Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 23, 2012 FBO #3956
DOCUMENT

D -- Blackhole Solution - Attachment

Notice Date

9/21/2012
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Technology Acquisition Center;260 Industrial Way West;Eatontown NJ 07724
 

ZIP Code

07724
 

Solicitation Number

VA11812Q0556
 

Archive Date

12/28/2012
 

Point of Contact

Kawana Simms
 

E-Mail Address

8-5571<br
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG07DA43B VA118-12-F-0472
 

Award Date

9/20/2012
 

Awardee

FEDSTORE CORPORATION;1 RESEARCH CT STE 450;ROCKVILLE;MD;208506252
 

Award Amount

$650,765.33
 

Description

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY 1.Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Acquisition and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 260 Industrial Way West Eatontown, New Jersey 07724 2.Description of Action: The proposed action is for a 12-month firm-fixed-price (FFP) delivery order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) IV Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), for the procurement of Domain Name Server (DNS) Blackhole F5 6900 hardware and maintenance. 3.Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology (OIT), has a requirement for DNS Blackhole F5 6900 hardware and maintenance. There are currently four VA Internet Gateways. Each gateway has one F5 6900 per gateway that serves all internally generated DNS requests as well as housing the Blackhole solution. If one DNS Blackhole F5 6900 fails, internal facing (serving the VA users) DNS Blackhole solution will be down in that gateway. During that time, the entire VA will have intermittent DNS related issues when trying to resolve public Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) as well as the DNS Blackhole solution will be unavailable in that particular VA gateway. While the DNS Blackhole F5 6900 is unavailable, DNS requests that would normally be blocked would not be blocked causing a potential security risk to the VA. An additional F5 6900 per gateway is required, which will allow VA to configure each in high availability (HA) mode. If VA has a hardware failure on the primary device in a particular gateway, the secondary device will seamlessly takeover. Additionally, VA requires maintenance for the aforementioned DNS Blackhole F5 6900 hardware. This maintenance will ensure that the unit is restored back to an operational state in the event of a software/hardware failure. The total estimated price of the proposed action is $664,198.30. 4.Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting this exception to fair opportunity is 41 U.S.C. 4106(c ) 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 eight of this document, it was determined that limited competition is viable for this brand name item. Only DNS Blackhole F5 6900 hardware can provide full interoperability and compatibility with the hardware currently used in the four VA Internet Gateways. These four VA Internet Gateways are comprised of DNS Blackhole F5 6900 hardware. The current DNS Blackhole F5 6900 solution in place was developed using a programming language called iRule. Only DNS Blackhole F5 6900 hardware can operate in the current environment and communicate through iRule. In addition, VA's current HA mode is only compatible with another F5 6900. VA is not requiring a replacement of the current Blackhole solution, only the addition of hardware that will support the existing environment. Based on the above information, only DNS Blackhole F5 6900 hardware is fully interoperable and compatible with the hardware currently used in the four VA Internet Gateways and therefore is the only item that can meet all of VA's needs. 6.Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. Although the Government is limiting competition as a result of specifying a unique and highly specialized service, there are numerous authorized resellers of these services on the NASA SEWP IV GWAC. Limited competition for this requirement among these vendors is anticipated. Additionally, this Justification and Approval (J&A) and the Request for Quote (RFQ) will be submitted to NASA SEWP IV GWAC. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.3, the award will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) Page. In addition, this J&A will be made publicly available on the FBO Page. 7.Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove barrier to competition for future acquisitions, the agency will work with the program office to perform additional market research to consider alternate software solutions. 8.Market Research: The Government's technical experts conducted market research in February 2012 by reviewing other similar brand name hardware to ascertain its ability to meet VA's need. Specifically the Government's technical experts reviewed hardware from InfoBlox and Secure64. Based on an extensive review of these other brand name hardware, the Government's technical experts determined that none of these items could meet VA's interoperability and compatibility requirements, specifically operating under the iRule program language currently used by VA's four Internet Gateways. Additional market research was conducted on June 13, 2012 utilizing NASA SEWP IV Manufacturer Lookup tool. It was determined that there are 32 authorized resellers of the aforementioned brand name item. Based on this market research it is anticipated that there will be limited competition. 9.Other Facts: None.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/df6e05c6aab69e0d2692459b10ec517c)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG07DA43B VA118-12-F-0472 NNG07DA43B VA118-12-F-0472_AWARD NOTICE.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=483631&FileName=NNG07DA43B-018.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=483631&FileName=NNG07DA43B-018.docx

 

Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
 

Record

SN02893925-W 20120923/120922001137-df6e05c6aab69e0d2692459b10ec517c (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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