AWARD
D -- COVID Citrix Managed Services
- Notice Date
- 6/1/2020 12:23:20 PM
- Notice Type
- Award Notice
- NAICS
- 541519
— Other Computer Related Services
- Contracting Office
- TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION CENTER NJ (36C10B) EATONTOWN NJ 07724 USA
- ZIP Code
- 07724
- Solicitation Number
- 36C10B20Q0281
- Archive Date
- 07/31/2020
- Point of Contact
- Joseph.Pignataro@va.gov, Kathryn.Pantages@va.gov, Phone: 732-795-1115
- E-Mail Address
-
joseph.pignataro@va.gov
(joseph.pignataro@va.gov)
- Award Number
- NNG15SD22B36C10B20F0175
- Award Date
- 06/01/2020
- Awardee
- FOUR POINTS TECHNOLOGY, L.L.C. CHANTILLY 20151
- Award Amount
- 2598129.28000000
- Description
- Citrix Managed Services, Citrix Consulting Services, and Citrix virtual Application Delivery Controller software licenses and associated maintenance. Control Number: VA-20-00055177 9 Control Number: VA-20-00055177 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: This 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 Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Citrix Managed Services, Citrix Consulting Services, and Citrix virtual Application Delivery Controller (vADC) software licenses and associated maintenance. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA Office of Information & Technology (OI&T), Service Management and Planning/Infrastructure Operations requires Citrix Information Technology (IT) Managed Services operational support, Citrix Consulting services, and Citrix vADC software licensing in order to accommodate a surge in the number of remote users and infrastructure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Citrix software is currently installed throughout the existing VA virtual server infrastructure and provides virtual application and virtual desktop access to endpoint devices inside and outside the VA network. VA s current use of Citrix provides virtual secure accessibility to servers hosting Computerized Patient Records System (CPRS), Veterans Benefit Management System (VBMS), and Burial Operations Support System (BOSS) databases, as well as over 400 other VA applications published to users off existing VA Citrix data center locations. This allows VA to centrally deploy and manage software applications while providing secure, on-demand access to critical business resources accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by internal and external employees, contractors, as well as key external partners such as Veterans Service Organizations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, VA has seen the Citrix Access Gateway (CAG) enabled account count grow from approximately 83,000 users to over 170,000 users between January and April 2020. In the same period, VA has grown from about 17,000 to approximately 40,000 concurrent Citrix users. These numbers are likely to continue to grow due to the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ticket queue for VA Citrix support team has grown from 4,000 tickets to over 16,000 tickets with about 15,000 tickets unassigned. The Citrix infrastructure has grown from about 2,000 Citrix session hosts to over 6,100 Citrix session hosts along with associated Citrix support infrastructure. Citrix Managed Services provide support for event management, incident management, request fulfillment, problem management, change and release management, service validation/testing, transition planning and support, system lifecycle processes, reporting services, deployment management, and ongoing call volume optimization. Under Managed Services, the Contractor shall provide specific Citrix monitoring, expert Citrix specific ticket support guidance (reference the aforementioned 15,000 unassigned tickets), and collaboration with existing Citrix consultants, support, and education contacts assigned to the VA 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. VA requires Managed Services to initially support VA s 40,000 Citrix concurrent user base and requires optional tasks for additional Managed Services, which can be exercised monthly, in increments of 10,000, and up to 250,000 total concurrent users per month to support additional concurrent users as a result of COVID 19 surge efforts. Additionally, VA requires optional tasks of Citrix Consulting services to provide for architecture, design, and implementation support for the COVID-19 telework surge for both the on-premise and cloud Citrix environments located throughout the continental United States at VA and cloud service provider data center locations. Capabilities of Citrix Consulting services include support of architecture design and build, both on premise and on cloud, as well as rollout and end user support. Citrix Consulting services have Citrix specific knowledge on how to best deploy Citrix systems both on premise and on cloud as well as the knowledge to provide ticket optimization and end user support techniques. The consulting and training services are procured via Citrix Consulting Vouchers which are redeemed as the consulting engagements are scheduled. While VA currently owns Citrix Consulting vouchers under a separate Delivery Order these are only projected to last VA through August 2020 at the current burn rate, so additional vouchers will likely be needed for the remainder of the current contract period. Finally, VA requires optional tasks to purchase up to 80 Citrix vADC software licenses and maintenance. Citrix vADC software licenses provide VA the ability to respond to the surge in needed support and the capability to expand CAG capacity. Citrix vADC software licenses will consist of a starter pool and accompanying bandwidth. The associated maintenance support includes downloads, minor software upgrades, troubleshooting features, and 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year technical support for all required Citrix software licenses. In summary, the Citrix Managed Services will help VA meet the challenges of managing and responding to the large number of tickets outstanding in the queue that is not expected to decrease any time soon due to the COVID 19 surge of remote users. The Citrix Managed Services will also provide sustainment support for any future tickets as well as regular maintenance of increased infrastructure. Citrix Consulting will assist VA in efficiently architecting and building the new infrastructure to support the influx of remote users as VA needs have accelerated due to COVID 19. The vADC software licenses will provide VA the capability to immediately increase bandwidth for CAG usage as required. The period of performance shall be one 12-month base period for Citrix Managed Services. Managed Services optional tasks shall have a period of performance of 30 days per exercise. Citrix Consulting and vADC optional tasks shall have a period of performance of 12 months each. The overall period of performance of the order shall not exceed 24 months to allow VA maximum flexibility to exercise the optional tasks up to the end of the base period. The total estimated price of the proposed action, inclusive of all optional tasks, is $ 4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(a)(4), the following brand name requirement is being justified and approved as an exception to fair opportunity under the statutory authority of Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by FAR 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 market research, as described in Section 8 of this document, it has been determined that limited competition is available among resellers for the required Citrix Managed Services, Citrix Consulting Services, and Citrix vADC software licenses and associated maintenance. Only Citrix brand name items and services meet all of VA s requirements, specifically compatibility and interoperability with VA s existing virtual infrastructure integrated with critical business systems including CPRS, VBMS, and BOSS. Due to Citrix s patents, copyrights, proprietary database structures, proprietary communication protocols, and proprietary software application programming interfaces, no other source is able to provide the software and support required for maintaining these high availability information systems. VA s current remote access infrastructure is comprised of Citrix software licenses and hardware and is configured to only support Citrix software through Citrix Application Delivery Controller appliances deployed in VA s internet gateways. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, VA has seen the CAG enabled account count grow from approximately 83,000 users to over 170,000 users between January and April 2020. In the same period, VA has grown from about 17,000 to approximately 40,000 concurrent Citrix users. These numbers are likely to continue to grow due to the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic. This requires a major and immediate expansion of VA s existing environment. While VA is in the process of expanding the hardware infrastructure to support increased capacity there is a risk that the physical ADC environment may not be implemented in time; therefore, VA may require up to 80 Citrix vADC software licenses and maintenance. This will allow VA the ability to rapidly and seamlessly respond to the surge in needed support and the capability to expand CAG capacity as needed. Only Citrix brand name vADC software and maintenance can provide the required capabilities. Citrix brand name vADCs provide the only supported method to proxy proprietary Citrix protocols. The use of non-Citrix appliances is an unsupported operation and would invalidate the Citrix software support agreement. Furthermore, Citrix vADC Controllers have the unique integrated capability with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium Edition software licenses to monitor application and desktop performance by sending specific application level requests to ensure security and efficiency and only when a proper response is received from the Citrix hosted application, the application is considered fully functional. Non-Citrix appliances only monitor the reachability of the server resource, not whether the server itself is properly responding to user commands and requests due to their inability to see inside the proprietary Citrix communication protocols. Additionally, Citrix brand name vADCs provide the only supported method to proxy proprietary Citrix protocols. The use of non-Citrix appliances is an unsupported operation and would invalidate the Citrix software support agreement. The virtual Citrix vADC Controllers advanced knowledge of how the proprietary protocol should function from various endpoints and under various operating and network conditions provides VA administrators graphical performance monitoring and troubleshooting metrics valuable in ensuring end user satisfaction. These advanced troubleshooting metrics have proven invaluable in assisting VA technical experts to rapidly determine the FboNotice cause of end user performance issues by pinpointing the source of the issues from the user endpoint, to the network connection from the users endpoint to the VA internet gateway, to the network performance across the VA wide area network or to the Citrix servers themselves in VA datacenters and consolidation points. No other vendor has the ability to provide the proprietary performance analysis features Citrix can provide due to their unique knowledge of the proprietary protocols in use. This solution would need to be deployed parallel to the existing Citrix solutions to ensure there was seamless coverage. The Government estimates that this effort would take over one year to design, implement and test before it would be available to support production user load and would result in significant costs to restructure the entire infrastructure. Managed Services provided by Citrix will allow immediate support for VA s 40,000 concurrent users with maximum flexibility to accommodate increases on a monthly basis during this unprecedented time of the COVID 19 pandemic. Only Citrix Managed Services provides for 24x7x365 coverage backed by Citrix Technical Support. Citrix Managed Services along with Citrix Consulting services offer VA the unique ability for call optimization in an effort to decrease the number of Citrix Support Calls coming in from end users. Given VA s current backlog of over 15,000 unassigned tickets this is a critical capability that only Citrix can provide to include sustainment of any future tickets as well as regular maintenance of increased infrastructure. Additionally, only Citrix Managed Services offer VA the capability of bridging Citrix Product Engineers, Professional Services and Technical Support thereby reducing troubleshooting and remediation times. Citrix Managed Services ensure detailed familiarity of the environment from design through support with internal feedback loops which will allow for a proactive approach which focuses attention on key areas to identify and remediate potentially harmful issues prior to user impact. Citrix Managed Services provides direct lines of communication with Citrix Engineering for necessary hotfixes as well as Citrix Product Management. Direct access to Citrix technical support services is critical to the success of ensuring not only the expansion of VA s remote access infrastructure occurs timely without interruption but also in assisting VA in eliminating its ticket backlog and putting appropriate mechanisms in place to ensure tickets remain at a manageable level. Citrix Consulting services, which are only available through Citrix or its resellers, provide VA with the required Citrix specific knowledge on how to best deploy Citrix systems both on premise and on cloud as well as the knowledge to provide ticket optimization and end user support techniques. VA is currently utilizing these services for consulting and training support and requires continuation of these services in order to ensure expansion efforts are successful as there can be no interruption in remote access as critical VA staff, including clinicians, rely on the CAG environment to perform their duties in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic. 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. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition amongst Citrix resellers is available for this brand name acquisition. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301, 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award. 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 in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be fully competed. 8. Market Research: During April 2020, the Government technical experts reviewed similar managed services for operational support. No other IT service solution offered the direct access to Citrix Technical Support on a 24x7x365 basis or call optimization which is critical to VA in order to reduce not only outstanding tickets but also decrease the number of Citrix Support Calls coming in from end users. Citrix Managed Services understands the challenges from each level of support and integrates with existing Citrix Consulting Services and Citrix support to provide this unique IT service solution. Other managed service providers considered were SMS/Leidos and Intelligent Waves; however, while these vendors and other managed service providers can provide general incident management, event management, problem management, and change and release management services, they do not offer the aforementioned unique IT service solution that Citrix Managed Services and Citrix Consulting services provide. Citrix has proprietary rights to the software licenses and associated hardware currently being used by VA throughout the virtual infrastructure. Given that only Citrix has the proprietary rights, there are no other authorized vendors that can provide the vADCs or associated maintenance without voiding the licenses currently in use. Only Citrix, or an authorized Citrix reseller, has the right to provide Citrix maintenance, consulting and training services on VA s existing infrastructure. Citrix vADCs are the only solution that fully satisfy VA s requirements as documented in Section 5 above. Citrix vADC Controllers are the only supported appliances that Citrix supports for use with its software products and deep integration is provided between the ADC hardware and the Citrix proprietary software and proprietary protocols. Although there are other vendors within the marketplace, such as F5, VA has determined that only the Citrix vADC Controller, as documented in Section 5 above, is compatible with the existing Citrix environments in production today due to the proprietary nature of the Citrix protocols in use. In April 2020, the Contract Specialist conducted market research to ascertain the extent of limited competition among resellers of the required software, services, and associated maintenance and technical support. Through the use of the Provider Look-up tool on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website, 16 Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses were identified as resellers of the required Citrix software, services and associated maintenance and technical 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. Wayland Li Date: ________________________________ Service Line Manager 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 limited competition. Additionally, NASA SEWP V has already determined the prices on contract to be fair and reasonable and more competitive pricing may result from competition. 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: ____________________________ 13. Legal Sufficiency Certification: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support an exception to fair opportunity and deem it legally sufficient. Date: ________________________________ Legal Counsel Signature: ____________________________ Approval In my role as Head of the Contracting Activity, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of brand name Citrix Managed Services, Citrix Consulting Services, and Citrix vADC software licenses and associated maintenance on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition. Date: ____________ Signature: __________________________________ Head of the Contracting Activity Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics
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