Page 2 of 3 Request for Information Legacy Tape Storage and Restoration THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI), ONLY, issued in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e), for the purpose of conducting market research. Accordingly, this RFI constitutes neither a Request for Proposal (RFP) nor a promise to issue a RFP in the future, and it does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service described herein. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is not, at this time, seeking proposals and therefore, will not accept, review, or evaluate unsolicited proposals received in response hereto. Please be advised that the U.S. Government will not reimburse Respondents for any costs incurred in the preparation and/or submission of responses to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will solely be at the Respondent s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if issued. Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is strictly voluntary; however, any information received shall become the property of the Government and will not be returned to the Respondent. Interested parties are responsible for adequately and clearly marking proprietary, restricted, or competition sensitive information contained in their response. VA Technology Acquisition Center (TAC) is issuing this RFI to determine Contractors capabilities in executing the requirements of the attached DRAFT Performance Work Statement (PWS). BACKGROUND The mission of VA, Office of Information & Technology (OI&T), Enterprise Systems Engineering (ESE), Enterprise Messaging and Collaboration Services (EMCS) is to provide benefits and services to Veterans of the United States. In meeting these goals, OI&T strives to provide high quality, effective, and efficient information technology (IT) services to those responsible for providing care to the Veterans at the point-of-care as well as throughout all the points of the Veterans health care in an effective, timely and compassionate manner. VA depends on Information Management/IT systems to meet mission goals. OI&T is transitioning to a new tapeless Enterprise Messaging platform from the current environment of Microsoft Exchange 2003 and 2007. The Microsoft Exchange 2003/2007 Outlook backups were written on Linear Tape-Open (LTO-2 and LTO-4) tapes via the following 4 backup environments: IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Mail (TSM), EMC Corporation Software Technologies (Legato and Networker), Symantec Net Backup and Windows Integrated. VA will be retiring all old hardware to include backup servers and tape libraries. The data currently on the LTO tapes must be retained. This project is to support the storage of approximately 60,000 backup tapes, database maintenance and database restoration from these legacy backup tapes on an as needed basis when mailbox restores are required. EMCS has a continuing requirement to store backup media of all OI&T IM/IT systems off site to preserve its integrity and to prevent damage from fire, water or accidental erasure. There is also a continuing requirement (referred to as the Litigation Hold Memo) to store all backup tapes for litigation purposes. VA has a continued need for additional offsite physical storage space and transportation services for storing backup media and media subjected to litigation and the requirements of VA s Litigation Hold Memo. RESPONSE Interested parties submitting a Capabilities Statement should be brief and concise, and clearly demonstrate the ability to meet the stated requirements for transportation and logistics services. The Capabilities Statement should clearly present evidence that the interested party is fully capable of providing the required transportation services, and as such may include any information that the interested party feels is relevant. Interested parties are strongly encouraged to submit questions and comments as soon as they are identified. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted. As part of your RFI response, please also provide the following information: (1) A Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimate for 5 years of performance to include all optional tasks. (2) Describe an approach to transition the secure media (approximately 140,000 tapes) which currently resides at the incumbent contractor and VA facility designated in the PWS. This approach shall include a rough timeline of transition. The contractor shall perform this transition while maintaining the integrity of the media and its chain of custody, and inventory control of all media. During the transition period accessibility to the media shall be uninterrupted. A general explanation if EMCS will experience any downtime of accessibility to the media tapes during the transition period. (3) The response shall include a brief discussion concerning the inventory tracking system that the offeror would utilize to meet the requirements of the PWS. (4) The page limit for the response is 20 pages. Responses should also include the company profile (to include, but not limited to, history, business size and socioeconomic category, applicable North American Industry Classification [NAICS]. The response should also include a list of all subcontractors proposed and their respective role in the performance of this requirement. Your response should clearly mark any information that is proprietary. Faxed copies are not acceptable. Please send your responses or questions to Contract Specialist,
[email protected] regarding this announcement. Responses are due no later than 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Monday, June 26, 2017. Contracting Office Address: Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Acquisition Operations Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724 Place of Performance: See attached PWS Primary Point of Contact: Kimberly Flynn Contract Specialist Email:
[email protected]