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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF DECEMBER 09, 2015 FBO #5129
DOCUMENT

D -- F5 Networks Inc Hardware Maintenance 10/1/16 - Attachment

Notice Date

12/7/2015
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Technology Acquisition Center;23 Christopher Way;Eatontown NJ 07724
 

ZIP Code

07724
 

Solicitation Number

VA11815Q0804
 

Archive Date

11/30/2015
 

Point of Contact

Tinamarie Giraud
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG15SD21B VA118-16-F-0761
 

Award Date

10/1/2015
 

Awardee

FEDSTORE CORPORATION;1 PRESERVE PKWY STE 620;ROCKVILLE;MD;20852
 

Award Amount

556,144.49
 

Description

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY 1.Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Acquisition Operations Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, New Jersey 07724 2.Description of Action: This proposed action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). 3.Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to provide brand name F5 Networks hardware maintenance coverage for VA Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering, Enterprise Operations (EO). The F5 Networks will provide hardware maintenance coverage that will consist of hardware maintenance to repair or replace systems equipment components that restores full operation and accessibility to the original redundant component configuration; hardware maintenance services 24 hours a day x 7 days a week x 365 days per year; initial response to all requests for maintenance within one hour of the initial notification from VA; and response to all requests for on-site maintenance service by sending an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) qualified technician/engineer to the affected site within four hours of the initial notification from VA. The hardware maintenance is required to ensure thehardware remains operational and EO is able to operate successfully. The period of performance is 12 months from date of award. 4.Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting this exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C 4106(c)(2) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Section 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: This is a brand name justification in accordance with FAR 11.105, Items Peculiar to One Manufacturer. Based on extensive market research, as described in section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the brand name F5 Networks hardware maintenance and update support as described in section 3 of this justification. The current EO infrastructure is based on existing F5 Networks hardware and VA requires support compatible with the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability, which includes OEM certified replacement parts and repair to restore the VA equipment to its highly redundant and fully operational state. VA requires firmware upgrades and updates to include major releases, point releases, service releases of applicable firmware on a quarterly basis, or within 48 hours in cases where a high risk vulnerability fix becomes available. No other hardware is compatible with or interoperable with the existing F5 Networks hardware. As such, the firmware updates are required for the F5 Networks Load Balancers and only F5 Networks or an authorized reseller can provide the necessary hardware coverage, due to the proprietary nature. VA requires continued hardware maintenance support for the F5 Networks products, and to use any other hardware would result in substantial duplication of costs. No other source is capable of providing the aforementioned maintenance support to meet VA's requirements. 6.Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research paragraph of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government's requirements. It was determined, however, that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for this brand name hardware maintenance. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), this action 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. 7.Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be fully competed. 8.Market Research: F5 Networks is a commercially available off-the-shelf maintenance package currently in use in VA. The Government's technical experts conducted market research on web sites in January 2015, by reviewing other Network Load Balancer hardware maintenance products such as Barracuda, CISCO, Radware and Coyotepoint to ascertain if similar items could meet VA's requirements. As a result of the market research, technical experts confirmed that as the nature of the hardware and updates thereto is proprietary, F5 Networks is the only source capable of providing maintenance coverage for F5 Networks hardware necessary to support existing EO requirements. Additionally, none of these other hardware products could meet VA's interoperability and compatibility requirements as outlined in section 5 of this document. Based on the above, only F5 Networks hardware maintenance meets all of the Government's requirements. Additional market research was conducted by the Contracting Office in September 2015 utilizing the Provider Lookup Tool on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website, which found a total of 85 re-sellers of which 13 were Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business GWAC holders that can provide brand name F5 Networks hardware maintenance. In addition, NASA SEWP V GWAC is a dynamic GWAC in which products can be added to vendor catalogs based on customer requests on a daily basis, as long as the required Information Technology item is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC. The requirements discussed herein have been found to be within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC in a separate determination. 9. Other Facts: N/A
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/4a549461a342ab9fb50e4a15a0bc835c)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG15SD21B VA118-16-F-0761 NNG15SD21B VA118-16-F-0761_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2450300&FileName=NNG15SD21B-010.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2450300&FileName=NNG15SD21B-010.docx

 

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

Record

SN03963125-W 20151209/151207235130-4a549461a342ab9fb50e4a15a0bc835c (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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