, VA as a follow-on and continuing effort until such time that a negotiations can be finalized between the NLM and the Small Business Administration to either dissolve or modify the existing agreement which has been in place since 2016.

Services provided by the existing contract arrangement with Solution Guidance and the SBA are as follows:

General Requirements

The objective of this requirment is to obtain Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) services for 30 days to support the cloud requirements of the National Library of Medicine with the expectation that the primary user of these services, National Center for Biotechnology Information, will assist in the deployment of these services under this contract. The provider must be an authorized reseller of one or more IaaS providers. The services requested are on-demand with no initial/upfront costs, reserved instances (where they exist) and/or services accessible via a ‘spot market’. The reseller must provide access to the complete service catalog for the provider(s) and must submit a current price list if that list is different from the current, published list provided by the provider.

Specific Requirements

1. Infrastructure as a Service services

NLM requires Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) services from one or more IaaS providers.

2. Support

The contractor must provide a support plan for IaaS vendors that they resell for the base effort and optional efforts. Priced support should have the following characteristics:

• Access to support 24 hours x 365 days per year
• Access via email, text and/or phone
• No limits on support cases.
• Response time to urgent requests in less than 4 hours

Generally, this corresponds to ‘business’ or enterprise’ support levels.

1. Professional services

Independently and not as an agent of the government the contractor shall provide professional services to support NLM activities with the IaaS providers that they resell. Provided in the table just below are the estimated hours of professional services requested by the government for this requirement:

Labor Category -  Hours

Project Manager I - 10

Technical Consultant II -  20

These activities include but are not limited to sub-account provisioning and management, usage monitoring services and other professional services as required to assist NLM in the development and use of innovative technologies in public clouds.

The vendor must provide the following services:

• Sub-account provisioning and management: The contractor shall, at the request of the government, create, manage and close subaccounts with the IaaS providers.
• Usage monitoring: The contractor shall provide up to date usage statistics for each subaccount, including, but not limited to services used and cost for those services. Billing updates must be made available no less than daily. 
• Usage management: Upon sub-account creation, the contractor will consult with the COR to obtain a services limit (in dollars) for each subaccount. The contractor shall provide a report not later than 8:00 AM the following calendar day to the COR and such individuals as (s)he designates with each sub-account, allocated balance, used amount, remaining balance and a projection of the date/time of a zero balance. The contractor will meet with the COR at least monthly to discuss and adjust usage limits.

In addition to these tasks, the contractor will send a notice to the COR and such individuals as (s)he designates when the used balance reaches 75% and 90% of the allocated limits. If the used balance reaches 95% of the allocated limit for any sub-account without authorization for further expenditure by the COR or their designated alternate, the contractor will commence placing all operating infrastructure under that sub-account into a state which does not incur costs.

These services may be provided by development of custom solutions/software/processes, via the usage of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) or Government-Off-The-Shelf (GOTS) technology, via Open Source software, customization of COTS/GOTS/Open Source software, or any other mechanism that will achieve the government’s objectives. The contractor shall provide evidence that the mechanism that they choose to utilize will meet the government’s objectives, is sustainable and maintainable, and that it is cost effective.

The Government recognizes that information technology services, particularly those that are associated with cloud services are evolving at a rapid rate and that existing technologies are rapidly becoming obsolescent, and new technologies are taking their place and/or becoming available. The government therefore expects the contractor to perform regular evaluations of the state of cloud-based technologies and to identify new or emerging technologies that can be used by NLM to provide innovative products to support its mission and objectives and provide such professional services as can be reasonably expected to be required to evaluate and implement these novel technologies.

Awarded contract 75N97021C00003 to unknown vendor for unknown amount on 2021-04-13.